Conserving Battery Life

Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:00PM EDT

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If you're traveling and using your battery extensively, make sure your power saving options on your laptop are set appropriately. The basic idea is for the computer to shut itself down, incrementally, if it detects that you've stopped using it.

When running on AC current, these settings don't matter much, but when you're sitting on a five hour flight, trying desperately to maximize battery time, saving power is critical. Under Windows, you can manage these settings using the Power Schemes page of the Control Panel's Power Options applet. You can turn off the monitor or hard drive, and put your laptop into various states of conservation according to your specification.

Choosing the best mode: Most laptops have two shutdown modes to conserve batteries while still enabling fast resumption of normal operation: The first is standby mode which powers down your hard drive. Standby mode is meant to be used when you're leaving your computer, but only for a short period of time. When you power up again the laptop quickly resumes from where you left off. Because standby does not save your desktop state to disk, a power failure while on standby can cause you to lose unsaved information. Standby mode is great for when your airline meal arrives and you want a 15 minute of break; it's not good to leave it on for hours at a time.

Hibernation mode, on the other hand, is when the computer saves its state on the hard disk and then shuts down. A computer can't resume operation after hibernation as fast as it can after standby, but it's not consuming any power during hibernation. If you're not going to use the computer for a while choose hibernate.

Windows tip: You can choose power options using the Control Panel's Power Options applet. But to choose an option on-the-fly, simply choose 'Turn off the computer' on the start menu. You normally get 3 options: Standby, Turn Off, and Restart. To get the hibernate option simply hold down the Shift key. (If hibernate doesn't appear, you may have to enable hibernation using the Power Options applet's Hibernation page.)

Also, many laptops ship with customized power applets from the manufacturer, which sometimes give you more control.

Proper Disposal: Before discarding that ancient laptop, remove its battery and dispose it properly. Do not put the battery into regular trash collections as it contains hazardous materials. For a drop-off site near you, the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) has a search page:

Lots of major retailers like Staples, Home Depot, and Radio Shack participate, so it's not hard to do the right thing for the environment.

Smart Links for more battery advice:

TechRepublic

Batteries in a Portable World

 

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Comments on Conserving Battery Life

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  • 106 Posted by emerald_baby20 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    OHHHHH please..do you people REALLY have anything better to do than sit here and criticize what people have to say all day??? Since you're "so-called" working 3 jobs, how do you have the time anyways to sit here and complain that somebody wrote a crappy article. Seems like you're on a 3rd grade level to me. If you're so knowledgeable, go find another article with more information to fit your competent needs. This article was obviously meant for new users, so just leave your petty comments to yourself and let the rest of the world go about their business. Maybe some people don't want to know all the crap that you guys know, and they just want it kept simple. Leave people alone.

  • 107 Posted by felicial10 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yes, the article is pretty basic. If you didn't already know and it helped, then it's good that you read it. Read the upgrades posted too. They are even better. I personally haven't learned anything new. My two cents worth is - (1) eBay is a great place for a spare battery - make sure that it says it's NEW and OEM (not generic) and (2) what you do on your PC matters in terms of battery life. Playing games, video, and CDs are big no-nos if you are trying to conserve power. Stick to productivity apps (like MS Office) or web browsing if you can.

  • 108 Posted by immonen_mika on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    That was useless. This article should be called out because if people are getting paid to write about irrelevant bull like this, there'd be a lot of monkeys with jobs right now. But at least people have posted helpful tips. Another tip: if your computer has a on/off switch for its built-in mouse, and you don't need to use the mouse, then turn it off. It saves a lot of energy on my laptop.

  • 109 Posted by mknox22 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    WOW, what a useless article. I just wasted 2 minutes.

  • 110 Posted by anjrings on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    turn off wireless this will save power....

  • 111 Posted by treborbg on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    It would be nice that you give us tips to increase the lifetime of the battery. In some cellphones it's recomended that at least once a month you completly discharge the battery and fully charge it, and it's not really recomemded to charge the cellphone battery every day. Something like this would be very useful. Thanks for the other tips too. :D

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

    These were good reminders of things I (and I think most frequent laptop users) already know -- I was hoping to find some new information, for example, are there certain applications that take more power to run than others? Does it take a lot more power when you get over a certain number of active window applications? Oh well, maybe next time!

  • 113 Posted by sy_bill on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    I use my laptop same as if it were a desktop. I use Hibernate if I'm not actively using the computer, however, I was informed this isn't a good idea..."Better to shut it down..." That doesn't make sense to me as I would have to "boot up" each time I went back to the 'puter which might or might not be ten hours or more. Tks for any feedback someone might give.

  • 114 Posted by rosebudk40 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    Those tips were somewhat useful, sometimes it's good to go over some basic re-fresher tips. Some of the comments were kind of harsh and some were nice. Thanks to those of you whom I have learned a little more. Some of you, please don't take the time to be so mean and hurtful to someone who's just trying to help people. BE NICE! :) Have a wonderful day!

  • 115 Posted by bpugs80 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    Also, try dimming the screen to increase the battery life.

  • 116 Posted by gcdiamond05 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:07PM EDT Report Abuse

    Nice info, but i think you should have included that running high powered programs will decrease your battery life(on a long-trip). ex. dvds, playing video games etc. and i also think you should have written about decreaseing the brightness of the screen. it puts less stress on the battery. -gc

  • 117 Posted by cancer_777 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    .... true theres a lot of tips that need to be included in this article...

  • 118 Posted by thebluedragonfly on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    Could have been sumerized a little better, as not to waste peoples time who know all this already. But great tips for novice users.

  • 119 Posted by kevin1965il on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    Thanks, I just recently bought my first laptop, I'm still learning about them.

  • 120 Posted by lolng on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    I know that based on some of these comments that many may not appreciate the basic info, but I do very much. I am training a co-worker in computer usage and he found this article very help. Not everyone today is computer literate. Basic information is very important for those who are starting using computer for the very first time. To me this is very criticle for my own sanity when I find it frustrating to communicate basic info someone who is just starting out. Thanks a mil...!

  • 121 Posted by rincon_waves on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    I don't know about anyone else but I have never had a laptop that didn't have battery issues. Last week though I found a great website called http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptopbattery where I got a brand new battery for my laptop, cheap and easy, and it works better than the original ever did. I would recommend checking it out if your fed up with your laptop battery.

  • 122 Posted by happymsc_2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    It is true i have tried these methods and they do indeed work and another little tip turn off the screen saver this takes battery life too, just leave the laptop to hibernate when not in use which temporarily turns the laptop off in the background. I have also come across a cool site about laptop batteries which is www.laptop-batteries.info

  • 123 Posted by dan1326@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    Cool article until the last line, "so its not hard to do the right thing for the environment". This conveys an attitude of moral superiority on the part of the writer, and disdain for the reader.

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