Laptops and the problem of battery draining energy vampires!
What we want - To know how to wooden stake kill Laptop battery energy vampires!
Ever been busy on your laptop and had it die on you without warning? Or maybe you get a few minutes but what help is that when you’re half way through a great or urgent piece of work or email session on a long journey and now won’t be able to finish it! Yes, it’s very annoying to say the least.
The simple fact of laptop life is that notebooks simply don’t run as long on their batteries as they should. After all mobile phone batteries that once dies with alarming speed now last for days. MP3 players can go forever and recharge in no time. But laptops, nope! It’s almost like there’s some thirsty energy vampire sucking away there, the battery guage seems to go down almost visible (especially towards the end!)
You’d have thought that with all the technology advances of recent years in all areas that this would be so much better by now but it seems to have been passed by.
But rather than moan about it lets see what you can do about it
Here’s good one that will really slay that vampire – You’ll boost your battery life by anywhere from 4 to 10 hours - Get an external laptop battery made by a third-party company.
They weigh between 1.6 and 3.3 pounds so are suitable for most mobile situations and range in cost from $150 to $500. All you do is plug it into the notebook’s AC power port when the main battery runs. No software required so they’re super easy with no technical issues ever going to come up and get you out on the road.
The better ones can also power your cell phone and handheld devices. So if you don’t mind the extra weight they’re brilliant.
Pack one of these, and you’ll never look at a wall outlet the same way again.
What else can you do if you don’t want the weight or expense?
Go small - The slower the components and the smaller the display, the less power needed to run the machine. A 12.1-inch screen uses 50 percent less juice than a 17-inch model, and getting a 4,200rpm hard drive instead of the 5,400rpm model can mean an extra 15 to 20 minutes of battery life.
Control your power - Adjust your laptop’s power settings to find a comfort zone where you’re using as little power as possible with no interference in your computer tasks. The path to the control panel will vary according to your operating system and setup, but for Windows XP Home and Pro users, follow these steps: Go to Start > Control Panel > Performance And Maintenance > Power Options. Set the LCD screen to go off after 5 minutes of inactivity, let the hard drive stay active for 20 minutes, and store the system’s contents in RAM when it shuts down. If your laptop goes to sleep too soon, adjust the settings.
Dim all the lights - Your LCD’s backlight uses up to 10 watts of power, a huge battery drain. Lower the screen’s brightness to where it’s comfortable to view without squinting. In addition to the Power Options settings detailed in tip 2, most laptops have convenient function keys for controlling brightness. Look for the function key with the brightness icon and a down arrow next to it. (This is the F6 key on many laptops.)
Shut down unnecessary programs - When you’re running your laptop on battery power, turn off devices and programs you don’t need. When not connected to a wireless hot spot, turn off the Wi-Fi hardware. If you access wireless networks with a PC Card, remove it when not connected. Listening to music via the CD-ROM drive and watching DVDs are also big battery drains.