Extend Your Laptop Battery Life

You can make your laptop run longer on its battery by turning off or reduce all the things that expend power in your computer. If you are going on a long trip, or just taking your laptop to a local coffee shop, use these tips to help your laptop’s battery power last longer.

1. Switch off the wireless card if you do not plan to access your network or Internet connection.
2. Turn the volume level down, or mute it, if you do not plan to use it.
3. Reduce the LCD’s brightness level.
4. Disable Bluetooth.
5. Learn to single-task. PC memory that is in-use takes more power to hold data. Also, using more memory might mean using more swap or virtual memory space on your laptop’s hard drive. All of this puts an additional drain on your laptop’s battery.
6. Run simple applications that don’t use much RAM, disk drive or processing power.
7. Avoid extreme temperatures
8. Use the power management settings on your computer that come built in.
9. Unplug external devices such as a USB mouse or an external drive.
10. Shut down or hibernate the laptop rather than using standby, if you plan on not using it for a while. (However if you plan on using it soon, it’s better to be in stand-by than shutting down. Powering a laptop on consumes more energy.)
11. Defrag your hard drive.
12. Avoid using a CD or DVD.
13. Turn off unused ports.
14. Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles.
15. Use a cooling pad when using a notebook computer on your lap.
16. Avoid propping your laptop on a pillow, blanket, or other soft. (By blocking the ventilation fans heat builds up which is not good for the battery or the laptop.)