Many people desire a longer lasting laptop battery without having to buy a newer or more expensive model. Fortunately, there are many ways to extend the charge of your laptop’s current battery. Each of the following suggestions are simple to implement and might greatly reduce the strain faced by the laptop battery that you currently own. By following these six easy steps, your laptop will stay powered longer between charges.
Six Ways to Prolong the Charge of Your Laptop Battery
1. Optimize Your Power Options
By adjusting the power settings in the control panel, your laptop battery can last much longer. Of the settings listed in your laptop’s “Power Options” dialog, choose the option for maximum battery life. Once this has been set, it will work behind the scenes to prolong the charge each time you are running on battery power.
2. Adjust Your Monitor’s Brightness
The greatest strain on a laptop battery is often the monitor. Because most laptops will allow you to change the brightness of the monitor, it is recommended to use the dimmest setting you can comfortably work at whenever you plan to use the battery over an extended length of time. The dimmer your screen setting is, the longer your laptop’s battery will stay charged.
3. Avoid Using CDs or DVDs
When running on battery power, it is best to avoid using CDs or DVDs because of the large amount of energy needed to spin the disk in the drive. In fact, CDs and DVDs take even more power to operate than your laptop’s hard drive. Even a disk not currently in use can require power, so it is best to remove any CDs or DVDs from the drive altogether.
4. Remove Unused External Devices
It is recommended that you remove any unused external devices when you make the switch to battery power. Devices like a mouse, keyboard, webcam, iPod, and wireless card all require additional power and should be removed to extend your laptop’s runtime between battery charges.
5. Disable background processes
Does your Windows Task Manager list many of background processes? If yes, then you may want to reduce some of the background processes to clear up system resources and save your battery power. Background processes are often Microsoft’s programs and third-party software services listed on the Services Window. As background processes eat up RAM, disabling them will mostly clearing up some unnecessary running process on your laptop thus, reducing the battery usage.
6. Use the Hibernate Setting
Instead of setting your laptop to standby when it is not in use, use the hibernate mode. Hibernate uses less power than the standby setting, because it performs a complete shutdown. Like standby however, hibernate will return to your desktop’s current state when you restart your laptop.
To sum it up
By making some simple changes whenever you switch to battery power, you’ll be able to extend the time your laptop’s battery will remain charged. By changing your power options, adjusting your monitor’s brightness, avoiding CDs, DVDs, and external devices, and using the hibernate setting, there will be less strain on your laptop’s battery and it’ll last much longer between charges.
