Here is the first in a series of occasional useful articles we will post on battery usage. Your feedback is always welcomed and encouraged!
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There are three things that every laptop owner should know about extending battery life in their laptop to avoid the situation that we have all been in too many times. We are doing something important on the computer or hadn’t had the chance to save – thinking that we have enough time before the battery dies, and the screen goes black. The battery has powered down, without reprieve for your work! Here are some tips and tricks that can help to prolong battery life in your laptop:


Avoid functions that take up large amount of battery power. This means Movies, and running more than two or three programs. As well, change the settings when using the laptop battery as the main source of power. These functions can be found by right clicking on the battery icon, or via the control panel. Adjusting these functions can save up to an hour of battery life.


When using the laptop ensure that it is not using valuable battery power to maintain a safe temperature for the machine. Using, and changing the battery at room temperature can increase the capabilities of the battery and extend the life.


Charge your battery fully – allow the battery to die completely to maintain the life of the battery. Partially charging the battery life can decrease the life of the battery substantially. Consider this when using the laptop, or shortening the charging time of the battery should you have to move. Once the laptop has been plugged in, allow the battery to charge fully for the best effects for the computer, and the battery.

Are you sure about this part? That's true for Nickel-Cadmium batteries but Lithium-Ion batteries don't have memory problems, so they don't need to be fully discharged then fully recharged.

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-5A.htm
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

You are correct sir. I should have qualified that when we wrote that up.

you can also disable bluetooth, modem, serial ports that might leak some power. there's also the option of finding programs that tweak when the computer fans run and at what speed. these little things might save 10-20 minutes or so.

hularious: The bluetooth I'd agree with you on. The modem and serial ports I wonder about thought because they do not do anything unless you are actively using them to interact with something. Bluetooth is constantly trying to transmit and receive so that is not a bad one.

On my laptop my power choices are: CPU speed, LCD brightness, monitor on, hard disk, wireless lan, bluetooth, cardbus, lan, firewire. Those last 5 are always 'seeking' something i.e. as soon as you plug something in it knows about it.

front page stuff!

yea, all those other ports are good to just turn off especially if you hardly use them. i have those card busses and and sd slot that i rarely use....so i think the extra battery power is worth something even though i'd have to reactivate it if i needed to...on the rare occasion.

oh yea, and turning off wireless is a definite boost...unless you need to use the internet...on the plane? probably a good idea anyway...

LCD BRightness is a major power saver if you turn that down...

Good suggestion. Thanks.

I've heard Dachshund Battery Doubler actually increases battery life on XP machines (you can google for a benchmark a guy did on a dell vostro).

Personally when I run it, I feel like I'm getting more battery life. Perhaps the placebo effect but it works for me

And display brightness and wifi are the biggest power drains hands down.

You can use CrystalCPUID to manually set multiplier/voltage on cpu which can also shave off some power use when you don't need both cores roarin'

Sorry for the jittery post. I speak english fluently, I'm just tired as hell b/c it's midnight over here.