Laptops For Less Blog

Top Tips to Extend your Laptop Battery Life

The battery is an essential part of your laptop. The technology available today, and the vast numbers of power outlets out there, make batteries an under-the-radar risk. However, if you’re in a car, or an eleven hour plane ride to Japan, a long battery life is exactly what you need. Of course, everyone knows the basic tips to conserve battery life. Stuff like; dim your screen, minimize processes, disable the wireless and so on. These tips can help get that bit of extra playtime on your flight, but there’re more. Read on…

Processes eat up a big chunk of your Laptop battery’s life. What most people neglect to realize is that their hardware is one of the biggest draws on battery power. Power management utilities can help reduce the impact of internal hardware on the battery life. Some ways to optimize your hardware are to disable unused ports and components such as VGA, PCMCIA, USB, and Ethernet. If you’re on a plane or car ride, disable the wireless too of course!

The process for disabling these components is right in the Device Manager. Another technique is to create hardware profiles that you can switch to certain scenarios. These profiles will remember which processes and hardware ports to shut off [when selected]. These profiles can be set up to turn off selected components to optimize your battery life. Third party software can also help in this type of function. An additional feature of some software is to turn your laptop display off instead of going to a screen-saver.

These techniques help out in between charges, but what about the longevity of the battery itself? Damaging the battery means a shorter life span. Two things hurt a battery more than anything, wrong amperage on the AC adapter, and heat.
Overheating can be a major problem, and can severely reduce your Laptop battery’s longevity. To avoid heat, use a cooling pad for your laptop. Avoid keeping the laptop on fabrics or any surface that blocks the cooling fan. Another factor which causes overheating is dust. If the fan is clogged with dust [and dirt], your laptop is not being cooled properly.

Keeping a neat workspace can reduce the amount of dust that attacks your system. Room temperature is the ideal setting for batteries. Try not to store the battery in areas where the temperature gets above eighty degrees [Fahrenheit]. If the battery is not at room temperature, let it return to room temperature before using it. If you’re using an AC adapter, consider taking the battery out while doing so. Also, remember to clean the battery contacts periodically with rubbing alcohol. [Vodka or gin will work fine if you don't have rubbing alcohol]. All of these techniques will help keep a healthy battery for longer.

If you’re in the market for a new laptop, you can consider certain upgrades to maximize your battery life. When buying, look for ultra low voltage processors that use less power. Solid state storage devices have less moving parts, and require less energy. Finally, an LED display uses less energy than the traditional LCD screens. If you can do it, go for a smaller screen. Smaller equals less power used, and more battery life. Finally, make sure that you purchase a good battery. Knowing your batteries will help you choose a good battery! [This blog will help you learn everything you need to know about Laptop batteries].

Despite looking after your Laptop battery, sometimes it simply needs to be replaced due to wear-and-tear. LaptopsForLess.com has a huge selection of laptop batteries in stock, at very reasonable prices [often a fraction of the cost of manufacturers’ own brand replacements]. We stock replacement laptop batteries from the following manufacturers; Acer, Apple, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and many more. We also stock a huge selection of AC Adapters from all the major manufacturers too!