Thursday, June 18, 2009

How to Increase the Battery Life of your Laptop

One of the biggest advantages of using a laptop is the ability to save energy. Because your laptop has a battery that can last over an hour you can carry wherever you wanted to. But how can you save energy if your laptop remains to your wall outlet because it cannot last longer than an hour? Here are several tips on how to increase the battery life of your Laptop.
  1. Darken the screen: Your laptop screen is found to be the most power-hungry component in your laptop. Your laptop screen needs high amount of battery power to maintain its clear and luminous display. To preserve this power you can adjust it’s brightness to a low level. Just good enough to our eyes.
  2. Modify the power settings: Windows Vista powered laptop comes with several outstanding power features. It can help you get the most proficient performance when your laptop is plugged and optimize its life when it’s on the move.
  3. Turn off Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is among the greatest battery power eater. It weakens your laptop’s battery from perpetually absorbing power from the battery even if you’re not online. If you are using your laptop outside from the wireless network it is more advisable to just turn off your Wi-Fi to save some power. If your laptop doesn’t have a function button to switch on or off your wireless adapter you can just go to control panel, access the Network Connections and disable it from there.
  4. Switch off peripheral devices: USB sticks, mouse and webcams are the primary offenders in sucking out your batteries life. Utilizing USB devices also contributes in draining your laptop’s power, disconnecting it when not in use, ejecting your devices as soon as possible and switching off your laptop’s inbuilt webcam can help conserve your laptop’s precious power.
  5. Invest in some computer hardware: Usually laptops come with a six cell-battery, but a lot of makers today already provides eight or even 12-cell elective upgrades, which will definitely double your power. If you can afford it then why not invest more, in the long run you will be surprise on how much energy and money you save just by investing on the right piece.
  6. Disable features: Windows Vista has got new features, but most of them prove to be needless by an ordinary user or even to some expert users. One good example is the Windows Aero, switching it off not only it will help you save a small amount of power but it will also make your laptop more proficient.