The laptop's battery drains as you use it, which makes sense, right? In modern laptops, you should plan for at least two or three hours of active computer use under battery power. The rate of drain does vary, however, depending on what you're doing with the laptop. And, naturally, depending on what you're doing, the time that you have may seem to pass by rather quickly.
In Windows XP, you can monitor you laptop's battery by viewing the tiny battery icon in the Notification Area (or System Tray). The icon graphically shows how much power your battery has left; the icon's color drains out as you use the laptop. But often that display is too tiny for you to see properly, so you can point the mouse at the icon to make a pop-up bubble appear that explains how much juice you have left (how much time you have until the battery dies and what percentage of the battery's power currently remains).
You can also monitor battery usage from the Control Panel's Power Options icon. The Power Meter tab offers up a lot of juicy information on the battery's status, as you can see in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The battery is charging. Fill 'er up!
Your laptop manufacturer may have also included other battery tools, such as a battery monitor window, a special keyboard shortcut to display battery status, specific battery icons in the Control Panel, and so on. Be sure to review what you have because you may find these tools better or more useful than what Windows XP offers.
You may not see the battery icon in the Notification Area when you have your laptop connected to an AC power source. As soon as you unplug your laptop, the icon reappears.
If you want to make sure that the battery icon shows up, even when you have the laptop plugged in, follow these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel's Power Options icon.
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Click on the box by the Always Show Icon on the Taskbar option to put a check mark.
4. Click OK.
On some laptops, you may see a different icon in the Notification Area when you have the laptop connected to an AC power source.
The battery icon on your laptop's row-o-lights may also indicate how much charge is left by changing color or even the amount of light showing through.
These electrical terms tell you what source is powering your laptop:
- AC power: Refers to electricity from a wall socket
- DC power: Power from the battery
Smart battery technology lets Windows determine how much power you have left in your battery. But remember that the power measurement you get from Windows is just an estimate. Different factors can affect battery life. So don't bet real money on how much longer your laptop can survive by using the battery's power.
