A laptop definitely loses its charm once its battery quality deteriorates. No laptop owner wants to look for the nearest power outlet to charge up. Here is a list of ways by which you can improve the battery life of your computer.
Defragment your drive regularly
If you are using a Windows based system, you have to defrag your hard drive at least once every two months. Defragmentation improves the speed and efficiency of your hard drive. The faster your hard drive works – the less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. However, if you are Mac User, you don’t need to defrag, as Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation.
Dim your screen
The LCD screen is another big power sink. Every laptop has the ability to dim your screen. It is important that you should not keep the laptop in too bright mode, as that will lead to your battery getting depleted at a much faster pace.
Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth
When you are not using Internet or Bluetooth options, it is better to turn off the WiFi and Bluetooth facilities. You will be amazed by the amount of battery power that you can save when you are not using the WiFi and Bluetooth options.
Remove external devices
External devices such as PC card modems, optical drives, smart phones and other devices consume lot of battery power. It is also advisable that use laptop’s touchpad instead of an external mouse. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.
Remove CDs and DVDs
CD and DVD drives are notorious for consuming large amounts of laptop battery power. Don’t leave CDs and DVDs in the drives when you don’t have to use it, as spinning disk sucks your battery power. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming. They spin, taking power, even when they are not actively being used.
Add more RAM
RAM is not only about improving the operating speed of your computer; it also has an impact on your battery power. With more memory, your laptop will be able to process more and it won’t have to rely on virtual memory, which results in hard drive use and is considered to be much less power efficient. However, in case you do not need any extra memory in the computer, you can avoid extra RAM. As RAM also consumes certain amount of power.
Customise Start-up programmes
Many of the programmes and applications that you install on your PC, like to configure themselves to start up each time that your computer starts up. In most cases, they will launch themselves as soon as you login to Windows and remain running in background silently. This slows down your computer and also leads to the consumption of more battery power. You can customise your start up options by going to ‘msconfig’ and disabling the unnecessary programmes. You should also turn off the screensaver when you are low on battery.
Clean up your laptop
Cleaning of your laptop vents is necessary, as this will help keep the operating temperatures low.
Exercise your battery
Just as you need to exercise regularly, your battery too can’t afford to stay dormant. Keeping a battery dormant is a sure way of spoiling it. Once charged, you should use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, you should not let the Li-On battery in your laptop get completely discharged.
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