Extending Laptop Battery Life

Ka Edong mentioned about his friend who was able to extend his laptop battery life up to 9 freakin’s hours!

In the last 7 days that I’ve been spending most of my time at coffee shops and wifi hotspots to do some work, I found it very uncomfortable to work because of the restrictions on my laptop’s battery life. Two and a half hours on full charge can’t do you much really.

So, I’m eager to learn how Ka Edong’s friend tweaked his laptop to last that long and I’m glad he posted the power-saving settings just a couple of hours ago.

Here are some additional tips I found online:

Rechargeable batteries will give you their longest charge when you’ve fully discharged and recharged them several times in a row. It may be a pain, but a day or so before your trip, let your laptop run until the system shuts down. Then recharge it and, if you have time, discharge and recharge it a second time, preferably overnight.
Save power by turning off wireless networking, removing PC cards and floppy or CD drives when you are not using them.
Tunr monitor brightness to a comfortable low level and set it to turn off when not in use after 5 minutes.
Use your laptop’s Hibernate feature instead of shutting down. Standby and Hibernate both save you from having to log off and shut down to save power when you quit using your PC for a few minutes, a few hours, or longer. Many PC users don’t understand the difference between Standby and Hibernate, and when to use each of them. Typically, if you plan to be away from your computer for a short while during your workday, put your computer on Standby, which places your entire system in a low-power state. Hibernate puts PCs into an even deeper sleep than Standby mode. Put your computer in Hibernate when you will be away from the computer for an extended time or overnight.
Use standby when not actively using your laptop (like talking on the phone or going to the CR). Standby does not automatically save your data like Hibernation before powering down your PC. You should save your documents before putting the computer on Standby. From a user’s point of view, Standby can be compared to a screensaver that starts after 5 minutes or so. The difference is that screensavers donâ€™t reduce noise or save energy. A screensaver doesnâ€™t extend battery life on your laptopâ€”Standby does.
Turn off the speaker volume or avoid listening to music directly from your laptop. Use your iPod if you have one.
Avoid connecting other accessories into your laptop like a wirelessmouse, an iPod, USB light, etc.

The next best thing I would like to do is get a secondary laptop battery or maybe one of those cool 8-hour battery extender.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

11 Comments

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12 years ago

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12 years ago

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13 years ago

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laptop battery dell says:

14 years ago

Good tips for us. Thank you for sharing. I would like to know about laptop battery.
- Reply
josh says:

18 years ago

sorry about the broken link – here is it again.
http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptopbattery
- Reply
josh says:

18 years ago

Every laptop that I have ever had has had a battery issue. The best solution that I have found is just to replace the battery when needed (every couple of years) and the best place I have found to do that is http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptopbattery. They are brand new batteries for affordable prices, I highly recommend checking it out.
- Reply
markku says:

19 years ago

j4son, how many hours can you get from your acer? Care to post the model and specs, so everyone can avoid it when they get one? :)
- Reply
j4s0n says:

19 years ago

my acer sucks. i’ll never gonna buy an Acer laptop again… mine, i’m planning to buy a new laptop than buying a spare battery for this.
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Miguel says:

19 years ago

True you can plug in other places… but another benefit of GJ Cubao is that there’s usually nobody there!
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J. Angelo Racoma says:

19 years ago

Most cafes I’ve visited allowed me to plug in–Figaro, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, GJ. The limitation, though, is you have to find a table near the plug. But I usually sit elsewhere and just ask the manager to reserve the table, so I can transfer when the previous occupants leave.

At any rate, my (pretty old) laptop has two battery slots (one shared with the CD-port), and I can actually extend the life to six to seven hours with an extra batt. But really, three hours is good enough for me to work on. By then I’ll most likely be able to find an outlet to plug into.

And most branded laptops nowadays allow let you purchase an extended batt. So if a Centrino laptop can last you 4 to 5 hours with the standard batt, you can probably get up to 8 hours with an extended one.

BTW, GJ Megamall now has AA.
- Reply
Miguel says:

19 years ago

Or look for a coffee shop where they let you plug. One place is Gloria Jean’s Cubao (Shopwise), which has Airborne Access.

Far from Abe’s territory though.
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