subject: Improving Laptop Battery Power [print this page] Some people have overcome this shortcoming by buying extra batteries and external power sources. However, this can be a pricey option. There are a number of simple ways you can improve your laptop battery to give you more running time.
The ever-increasing processor power and graphical fidelity of notebooks is one of the main obstacles against effective battery life. Despite battery technology having progressed over the years, resource hogging applications can severely limit the lifespan and charge of a laptop battery. Where a typical battery in a notebook today can last anywhere from three to four hours, one which is powering a notebook running these programs can be limited to a fraction of its running time. The use of various methods can culminate in increasing battery life.
Power management options in Windows, known as Power Options, are a great way to draw less battery power and add to your running time between charges. The power options give you the ability to control your hardware activity, set sleep and hybrid sleep options and take advanced measures to control your laptop battery usage. Vista gives you much more control over how your laptop battery will be used than previous Windows operating system. However, Windows XP also gives you a comprehensive way to save your laptop battery power.
Listening CD or watching DVD in one of the major causes of laptop battery drain. There are tremendous amounts of mechanical process that occur to spin the disk in your CD/DVD drive. Keep these drives empty by copying the movies and songs to your hard drive. The movies can be loaded without into your RAM without the need for battery consuming CD/DVD hardware.
A messy filing system can spell murder for your laptop battery. Your CPU needs your laptop battery power to keep all files on your computer active. Even unwanted files need your computer's resources. Remove temporary files, unnecessary programs and other clutter to cut down on laptop battery power consumption. A good Defrag schedule will also reduce the clutter and require your computer to work less to find files. The more efficient your computer's performance is the more efficient your power usage.
Ram acts as temporary storage for data. This takes a tremendous load of your computer CPU and hard disk. Ram makes it possible to use less processing power and reduces the need to constantly read data off your hard disk. This in turn reduces the amount of battery power consumed by your computer. Savvy Vista users know that the more gigs you have of RAM the less bulky and resource demanding the O.S. is on your processor.
Set your computer to stand by when it has been idle for a specific amount of time. To set the computer to stand by, go to the "Start" menu and select "Control Panel." Select "Power Options" and click on the "Power Schemes" tab. select the amount of time you want your computer to wait before going on standby.
Control the programs that run at startup. You may not be aware that these programs are running in the background. Go to the "Start" menu, and click on "Run." Type in "msconfig" and click "OK." Click on the "Startup" tab and choose which program you want to run at startup and which programs to uncheck. For example, you want your virus protection to start up right away, but you may not need QuickTime.
