When customers visit our store to pick up a battery, a lot of them are disappointed the life span of their original battery and ask “How can I preserve or extend the life of my battery?”

Laptop batteries don’t last forever. If you’re working away from an electrical outlet, your batteries will get drained eventually. Making your batteries last in between charging not only allows you to do more work, it also helps your laptop and batteries last longer. By consuming less energy, there will be less wear and tear on the laptop. Here are some things you can do to help get more out of laptop’s battery.

Laptop Battery Saving Tips

Keep your laptop cool. Heat is your battery’s main enemy. Avoid using your laptop on cushions or mattresses. As much as possible, elevate your laptop to expose the air vents and keep them clean to allow air to circulate and make heat dispersal faster.

Remove your flash drives or any attached hardware which is not being used. If possible, use the touchpad instead of a mouse.

Remove any spyware or adware that has been installed on any of your laptop computers. You can download anti-spyware or adware programs from the internet to remove these malicious programs. A lot of start-up programs, like MS Office, iTunes or Adobe Updater, are often unnecessary and just drain the battery. To stop unnecessary programs from opening every time you turn on your laptop, use the MSConfig program installed in your laptop or download Start-Up Manager programs from the internet.

If you are not using the internet, turn off Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.

Set your power option to power saving if you are running on battery. This will make your monitor a little dimmer but you’ll hardly notice the difference.

Avoid using multimedia programs if you’re using only your batteries. Multimedia programs, like watching videos or photo editing programs, consume more energy because the hard drive has to work harder. Wait until you have access to an electrical outlet before running these programs.

The more programs are open, the harder the processor and the hard drive have to work. Avoid opening programs you don’t need. Close programs as soon as you’re done using them.

Any laptop computers which won’t be used for more than an hour, are best turned off. Sleep mode or hibernate mode still consumes more energy than a laptop that’s completely turned off.

If you are using your laptop at home for an extended period of time and will be plugged into an outlet for days or weeks at a time, you can remove the battery and store it for short periods of time. 2 to 3 weeks and then put it back in your laptop. This will keep the battery inactive and extend the overall life expectancy of your battery.

Laptop Centre Inc. is committed to empowering our customers with information to assist in improving your laptop or mobile device experience. If you need more information regarding laptop batteries, contact a Laptop Centre Sales/Service Representative.