subject: Breathe new life into your laptop's battery [print this page] Avoid multimedia: Save hefty chores such as photo editing and watching videos for when your system has AC power. If you must listen to music, use your iPod (or a similar dedicated device).
Know when to sleep and when to hibernate: You need to think about when you want to save power by sending your laptop into Standby or Sleep mode, and when you want to hibernate it.
There is a difference. XP's Standby mode and Vista and Windows 7's Sleep mode keep your PC on, using some power, but less of it than in normal use. Hibernate saves the PC's state to the hard drive, and then shuts it off entirely so that the system uses no power.
Regrettably, Windows takes much longer sometimes minutes to enter and leave hibernation. And during those minutes, the battery is draining heavily and you can't work.
Windows XP's Standby mode isn't really all that efficient. If you know that your XP laptop will be inactive for more than about half an hour, hibernate it. Otherwise, use Standby.
Vista and Windows 7 do a much better job with their Sleep mode. Don't bother hibernating your notebook unless you think that you'll be going more than two or three hours without using it.
