With a laptop, you can work anywhere you want—from a coffee shop to a park bench. But when your battery dies, you’d better have an outlet handy. Here are thirteen ways you can make your laptop’s battery last longer while you’re working remotely.
Keep your screen dim. A bright screen can drain your battery. Turn your screen brightness down as low as you can without having to squint at your screen. For each level of brightness, you could save as much as ten minutes of battery life.
Turn down your screen resolution. Lowering your screen resolution and colour depth can lessen the demand on your battery as well. Look in “Display” in the control panel for the screen resolution settings.
Turn off devices you’re not using. Many laptops come equipped with hardware such as Bluetooth radios, Ethernet adapters, and other devices. These programs are often switched on automatically and will run in the background even when you aren’t using them. Go into your control panel and check under “System/Hardware/Device Manager” to see if any of your extra hardware is running—and shut it off if you don’t need it on.
Defragment your hard drive regularly. You may have noticed that your computer runs faster after it’s been defragmented. That’s because defragmenting your hard drive reorganizes all the files stored there so that they can be used more efficiently. The more quickly and efficiently your computer can access and activate files, the less battery power you’ll use to get things done.
Run one program at a time. The more programs you have running, the more quickly your battery will run down. To save battery life, run only one program at a time and turn off programs you aren’t using at the moment. If you must have music playing while you work, bring an Mp3 player instead of listening to the music on your computer.
Optimize your laptop for power usage. Most laptops have a “power options” setting under Control Panel that will change your computer’s settings automatically to maximize your battery performance.
Take care of your battery. Don’t leave your laptop battery in a place where it will be exposed to extreme temperatures or direct sunlight. These things can damage the battery over time. Keep your battery in a cool place when not in use.
Some applications use less power than others. An application that’s high on graphics and sound—like a video game—will use a lot more battery power than a simple application like Word or an email program. If you want to save your battery power, choose the programs you’re using carefully.
Use hibernate—not standby. Standby mode still uses power. Hibernate saves your system settings as they are—and then switches off the power. If you’re going to be away for your computer for any length of time, set it to hibernate instead of standby.
Avoid using your disc drive. CD and DVD drives use a lot of power. Even when you’re not using the disc, your drive will spin and drain power from your battery if there is a disc in your drive. If you’re working remotely, save the information you’re using on disc to your hard drive and use it from there.
Turn off automatic functions. Automatic functions such as autosave can drain your battery life. If you need to conserve power, turn off all automatic functions including autosave for Word and Excel.
Train your battery to hold a charge. When you first buy your computer, you can “teach” your battery how much power it can hold by charging it completely, letting it lose its charge, and then charging it completely again. After this, you should let your battery charge reach 100% before unplugging and using it whenever possible. Go through this process, and most laptop batteries will hold a charge longer.
Remove your battery when you don’t need it. If you’re using your laptop while it’s plugged into a power source and you’re not charging your battery, take it out of your computer. Most laptop batteries have a finite number of charge cycles, and your battery will continue to charge itself when your computer is plugged in—which can reduce its lifespan.
Laptops are convenient and portable—but only when you can depend on a decent battery life. Take these steps to make the most efficient use possible of your power supply, and you’re less likely to run out of power when you need
Thirteen Ways to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer