How to Maximize Average Laptop Battery Life

The average laptop battery life is a very close concern for every professional. Suppose that you are in a company for your professional or academic presentation, accompanied by an intense amount of preparation so that you could exhibit the maximum of your skills. When you reach the conference hall, after a long journey, a huge audience is there with amused eyes. What would be your expression if you observe that the battery of your laptop will die in minutes? If you are a passionate professional, it is the biggest chaos you will ever find in your life. Even though people keep the maximum amount of charge in their devices before going for such an event, even some accidental issues might cause the mentioned chaos. Hence, wouldn’t it be a good decision to try some ways to maximize the average battery life of your laptop? If you agree with us, you may try implementing the following tips in your device and experience a useful difference.

When we buy cheap laptops, how long does a laptop battery last? The battery life of such laptops is not as good as the high-end laptops. The estimated average battery life of the continuously used laptop is around 3.5 to 4 hours and this short period is mainly due to the modern graphic-intensive operating systems and applications.

Tips to Improve Average Laptop Battery Life

1. Low Down the Brightness

The first basic step to be taken to minimize the power usage is to reduce the brightness of the backlight, this will be helpful to improve the average laptop battery life. Adjust the brightness to the lowest tolerable range with the help of the Display Settings tool in the Control Panel. You can also click the Change advanced power settings option to set the level of brightness when the laptop is in the dimmed state. A laptop can often get 20 percent or more battery life by saving power through this method.

An additional task you can do is to select an appropriate place for work i.e. working in a normal bright room with low backlight is more preferable than working in a too bright environment with low backlight, which may even get those ugly specs to your eyes.

2. Switch Off the Screensaver

Although with less amount of contribution in battery saving, switching off the screensaver of a laptop may do a little in increasing battery life.

3. Defragmentation: Two Way Beneficial

This effectively works out in two ways: minimizing power usage and hard drive maintenance. The periodic defragmentation of data helps in quick access to the data by simultaneously reducing the work of the hard drive. The quicker the moving hard drive works lesser is the load placed on the battery.

4. Weed Out Suckers to Improve Average Laptop Battery Life

Wash out the unnecessary programs running in the taskbar. Bring up the Windows Task Manager (in Windows) through Ctrl-Alt-Del and end up the tasks that are not in use. A better option is to launch the System Configuration Utility from Run “msconfig”, select Tab: Startup and uncheck the programs which you don’t wish to launch.

Web browsers are particularly prone to this problem due to the multiple plugins and rendering engines. You must also confirm that Windows Update and other software updates are not attempting to download large software patches. Disabling automatic Windows Update functions outright makes no sense, but periodically checking on your network usage for unexplained spikes may stop large file transfers.

5. Chuck Sleep, Just Hibernate

Unlike sleep mode, the hibernation mode shuts the laptop completely down after saving the current status. Whereas the sleep mode, along with turning off the display and hard drive, lets the memory active while the processor slows down.

6. Temperature Matters

Temperature is a silent and unexpected killer. Prevent your laptop from getting in contact with direct sunlight. The extreme heat kills off the battery slowly. But, that doesn’t mean it must be kept somewhere in a cold place. Both, extremely high or extremely low temperature is equally dangerous to the laptop and its battery life.

7. Run in Updated Versions

It is but obvious that the newly designed and launched software and applications are often efficient and less resource consuming. Hence, use newer versions or keep on regularly updating the system.

8. Charge Up to Increase the Average Laptop Battery Life

When a computer is unplugged, running down its battery completely before recharging may extend battery life. A full initial charge is a must. A new laptop battery should always be charged for 24-hours in its first use. After its use, ensure the charge is up to 40% and pack it up. Also, you may remove the battery if not in use for a long period of time and do not forget to charge it full when the battery is back in the laptop.

It is commonly mistaken that the laptops left plugged into AC power shorten the battery life. The myth is lithium cells used in modern laptops will either catch fire or explode if overcharged which is totally false. It is very important when considering buying a laptop what type of battery is provided. When we buy cheap laptops, battery life is not as good as the high end laptops. Some laptops have a great battery life so while buying you’ve to choose a laptop wisely. Lithium ion batteries stop charging once they reach full capacity. If it’s not a Li-ion battery, the process of full discharge and recharge of the battery, at least monthly, is suggested.

9. Unplug External Devices

Surprisingly, the externally plugged devices, especially USB devices are the biggest power consumers. Begin disabling unnecessary wireless capabilities such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and built-in data modems along with external mouse and speakers, attached iPod and even other PC cards. Depending on your laptop model, you may be able to use Device Manager to disable unnecessary devices and ports. Also, never leave any CD/DVD in the drives. Such leftovers consume in a high proportion of battery power.

10. Mute the Sounds

Turn off the speakers when not needed. The installed sound schemes also suck the battery; thus, minimize the use of multimedia applications.

11. Shift to Local

Avoid the usage of files directly on the external drives. Rather transfer the data to the hard drive of your laptop or run using virtual drives. This reduces the plugging of external drives to your device, hence minimizing the battery power usage.

12. Go for More RAM

An appropriate quantity of RAM in your device decreases the load on the hard drive. Consequently, this shortens the access to the power consuming hard drive. Even though an extra bit of RAM eats up more power, the amount consumed is compensated by the reduced access to the hard drive.

13. Fight the Memory Effect

The problem of memory effect is basically for the Ni-MH batteries- based old laptops. The term relates to the loss of battery charge when it’s repeatedly recharged after partially being discharged. Thus, in order to overcome the problem, the battery must initially be fully discharged and then later, completely recharged.

14. Work on the Least

The minimal use of graphic intensive applications will definitely contribute to boosting up the battery life. Working on MS word or spreadsheet rather than simply passing the time on games may help in one or the other way. It’s better to work only on one or two programs at a time.

The last and the best way is to visit Power options in the Control Panel. Most laptops have special green settings that cut down on power usage while extending battery life. The Power Options menu offers both simple and advanced settings that include in brief all the plans mentioned above.

Conclusion – How to Improve Average Laptop Battery Life

Practicing all these habits on a regular basis will give the battery in your laptop a long and prosperous life. Get it down in your schedule very this moment and let your laptop live a happy and healthy life. Do you know any other ways to maximize laptop battery life? Share with us in the form of comments below.