Tips How you can extend Laptop Battery Life.
Tips How you can extend Laptop Battery Life.
Laptops are designed to be portable machines and as such their main source of power comes from batteries. There are several different types of battery technology:
Lithium Ion (LiON) - These are the latest type of batteries, which have dropped in price in recent years to become more affordable. They last about twice as long as equivalent sized NiMH batteries before needing to be recharged. They require special circuitry which stops them from being over-charged and last for about 400 charge cycles.
Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) - These are popular because they are cheap, they last about 700 charge cycles, but suffer from what's known as the memory effect, this eventually makes the charge cycle so short they become unusable.
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) - These type of batteries are better than NiCad because they don't suffer from a memory effect and generally provide 10% more power, they are much less polluting than NiCad. However they only last about 400 charge cycles.
Getting the most from your Notebook Battery
Notebook battery life has been improving gradually over the years, both with improved battery technologies and with the development of less power-hungry mobile components such as Intel's Centrino. However there are still ways of improving your battery life.
Unnecessary Components - If you're on the move and using battery power make sure you disconnect any PC Cards you don't need. Wireless cards are big consumers of battery power, turn them off or unplug them if you don't require them. (My laptop battery lasts an hour longer without the Centrino WiFi card enabled)
Background Processes - Use the Task Manager (right-click an empty portion of the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager) , which will not only tell you your CPU usage but also let you see what processes are using up your valuable battery power.
Backlight - The notebook screen is one of the biggest power consumers in a laptop, know how to dim the display and dim it down when you don't need it at full brightness. You can also use Windows Power Management to control this for you.
Windows XP Power Management - Set the Power Scheme in Power Management to Max Battery, this will make Windows more power-efficient. Read more on Windows Power Management.
BIOS options - Modern notebooks using the Intel-based Pentium and Centrino ranges provide a hardware power management technology which is used to slow the processor when idling. The Intel technology that manages this is called SpeedStep and can be enabled in the BIOS, make sure it is enabled on yours. (Restart your PC and press F2 or DEL during startup to enter the BIOS).
For Complete Battery Selection Search Amazon.com for laptopbattery
Visit our PC store Planet Lawrenz
Laptops are designed to be portable machines and as such their main source of power comes from batteries. There are several different types of battery technology:
Lithium Ion (LiON) - These are the latest type of batteries, which have dropped in price in recent years to become more affordable. They last about twice as long as equivalent sized NiMH batteries before needing to be recharged. They require special circuitry which stops them from being over-charged and last for about 400 charge cycles.
Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) - These are popular because they are cheap, they last about 700 charge cycles, but suffer from what's known as the memory effect, this eventually makes the charge cycle so short they become unusable.
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) - These type of batteries are better than NiCad because they don't suffer from a memory effect and generally provide 10% more power, they are much less polluting than NiCad. However they only last about 400 charge cycles.
Getting the most from your Notebook Battery
Notebook battery life has been improving gradually over the years, both with improved battery technologies and with the development of less power-hungry mobile components such as Intel's Centrino. However there are still ways of improving your battery life.
Unnecessary Components - If you're on the move and using battery power make sure you disconnect any PC Cards you don't need. Wireless cards are big consumers of battery power, turn them off or unplug them if you don't require them. (My laptop battery lasts an hour longer without the Centrino WiFi card enabled)
Background Processes - Use the Task Manager (right-click an empty portion of the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager) , which will not only tell you your CPU usage but also let you see what processes are using up your valuable battery power.
Backlight - The notebook screen is one of the biggest power consumers in a laptop, know how to dim the display and dim it down when you don't need it at full brightness. You can also use Windows Power Management to control this for you.
Windows XP Power Management - Set the Power Scheme in Power Management to Max Battery, this will make Windows more power-efficient. Read more on Windows Power Management.
BIOS options - Modern notebooks using the Intel-based Pentium and Centrino ranges provide a hardware power management technology which is used to slow the processor when idling. The Intel technology that manages this is called SpeedStep and can be enabled in the BIOS, make sure it is enabled on yours. (Restart your PC and press F2 or DEL during startup to enter the BIOS).
For Complete Battery Selection Search Amazon.com for laptopbattery
Visit our PC store Planet Lawrenz
