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Get the Most Out of Your Laptop's Battery
Article by David Hobson
A Gizmo addict acknowledges that the most unprotected component of their laptop is purely and simply the battery. Although nearly all of the laptop battery producers brag of producing batteries which are capable of lasting for up to five to six hours, they neglect to stress that such life can be afforded solely when you apply it in the most idealistic stipulations.
Therefore our batteries come up short of supplying our laptops with the necessary power more and more often. The cause is simplistic - we do not recognise how to use it judiciously to lengthen its life.The following tips are aimed at helping you get the most out of your battery.
1. Apply the Power-Saving Option
All laptops have a power-saving setting in the control panel. Applying this setting assists to cease the uninvited use of varied parts such as the disc drive, screen etc. In addition to bringing down the time limit for your screensaver approximately one minute aids a lot.
2. No Externals
Do not use a mouse with your laptop, use the built in one instead this reduces the usage on your battery. Another tip is to use headphones as they take up less power than your laptops speakers..
3. Turn Off the Internet
If your laptop has wi-fi then, when you're not using it, turn it off so its not using your battery trying to find a connection you're not using.
4. Daily Defragmentation
Daily defragmentation of the hard disc has 2 visible benefits. First, it accelerates your processor, and second, it keeps all the files in order reducing the time in locating files.
5. Shut Down Processes
You're not compelled to use all the processes whilst using your laptop. So shut down all the processes which bring an uninvited load on the laptop.
6. Clean the Battery
Keep cleaning, applying a cotton bud, the metal contacts of your battery at least once a month. Getting rid of the dirt betters the flow of energy.
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by Jantu 10th March 2009
Excellent suggestions. I'm making a copy to put next to my laptop. I would like to add that, despite dire warnings from battery makers, I keep mine plugged in all the time. Mostly I use my laptop at home so using the battery seems silly. The battery I keep plugged in is now 5 years old and has no problems.
Thanks for that.........
Can you tell me how I can turn of some programs in startup please? I am running Vista.
Point number 5 eludes me. Does anyone know which processes are safe to turn off?
For LadyP
This is how to turn off programs in startup in Vista.
Click the Tools button, and then click Software Explorer.
In the Category box, click Startup Programs.
Select the program that you want to prevent from running, and then click Disable. Click Yes to confirm that you want to stop that program from running. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for every program you want stop from running.
Alpha Girl - If you have webcam tools on your computer but don't use the webcam, turn those off - they take a lot of memory. My best advice is: if you dont know what it does then dont turn it off.
Every computer has a different set of applications running so there is no real list of what you can and can't turn off. Although if you don't know what a certain application does, then chances are it is important to the computer running properly. --> Some programs (like MSN) can be set to run on startup. If you don't need these, turn them off and change the settings so they don't open when your computer starts and that will help speed up your Start Up speed too.
I am so glad that I found this site as I have a new lap top and am trying to work it so much information that I will be able to use.
Jemma
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