The problem that plagues most laptops these days is the
battery’s tendency to lose capacity over time. The age old
nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride batteries are now
replaced by lithium-ion batteries as these don’t require to be
fully discharged at each charge cycle. In spite of this
replacement, there are several measures you can take to
make sure your battery duration and overall life extends to a
maximum.
Here are some of the Tips:
1. SILENT KILLER: THE CD/DVD DRIVE
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Leaving CD/DVDs as leftovers in the drives even when not in
use will lead to an unnecessarily spinning drive and will suck
battery power like a sponge. Wherever possible, try to run on
virtual drives using programs like Alcohol120% or PowerISO
rather than optical ones.
2. POWER SUCKING EXTERNAL DEVICES
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Any device plugged in the USB port or other external devices
like keyboard, headphones, or mouse will constantly draw
battery power from your laptop. So if you’re not using it,
better remove it and let your laptop ports breathe fresh air.
All unneeded wireless capabilities such as built-in data
modems, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios/switches should also be
disabled. Depending on your laptop model, you can even
disable these unnecessary devices and ports using Device
Manager.
3. GO DEFRAG
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Defragmentation is a process that physically organizes the
contents of your hard drive into the smallest number of
contiguous regions and creates larger regions of free space
using compaction. Hence, it plays a major role in assisting the
hard drive to access data easily. When the hard drive works
quicker, it places a lesser load on the battery, making it last
longer. In Windows, you can find the defrag option in the
control panel while Mac OSX does not actually require
defragging due to it’s inbuilt intelligent handling of
fragmentation.
4. WIPE OUT ANYTHING UNNECESSARY
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Errant software applications, unnecessary utilities running in
the background or apps that continuously hang usually suck
up immense processor cycles.
Web browsers are particularly prone to the problem due to
the multiple plug-ins, rendering engines, and scripting engines
embedded within them. With a combination of Ctrl-Alt-
Delete, Windows task manager is our savior here by
identifying processes that show unexplained high utilization.
Also, if you have unnecessary programs running as start-ups,
you can weed em out by going to the ‘ Start’ menu and typing
‘msconfig’ in the search box. This will launch the System
Configuration window, where you can select the Startup tab
and uncheck the programs you don’t require at startup.
5. HIBERNATE
6. MINIMIZE VISUAL EFFECTS
To maximize battery life by a little, the following visual
effects can be cut down upon:
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Switch off the Screensaver
Today’s OS’s like Vista come with features like ‘Aero Glass’
which are resource guzzlers. One can turn it off and go for
the ‘ Classic’ appearance which consumes less power.
You can lower the graphic use by changing the screen
resolution and shutting off fancy graphic drivers.
You can actually save 6% battery by installing apps like
AdBlock, which eliminates advertisements and allows you to
manually configure elimination of other elements on the web
page to get additional battery life. To put this application
into use, you can right click on the element you want to block
and select ‘ AdBlock’>>’Block this Ad’ in the pop up menu. Now
you can adjust the slider and select the appropriate level to
hide unwanted elements like tickers, animations, videos, slide
shows or other social media widgets.
8. SCREEN BRIGHTNESS
Of course, the most renowned tip to prolong battery: KEEP
BRIGHTNESS AT MINIMUM REQUIRED LEVEL. It is true
that screen and keyboard back lighting are the most
intensive power suckers of all time. The graph above shows
how the power consumption varies at different brightness
settings.
Although the power consumption seems to alter evenly with
respect to screen brightness, it actually increases very
rapidly as the brightness goes up. For example, for brightness
level 0 to 40, the difference in power consumption is only 0.5
watt. However, for level 60 to 100, the difference is a
whopping 2 Watt!
This implies that if your brightness setting is high,
decreasing brightness will increase your battery life
significantly. However, you might not get desired power
saving results on further lowering the brightness if it is
already set at a low level.
Also, for those running heavy workload, where your laptop is
consuming around 50W power, there won’t be much point in
saving that 2 Watts by reducing brightness. However, if you
are running light programs like word processing (consuming
only 10W), saving 2 Watts will actually increase battery life
by 20%.
Under the “Dim the display’ and ‘Turn off the display’
options, it is best to select an aggressive timeout of 1 to 3
minutes. When the laptop is in dimmed state, it is advised to
configure it at absolute minimum brightness level.
9. RESPECT WATTAGE
It might seem hassle-free to run your laptop solely on AC
power without battery, but it isn’t such a great idea when you
consider the unforeseen voltage fluctuations that could
damage your laptop altogether. Also, ensure that the adapter
you use to charge the battery is an original one or one with
the correct specifications because a mismatch could cause an
overload thus damaging the laptop and the battery.
10. Keep Your System Cool
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Heat causes the laptop battery cells to expand and bubble.
Overheating leads the internal fans to run faster, which in
turn consumes more battery. Apart from being the most well-
known reason for laptop degradation, it is also the easiest to
prevent, given you put into practice the following tips:
I know it’s called a laptop, but don’t keep it on your lap (or
any other soft surface like a blanket or cushion) while in use.
This will block the release of hot air from it’s vents and you
will be visiting your nearest store to buy a laptop cooler
sooner than you know it. The ideal practice would be to use it
on a hard surface like a table to subject the fan and battery
to minimum pressure.
Avoid leaving the laptop under direct sunlight or inside a
closed car.
A laptop with blocked air vents will generate more heat,so
the air vents should be cleaned regularly and the area around
the laptop should be kept clean to avoid entry of dust.
Source:- List Crux
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