15 Ways to Increase Laptop Battery Life

Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:32PM EDT

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While laptop chips have become better and better at saving power, other changes, like more powerful laptop graphics cards, faster hard drives, and Windows Vista, have erased many of those gains.

So, you'll need to take it upon yourself to improve your laptop's battery life if you really want to go the extra mile. And while that can be a confusing and tricky process, this blog post offers some helpful advice so you don't have to go it alone. Among the 15 suggestions offered at Friedbeef's Tech (hey, I didn't name it), here are the ones that will really impact your battery the most.

Add more RAM - More RAM means the computer will access the hard drive less frequently, and the hard drive uses much more power than your RAM sticks. 

Dim your screen - Those big, "ultra-bright" displays really suck down the power. Dimming your screen just 20 percent can add a good chunk of time to your battery life.

Unplug external devices - Anything plugged in via USB, FireWire, or PC Card/ExpressCard draws power from your computer. Yes, even your mouse. And of course, turn off your Wi-Fi radio when you don't need it.

Minimize CD/DVD use - Optical drives are probably the worst offender on your notebook when it comes to battery use. Unless you're watching a movie, don't even leave a disc in the optical drive, as Windows loves to occasionally read it, just to check on things...

The post doesn't exactly mention it, but don't forget about the Power Options control panel in Windows, which will let you manage hard drive auto-spin-down, screen brightness, and other settings in one central location. It's a great first place to start... then check out Friedbeef's 11 other tips!

LINK: Top 15 Ways to Extend Your Laptop's Battery Life 

UPDATE: Looks like y'all killed the poor site. Here's a cached version 

Comments on 15 Ways to Increase Laptop Battery Life

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  • 46 Posted by misschaise on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    You guys forgot two more crucial battery savers. !. Try to charge your bateries only when they are completely discharged. Batteries "remember" charge cycles after a while and if charged too prematurely often will lose some the battery's life. 2. Simply remove the battery and run off of the outlet power when you are stationary for long periods of time. i.e. sitting at home, surfing at a coffe house, etc.

  • 47 Posted by mxshiao on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    To oid_md, Nowadays laptop batteries usually have arond 400 complete cycles. It's 400, not 4. Do not always plug your laptop. Use your battery once in a while. But don't worry to much about it.

  • 48 Posted by lacres2005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    okay I'm confused I have 2 laptops one is 3wks old the other in 2006 so the scoop on battery life is to take battery off overnite and do we keep plugged in when using and what is the story of laptops on your lap.

  • 49 Posted by lailahriboul on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    Apparently drainning your new battery a few times will condition your laptop battery and make it last longer when using it!

  • 50 Posted by shortman999200 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    is it normal for the lap top to get hot near the connector plug for external power??

  • 51 Posted by terryg999 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    NiCad batteries will last about a year if you use them constantly. I always tell people to never work off of the battery unless you must. The battery is for saving work shutting down when you lose power.

  • 52 Posted by joe579003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    "Only yuppies use laptops. Real people still use desktops" -Martian643, comment 23 WELL SAID BROTHER!

  • 53 Posted by timincal on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    Laptops have batteries? Great tip, now I can unplug it and take it into the bathtub with me.

  • 54 Posted by solidpoint on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    A bunch of REALLY underwhelming info. How about turning off the screen after 5 minutes of no use, and ditto for the disk drives. You can also set standby and hibernate to kick in more quickly - especially hibernate. I have a feeling that disabling the virtual system to eliminate those disk I/Os will be more useful than just buying more RAM memory in the hopes that your disk drives won't get worked so much. Windows is pretty aggressive about freeing up memory by swapping bits of loaded applications to disk so when you click on some new app there is RAM to load it. Any file save is going to the disk, no matter what amount of RAM. Any app load is coming from the disk, no matter what. The real savings is in eliminating the virtual system swaps and disabling it is MUCH more effective than buying battery-eating RAM in the hopes the O/S will do the right thing. If you want rechargeable to last longer run them all the way down and then charge them all the way up. Don't leave them plugged in when you are running from the AC adapter. If you are on the road a lot keep a whimpy battery in the machine at home and keep it plugged in and keep a nice fat battery you charge up when on the road. Who cares if you kill a cheap battery? Running without one is probably asking for trouble as the A/C adapter doesn't provide adequate power regulation on its own. One of the best ways to make a battery last is to get a machine with an integrated graphs system, like the Intel system. You give up performance but get much greater battery life. My Dell B130 El Cheapo machine will run 4-5 hours on its 9-cell. This HP Pavilion only lasts 2 hours at best. Most of what you can do after you buy a machine is covered by the tabs on the Screen Saver- Monitor Power tabs. I would not force a machine to shutdown below about 10% because when the battery gets old and weak you need that much power to do the shutdown as it uses a lot of disk I/Os. What a crappy story, huh? I was hoping to learn something. Instead I felt embarrassed for YaStupid.

  • 55 Posted by setbro72 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    Just get a macbook and forget about such silly things. ...and I SO do NOT work for Apple...I will however accept an interview they need help. ;-)

  • 56 Posted by mark_shleck on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    If you're not using it then turn it off; don't have it on standby.

  • 57 Posted by kerriah17 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    ive had my laptop drain out completely several several times and the battery still works just fine after a full recharge

  • 58 Posted by dirtypanda123 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:43PM EDT Report Abuse

    charging ur laptop constantly ruins the life of your battery

  • 59 Posted by maye_saechao on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    some laptops have a feature where it claims that it will stop charging the battery once its full and switch to just plug power. Is this really true or will there always be some current going to the battery?

  • 60 Posted by blk94fiveoh on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have owned both pc's and mac laptops, and from my experience macs have far better battery life. My current macbook lasts at least 2.5x as long as my last hp did.

  • 62 Posted by jestduck1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    White chick mom uses a laptop - part of the job as a Realtor. Of course, my gamer 14 year old son wishes he had one. I like to keep him locked onto the desktop in the kitchen - better to see who he's chatting with and keep him safe. I have NEVER been accused of being a yuppie - a groupie, maybe, but not a yuppie.

  • 63 Posted by wburlock2002 on Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    walmart has some very nice Aspire Acer,s for sale , only like $417.00 toal

  • 64 Posted by drbloobs on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    WOW.....skip the battery discussion.....who is the HOT BABE in the Headline for this article....see page before the Article.....WOW AGAIN

  • 65 Posted by jestduck1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    I also agree with 62 - nothing anyone with any tech sense wouldn't know. I don't know about the other 11 missing suggestions, but nothing new, old hoss. I learned this when laptops first came out.

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