Rob Leane explores the ways to make your portable computer last a little longer
Our laptops are supposed to let us work, play and communicate on the go. The ability to carry a powerful PC around in our backpacks should allow us to get a whole lot of stuff done when we’re away from home or work – but, of course, this isn’t always the case.
After a while, laptop batteries seem to flunk out on us. We’re often left with a device that only works for a few hours away from a power supply. In a worst case scenario, our laptop’s lifespan gets so limited that it barely seems to work at all without being plugged into a wall socket. That renders the whole idea of owning a laptop a little bit pointless, doesn’t it?
If this infuriating phenomenon affects you, fear not! We went looking for ways to squeeze a little more life out of your laptop. Our rigorous research threw up lots of possibilities – some are short term, some are long term, all are effective.
These are the top tips we found, then, to help make your laptop’s battery last longer…
Care For Your Battery
This may sound a little hippy-ish, but forgive us for that; it really is important to care for your battery. The better you look after your portable power supply, the more you’ll get out of it. From the first time you switch on a new laptop, there are a few things you can do to ensure the effectiveness of its battery.
Back when we all had the older-style batteries (one’s that weren’t lithium-ion), you probably heard the sage piece of advice about discharge. The idea was, essentially, that it was important to wear down a battery from 100% charge to 0% charge in order to preserve its longevity. If you’re still using an older laptop, we’d advise you to continue following that pearl of wisdom. Once your laptop is fully charged, use the entire battery before plugging it in again.
For the newer lithium-ion batteries, the advice given isn’t exactly the same. It’s not as important to completely discharge down to zero, but it is still vital to actually use your battery. There’s nothing worse for a battery than mistreating it: if you leave your laptop plugged in all the time, the battery’s effectiveness will be severely lessened when you actually have to use it.
If you use a laptop to work at home, at an office or anywhere else with a constantly available power supply, it’s very tempting to leave your laptop plugged in at all times. This is a bad idea, though – the circuits will get overworked, and the power bar will diminish very quickly when you eventually unplug the laptop and try to use it on the go.
Most laptops – and their batteries – are designed for use without additional power. They want to be charged up and then worn down. They don’t want to be plugged in for a month and then only sparingly unplugged for the occasional train journey. If you’ve already made the fatal error of leaving your laptop plugged in for too long, you might want to invest in a new battery and try treating the new one a bit better. Actually use it, rather than relying on the plug socket.
If you’ve already fried your laptop’s battery and can’t afford to invest in a new one, there are a few ways you can extend its unplugged lifespan. Here are some ideas that might help…
Eject What You Can
Anything you plug into your laptop will sap away at its battery. A portable mouse, an extra keyboard, a second screen; connecting to any of these additional devices will wear down your laptop battery’s charge. The advice here is simple: eject what you can.
If you can work without the additional mouse, eject it and preserve your battery power. If the extra-ergonomic second keyboard you carry around isn’t actually vital to your working process, don’t bother with it. And if you’re carrying around a second monitor everywhere you go… Well, what are you playing at? Save yourself the effort and do your battery a favour.
Every port on every laptop takes power to use, after all. Whether it’s a HDMI cable, a USB flash drive or a chunky projector input you’re connecting – you’re using a portion of your laptop battery’s power to keep the connection alive. This might only make a tiny difference, but we all know how important a few minutes can be when you need to get work done and there isn’t a plug socket in sight.
Discs can have an adverse effect on your power supply too. If there’s a CD, DVD or game disc whirring around within your laptop, there’s power being wasted. Simply put – eject that circular disc of doom if you’re not actually using it at the moment. Again, it might only make a minimal difference, but every little helps in this game.
Essentially, the point we’re getting at here is to only use what you actually need at any given time. You’re wasting laptop battery every minute that you have stuff plugged in that you don’t need. That USB drive, that snazzy mouse, that unwanted birthday present CD you were too polite to leave at your mum’s house – they’re all chipping away at your battery unless you eject them. Even if you do have to use a disc or a USB for work purposes, you could always copy and paste the files onto your desktop and eject the power drain ASAP.
For the particularly savvy operators out there, you might even want to go into your settings and deactivate any drives that you aren’t using at the moment. That’ll save you from a few more power drainages. Unless you’re using some massively obscure or highly modified laptop, it’s probably quite easy to do this. For some more simple power saving tips, read on…
Check Your Power Settings
So you’ve treated your battery right and you’ve ejected all the unnecessary power drainages in sight. What else can you do to extend that laptop’s battery life? Well, one of the simplest solutions can be found by checking your settings.
Whichever brand of laptop you’re using, it’s normally pretty easy to find your battery settings, ‘energy saver’ settings or whatever your laptop of choice chooses to name them. You can find directions online if you’re struggling to find the necessary settings page. Once you’re in, you’ll find a few simple ways to extend your battery life.
You can tell your laptop to automatically dim the display when the battery gets low. You can ask it to put unused disks to sleep when possible. And you can set your laptop to power down when it’s not used for a specified period of time. If you’re the type (like me), who gets easily distracted by your phone, other humans, things on the floor, open windows or pretty much anything in sight, you might find that setting a very short timeout limit will extend your battery life significantly.
You might also want to adjust your screen resolution, which is easily accessible on most laptops these days. A lower resolution will gobble up less power, as will lessening the screen brightness and switching off any fancy keyboard backlighting options you might have.
Backlit keys might look trendy and make you feel futuristic and cool, but they’re an unnecessary power drain if you happen to be in a well-lit room at the same time as you’re using them. Save the fancy futuristic feeling for when you really need it (or when you’re plugged into a power supply), and your laptop battery will thank you.
Indeed, most laptops will allow you to have different default settings for battery power and plugged-in power – adjust your battery power settings to be as strict as possible, and you’ll soon be reaping the benefits of an extended battery life. Do you really need the highest resolution, the brightest display, backlit keys and an ever-awake screen at all times? If you don’t, well, just don’t.
Limit What You Use
This might sound obvious – but it’s important to limit what you use if you want to get more battery life from your laptop. The more programmes you run, the more effort your laptop has to exert to keep them going. The same goes for tabs and processes; if you’re running more stuff than you need to, your laptop’s battery has to bear the burden.
Our advice is simple, then. You should only use what you need at any given time. If you’re working on a spreadsheet, focus on that. Don’t have a million other things open at the same time. Don’t have your browser running a thousand tabs at once, unless you genuinely need them. Don’t leave your calendar, notes, music, messaging and games apps open all at the same time. The more things you ask your laptop to do at once, the more power it will need to use.
Speaking of games, if you have a power-gobbling graphics card installed on your laptop for gaming purposes, deactivate it when you’re not using it. That type of thing can really burn through a battery, so you might need to make do without it when you’re not actively using it. Standard definition will have to do.
Equally, you could make little sacrifices with your connectivity to keep your battery running that little bit longer. If you’re not using the internet at the moment, you could turn of your laptop’s wi-fi capabilities altogether. The same goes for Bluetooth. By turning off these connective capabilities when you don’t need them, you’ll wring a little more life out of your laptop’s battery. And hey, switching off from the world might even make you a bit more productive.
Think twice before downloading something as well. Do you really need that massive file right now? If you do, fair enough. But if you don’t, you could save the effort until you’re home and plugged in. Downloading big files such as games, podcasts, music, films and computer programs can be a real drain on your battery power.
Extending your battery life – in the short term – is all about making good decisions. You could get yourself a few more minutes with that spreadsheet if you avoid making downloads, deactivate your wi-fi and avoid unnecessary multitasking. Make life easier for your laptop, and it will reward you with a better battery life.
It’s not all about the short term, though. We also have some long-term solutions…
Optional Upgrades
If you’re willing to invest a bit of dosh in your battery-extending mission, there are a few long-term solutions you could splash out on. Principal of the upgrades you might be tempted by is a bigger battery.
After all, a lot of laptops come with a six-cell battery as standard. Some manufacturers will offer an optional upgrade to eight-cell or even 12-cell power supplies. With a bigger battery, naturally, your laptop will last much longer. Prices vary wildly depending on which manufacturer you’re with, but many aren’t as expensive as you might expect. For example, you can get a 12-cell battery for a HP Pavilion laptop for under a tenner on Amazon right now. It’s worth having a quick check online to see how cheaply you could upgrade your battery and extend your laptop’s lifespan.
If you did invest in a second battery, you could then rotate it with your current one (unless your current one is completely useless). If you kept two batteries charged, your laptop could last twice as long when you’re on the go. Admittedly, this depends on you having a laptop where it’s easy to get in and switch batteries. That isn’t always the case these days.
Alternatively, products like Lenmar’s PowerPort and Kayo Maxtar’s Portable Charger offer an easy way to get more out of your laptop. These essentially function as backup batteries; you charge them up at home/work, carry them around, and plug them in to revive your laptop for a few hours when it dies a death out in the field.
As long as you can find one of these reusable ‘power pack’ products to match your laptop of choice, they can be very handy tools for those working on the go. When your laptop runs out of juice, simply connect your precharged power pack and keep working until it runs out. The effectiveness and price of these products varies from brand to brand, so we would advise you to undertake a little research before investing in one.
Another way to extend your battery life would be to install an SSD (solid-state drive) instead of the standard issue mechanical hard disk that plenty of laptops still come with. An SSD spins less and would therefore save you a little energy every time you use it. Perhaps that’s not the biggest fix in this article but, as we’ve said before, every little helps in this game.
Final Thoughts
All in all, then, there are many ways to extend your laptop’s battery life. Perhaps most importantly, you should care for the battery by letting it charge and discharge; don’t just leave it plugged in at all times.
There are also ways to make your laptop battery last longer by using your laptop more efficiently: close programs you’re not using, shut excess tabs, reduce the screen and keyboard brightness, and set a timeout limit to reduce pointless power wastage.
Additionally, hardware plays a large role in battery life. In terms of day-to-day use, you shouldn’t leave unnecessary accessories plugged in at all times. You could also choose to upgrade your hardware with a 12-cell battery, an SSD drive or an additional power pack that could give you the vital boost you need.
Whatever route you decide to take, there are plenty of ways to preserve battery life in laptops. Laptop batteries can annoying to the uninitiated, but once you’re using them in the right way, they’ll begin working for you, not against you.