Tag Archive for: extending battery life

8 Tips in Extending Your Laptop’s Battery Life

businesswoman, company, computerOnly diamonds last forever because laptop batteries definitely wont. After an hour or two, laptops will start to notify you that the batteries are running out of juice and you need to find an outlet asap to recharge them. When you constantly move from one place to another, every minute of running time is precious.

These tips will help you and your laptop make it through the day:

  • Hotter battery means faster deterioration. Your laptop’s number one opponent is HEAT. At all times, you have to  keep your laptop cool. To lessen the heat, a cooling pad will combat the heat. If you do not know what to look for in a cooling pad, you can read through this buying guide.
  • Avoid multitasking. We are so used to running various applications simultaneously whenever we are on our desktop computers. These applications and services consume battery. Prioritize the apps that you really need to use and close unnecessary applications that that you can resume at a later time. Reserve your cherished battery life for the urgent tasks.
  • Go for simple applications. If you cannot avoid to multitask, at least, learn use simple applications. For instance, whenever you are planning to write a proposal, it’s better to draft it in a notepad first than typing directly in Microsoft Word. Select a simple text editor over a RAM heavy application. Another tip is to do the intense gaming later because games consume a lot of RAM too.
  • Tweak your power options. Typically, your default power plan is set to balanced. Edit it to energy saver or power saver. Whenever you are mobile, avoid the high performance power plan. This may utilize more battery life. When not in use, turn off your display or put your computer to sleep. Moreover, there is no need to set the laptop’s brightness to its highest configuration if you are in a well-lighted room.
  • Shut your computer down. If you are not using your computer for long time, it’s better to turn it off because the standby mode will still use up battery life. Boot up your computer when you are ready to resume.
  • When not in use, turn off wireless connections. Whether it is the Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth connection, if you do not intend to use it, disable it to avoid depleting the battery.
  • Disable unused ports. Temporarily disable certain ports like USB, VGA, Ethernet because these ports can affect your battery life. For Windows users, open your Device Manager to know more about these ports.
  • Defragment your hard disk. The more fragmented your HDD is, the more it needs to work. Therefore, it consumes battery life. For Windows users, it is advisable to defrag if your hard disk is 10% fragmented. (You can learn more about it  by checking this guide.) For Mac users, this does not apply as it automatically defrags whenever necessary.

At the end of the day, batteries really won’t last long and they are only for back up purposes. It allows you to check some files, or review a presentation whenever you are on the road. So, know your priorities because batteries will wear off.

6 Tips in Caring for Your Laptop Battery

laptop, device, charging

Charging a laptop.

Knowing how to extend your laptop battery life is one thing, but taking care of it is another story. You need to know what is harmful for batteries, and what is not. Laptops, nowadays, are using lithium-ion (Li-Ion), and these lithium-ion batteries age so they will last for two to three years.

Follow this guide to get the best of your laptop batteries:

  • When you’re charging, remove the battery. Normally, your battery will stop receiving charges once it hits 100%. So, extending laptop charging won’t affect your laptop. The danger is when your device is suffering from excessive heating. If this happens, it is best to remove your battery. The heat is your battery’s enemy especially if your battery is lithium-ion. Overheating may be happening because you have too many applications open all at the same, are playing heavy games, or doing anything that tires your hard disks.
  • Make sure your battery has around 40-50 % charge left if you plan not to use your device for a long time. Do check it from time to time because a depleted battery will stay dead if it’s not recharged. A battery can die by just being dormant and not doing anything.
  • Keep your battery (or batteries) in a dry cool place. You can even store them in a fridge to let it stay cool. Just make sure the battery is isolated by using a resealable zipper storage bags.
  • No to extreme temperatures, and yes to just the right temperature. Your battery might have stayed cool, but you left your laptop at the trunk of your car afterwards. All at costs do not leave your laptop in any place where it can get really hot. Just as stated on the first tip, batteries despise the heat and subjecting it to too much heat will definitely kill your battery.
  • You don’t need to fully discharge a lithium-ion battery. Avoid waiting for your laptop to shutdown, or reach 0% battery status because this wears the battery. Use your laptop battery without bottoming it out and as much as possible, avoid letting it discharge below 20%.
  • This is a continuation to the previous tip. When recharging your battery. you don’t have to reach 100% status. It is advisable to charge it around 80-85%. Not charging the battery to 100% will help by lessening the battery degradation.

Not all laptops are the same.

Laptops serve different purposes; there’s a laptop built for games, everyday computing, entertainment, business, and so on. Do not expect that these batteries have the same specifications. For older laptops, you can probably replace the battery when it gets damaged. For newer laptops, the batteries are usually built-in. Warranties may be null and void if you decide to open the laptop yourself, and replace the battery. Please contact the respective manufacturers for further assistance.

It is recommended to do partial discharges and frequent charges. Just constantly repeat the last two tips. In case you’re curious, it works for tablets with lithium-ion batteries too. Whenever you decide to buy additional batteries, just remember to buy a battery that has  the same capacity as your original battery. Better check the mAh rating of your batteries.