How to Get the Most Out of Your Laptop Battery
Isn’t it annoying when you run out of battery power in the middle of an important meeting, or halfway through a long flight? Battery technology is advancing all the time, but even with the latest hardware, your mobile PC can only run for so long on a single charge. It’s important to squeeze as much time as possible out of the power that is available.
Even if you carry your power cord around with you, there isn’t always a power socket available for recharging. It really makes sense to tweak your mobile PC’s settings to get as much time as possible out of your battery charge. Here are some tips.
Select a power plan that conserves power. A power plan is a collection of system and hardware settings that determine how your mobile PC handles power. The power plans available to you, and how to access them, will depend on the operating system you are using. Windows Vista comes with three default plans:
High performance. This gives you the maximum system performance but uses a lot of battery power.
Balanced. This delivers full performance when you need it, but takes advantage of system idle time to conserve power.
Power saver. Here, system performance is slower, but it’s the best option for extending battery life.
Changing your power plan is quite straightforward – just click on the battery meter icon at the bottom right of your screen in the Windows taskbar. Then select which of the three default power plans you want. You can also create your own custom power plan if you wish. There are three options to configure – after how many minutes of inactivity the display should switch off, after what period of inactivity the laptop should go to sleep, and the screen’s brightness level.
When you’re not using the PC, even for brief periods of time, power can be conserved if the display is turned off.
Actually the display can use more of your PC’s power and resources than any other component – even more than the hard disk and CPU (central processing unit). It’s possible that your mobile PC has a dial or button to enable you to adjust the brightness. Otherwise, it can be adjusted in Windows Mobility Center (Windows Vista).
Further power can be saved by disabling or removing devices that you aren’t using. Many USB (universal serial bus) devices drain power just by being connected. If you use a USB flash drive, for instance, unplug it whenever you don’t need to use it. Or if you use a USB mouse, disconnect it and use the laptop’s touch pad (or tablet pen) instead.
Turn off integrated wireless devices, and PC cards, if you don’t need them. These devices all use power.
If you think of your mobile PC as a car, the battery meter is the fuel gauge. If you drive faster, you use more fuel, and the distance you can travel on a full tank is shorter. If you run many power-consuming devices on your laptop, you won’t get as much mileage out of a single battery charge.
Finally, we come to the best strategy of all: always carry a spare, fully charged battery when you are out and about with your mobile PC. Even better, carry two spare batteries. That way, you can be sure you will never run out of power at an inopportune moment. Click on the following link to look for your model of laptop battery.
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