How to Make a Laptop Battery Last Longer

The battery in a laptop, will usually last anywhere from 18 to 36 months. This span is the expected life of a battery with no extra steps taken by the user. But if you take a little extra time and care of your power source, you might be able to extend the life of your laptop battery or at the very least, improve the performance of the day to day life of about battery.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Laptop battery

Focusing on the Battery

1. If you are not going to use the laptop for several days, take the battery out of the computer.
2. Keep the laptop and the battery in a comfortable temperature. Exposure to high heat or extreme cold can damage the battery; not to mention the laptop.
3. Once a month, allow the battery to drain completely. Make sure you have saved all your work and leave no programs open while draining the battery.
4. Be sure to have the power adapter plugged into a surge protector, not just a wall outlet.
5. Do not constantly leave the power adapter plugged in. When the adapter is plugged in, the battery is constantly being charged. This is taxing on the battery's life span.

How to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer on a Day to Day Basis

6. Turn down the brightness of your screen.
7. Turn off or mute the speakers on the laptop.
8. Do not plug in external hard drives, speakers, USB device or other hardware when the battery is in use.
9. Turn off scheduled tasks.
10. Limit computer gaming, CD listening and video watching. Graphic and sound intensive programs drain the battery faster.
11. Change the Windows Power Options. You can change the settings of the Power Options in the Control Panel so the hard drive and screen turn off after a few minutes of non-use.
12. Copy CD or DVD information to the hard drive. The laptop uses less power if you run such programs from the hard drive rather than use the CD/DVD optical drive.

Tips & Warnings

• In general, for day to day battery life use the computer for simple tasks like word processing or email.

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