How to Extend the Life of a Laptop

Life of a Laptop Battery

Laptop batteries usually last around four years before needing to buy a new one. This depends, of course, on how often you use and charge your laptop. If you travel a lot with your laptop, the battery life will reduce more, and the laptop may only last two years.

Batteries generally self-discharge at a rate of about 1% per day. Generally, when charged, a laptop should last between 3 to 5 hours. There are ways of extending the life of your laptop battery and this information is provided below.

How Can I Extend the Life of my Laptop Battery?

Battery Extender

It may be worth considering purchasing a battery extender for your laptop’s battery.

Bluetooth

If you are not using Bluetooth, disable this device on your computer.

Brightness

If you are using your laptop in a well-lit area, reduced the laptop’s brightness level to a minimum, we recommend setting it to two or three bars.

Buying a New Battery

We recommend purchasing a new battery with the same specs as your previous battery. This means that it is the same capacity – same mAh rating and chemistry.

CD and DVD Drives

Spinning CDs and DVDs use a lot of battery power. If they are not in use, remove these.

Charging your Battery

Only charge your battery when it is on a low charge as the lower the battery when you charge it, the longer it will last.

Clean Battery Contacts

Clean the battery contacts with rubbing alcohol on a damp cloth to increase energy efficiency.

Cooling Pad

We recommend using a cooling pad when using a notebook computer on your laptop unless it is a USB pad.

Defrag the Hard Drive

Defrag your hard drive as this reduces the amount of work done by your hard drive.

Don’t Use your Laptop on a Soft Surface

On a soft surface, the laptop fan cannot circulate air properly and you may overheat the machine. This will reduce the life of the battery.

Don’t Use your Laptop with the AC Adapter Frequently

If you do this, then your laptop battery will have a chemical memory in the long term, and this will reduce the life of your battery. Ensure that you only charge your laptop when it needs to be charged and do not leave the laptop plugged in all the time.

Ensure Full Charge from the Beginning

When you first purchase a laptop, it is very important that you fully charge it before using it. This is important to ensure that the battery lasts to its full extent.

Flash-based Sites

If you rarely used your laptop to access Flash-based sits, install or disable Flash. You can save up to 30% of power by not using Flash.

OLED Screens

OLED screens consume much less power when displaying blank. If your laptop has an OLED based display, avoid displaying white images.

Ongoing Use

Minimising screen brightness, closing Wi-Fi when not in use and shutting down unused programs helps extend your battery life.

Power Saver

Use the power management settings on your computer that comes built in. On a Mac computer use ‘Energy Saver’ in System Preferences and on Windows XP, use ‘Power Options’ in the control panel. Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles for different scenarios such as in the office or a plane.

RAM

Add more RAM as memory helps load and close application faster, which subsequently uses less power. 

Running Applications

It is better to run simple applications that don’t use much processing power, RAM or disk drive. To save battery life, we recommend using basic text editors rather than the processor or RAM heavy Microsoft Word. Games and movies also significantly reduce battery life.

Scans and Backups

Ensure that if your laptop is doing a periodic virus scan or backup that it is set to a time when your laptop is running on AC power.

Shutdown

Instead of using standby or sleep, shut down or hibernate the laptop when not in use as standby continues to use energy.

Temperature

Try to avoid extreme temperatures for your laptop. Batteries will drain faster in either very cold or very hot temperatures.

Unplug External Devices

When not using external devices such as USBs, external speakers and attach phones or iPods, unplug them from the computer.

Volume

If you do not need sound, mute the volume level or turn it off.

This blog on ‘How To Extend The Life Of Your Laptop Battery’ was provided to you by the technicians at Affordable Computer Repairs and Service.