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Maximize Laptop Battery Life

Before You Buy

  • Check the specs for battery life but also read actual user reviews for a realistic estimate of battery life.Specs often read something like “up to X – X hours.” The up to covers a lot of ground. “Up to” is standard advertising lingo. They lie.
  • Make sure your battery is fresh—that is buy your laptop from a reputable source with high turnover. Lithium Ion batteries lose approximately 20% of their capacity every year – even just sitting on a shelf.

  • Buy a decent amount of RAM; 2 GBs at least. The less the laptop has to use virtual memory, the less juice is wasted on writing stuff out to disk.

Once You Have Your Laptop

  • If you don’t plan to use the battery for a while, charge it to about 40 percent , remove it and put it in a cool dry place. Do not put it in the fridge or you family will question your drug habits.
  • Don’t completely discharge your battery – it’s not good for lithium ion batteries.
  • Adjust your power management scheme. In the Control Panel, select the power options and choose power savings.
  • Use the correct power adapter for your laptop. A mismatch in wattage could cause an overload and damage both your laptop and battery.

Keep Your Laptop Healthy

  • Don’t load up your laptop with a bunch of programs and plug-ins. Update drivers and programs that may run better and be more energy efficient. Windows 7 comes with a lot of tools you can use to keep your laptop running well.
  • Windows 7 Performance Information and Tools
    Select Control Panel from the Start Menu, Select Show All Control Panel Options
  • Open the Disk Defragmenter tool. Win 7 automatically defrags on a weekly basis; unfortunately the default time is 1 am on Wednesday morning. A time when you or your computer may not be functioning. Change the schedule or manually run the defrag process.
  • Select the Adjust the Performance and Appearance tool, Advanced Tools then Select Adjust for Best Performance radio button. You lose some of the fancy Aero effects but gain performance.
  • Open the Task Manager. Select the Task Manager, select the Processes tab. You may be surprised to see how many programs are automatically loading at startup and eating up your resources. To disable unnecessary programs from launching at Startup, go to the Start button and type msconfig. Select the Startup Tab and uncheck those items that you don’t need to launch when you start your computer. Many will be obvious to you; others may not so Google them before disabling.

Physical Devices

  • Reduce the number of external devices you use – USB devices (including your mouse) use up energy.
  • Disable Wifi if you are not using it. Wifi uses energy simply searching for signal. Many laptops have a manual method (a switch, sometimes a combination of function keys, normally labeled with an icon that looks like a radioactive tower).

  • Dim your screen. Brighter screens use more energy. Usually you will find screen dimmer keys on your function keys, the top row of your keyboard.
  • Single-task. Multi-tasking uses more energy.
  • Skip the CD/DVD drive. Transfer your movies and stuff to the internal hard drive and run them from there.
  • Keep the temperature cool. Keep your laptop well-ventilated (look for air vents and make sure they aren’t blocked – or dirty).
  • Keep your work area and laptop clean. Dirt and dust in the vents or in the guts of the machine makes your laptop heat up and work harder.
  • Keep the battery contacts clean. Note the metal contacts on your battery and clean them with rubbing alcohol on a soft cloth.
  • Hibernate rather than standby. Standby does save power but Hibernate will also save your PC’s state and completely shut itself down.

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