How To Boost Battery Life Of Laptops - Guide

3/11/2013

So you've got yourself a new laptop for your birthday and you are excited, happy and enthusiastic as to creep out all there is in that laptop. You use it for a few months and start to realise your laptop's battery seems to give less operating time than it did when it was new. Naturally you look here for boosting your laptop's battery life and all I can say is you've come to the right place. Read on to know how you can squeeze out a few more hours out of your laptop's battery.

Defrag Regularly

Defraging your hard drive regularly leads to better and easy access to data thereby reducing the need for more power. The quicker the hard drive moves the lesser is the power consumption. The effect may not appear just yet but this sure does go a long way in improving your laptop's battery life.

Kill the background apps

Closing or killing unnecessary background processes and disabling anti-virus and firewalls when you're not browsing the internet can save a lot of juice. Disabling start-up programs can also yield more battery life.

Keep Anti-virus scanning scheduled

Letting your Anti-virus run in the background for all eternity may seem like a good protection system but this will gobble up your battery alive. So make sure your Anti-virus scanning remains scheduled. Let it scan as you turn on your laptop and right before you turn off.

Unplug all External devices

External devices are the hungriest when it comes to working on your laptop. Unplugging mouse, external hard drives, even iPods and switching off connectivity modes like Wi-fi and Bluetooth when you aren't using your lappy can save you a lot of battery juice.

Empty CD/DVD drive when not in use

A spinning CD/DVD especially when not in use can suck the life of your battery like a vampire.

Local all the way

When you use your laptop on battery mode make sure to transfer the contents from your external devices like CD/DVD or USB since a spinning motor sucks a lot of power compared to a running hard drive.

Lower brightness

The LCD/LED screen on your laptop may boast of a longer battery but its just a marketing gimmick. So lower the brightness to a level that you an tolerate and then continue working.

Use headphones instead of Beats Audio Speakers

Using your headphones means the laptop needs less power to generate sounds since the speaker in your headphone is significantly smaller than the one embedded in your system and you obviously use it a volume that is pleasant to your ears. So get yourself some decent pair of headphones and make sure you do not install any sound enhancing softwares as they are bound to suck up battery like a little boy.

Jam in more RAM

Having more RAM in your system means for a better and faster operating times and reduces the struggle CPU faces with a bottlenecked RAM. So having ample amount of RAM is always a good option.

Keep it nice and clean

Your laptop can't breathe with air vents blocked and thus reduce your battery life. The li-ion batteries are bound to age when kept inside a heating laptop so make sure you clean your laptop on a regular basis. Avoid keeping your laptop under direct sunlight and inside your car.

Update softwares and drivers

Your apps and programs will never stop urging you to update them and this will definitely take a toll on your battery's life. Updating drivers as well can help improve battery life.

Use the given adapter

Using the adapter that is given for your laptop is the best way to enusre your laptop's battery recieves the amount it deserves.

Packing it up

If you plan to go on a vacation without your laptop we sugges you charge your lappy 40% and then remove the batteries and store them in a clean, cool environment.
A typical laptop battery lasts for 2 to 3 years but with some caution and care you can increase its mortality.

Author : Nadeem Ansari

Designation: Senior Editor
Bio: A gadget freak who can't make a day without his tiny little toys and is constantly trying to keep himself up to date with the latest events in tech history. Loves to read and write articles.