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Battery Life

How to Take Care of your laptop battery and Increase it's life

As soon as the laptop is built, the clock begins ticking on its lifespan. At most, a laptop battery can last around three years. However, if the battery is not cared for properly, you may find yourself needing to replace it after just one or two years. Purchasing a new laptop battery is an expensive investment; exercise proper care to maximize its lifespan.

 

Instructions
Step 1 Avoid using your laptop on plush surfaces or carpets, which prevent air from entering and leaving the unit freely. All of the laptop's components must remain cool for the longest possible lifespan, and this includes the battery.
 

Step 2 Avoid using the laptop on battery power until the laptop is completely dead. When lithium-ion batteries are allowed to discharge completely, their maximum capacity can be permanently reduced.

Step 3 Remove the battery from the laptop if the laptop is connected to a reliable power source and will remain so for an extended period. When a laptop is running on AC power, the battery is regularly "topped off" by the charger. This keeps the battery within higher temperature ranges than it should be stored at, and the repeated "top-off" charges cause wear.

Step 4 Store the laptop in a comfortable room-temperature environment when it is not being used. High temperatures will cause the maximum capacity of the battery to be decreased, even when the battery is not in use.

Step 5 Avoid placing the laptop battery into long-term storage with a completely full or empty charge. If the battery will not be used for a prolonged period, place it into a zip-top plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator charged to about 40 percent of its maximum capacity.

 

How to extend the laptop battery life.

Instructions:
Step 1 Eliminate any extra programs running in the background. Although these applications can't be seen, they are still using energy to run.

Step 2 Dim your screen to the lowest level tolerable. A bright screen uses a significant amount of power.

Step 3 Avoid leaving CD's or DVD's in your drives. When you start your computer up these disks take up valuable power being read and loaded. Every tiny bit of power counts.

Step 4 Keep your laptop battery connections clean. Dirty or corroded contacts can drain power even when your laptop isn't currently on.

Step 5 Add more RAM to your laptop. This will help you use "real memory" instead or virtual memory. Virtual memory uses more hard drive and energy space. Adding additional RAM can be expensive, but is a great way to extend the battery life of your laptop.