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Extending Life of Your Laptop Battery

2:08 am by rajeshmago in Laptop

Laptop batteries nowadays are made of Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion). Previously laptop batteries were made of NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) or Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH). All types of laptop batteries costs and thus it makes sense to conserve them as long as you can. Here are some of the basic yet important tips that will help your laptop battery last longer.

1. Full Charging and Discharging: Charge your laptop battery fully and discharge it fully too. It is applicable only for NiCad and NiMH batteries (NiMH batteries being better than NiCad in terms of less maintenance and better technology). Don’t charge the laptops with NiCad and NiMH batteries after a small usage, wait till the battery reaches 10% power backup and then charge.

2. Use Operating System Power Management: To reduce load on laptop battery, use power management features such as hard disk, local network card, Wi-Fi, display etc. power off in case of inactivity. Avoid playing DVD’s, running video files, data transfer and other heavy load tasks when the laptop is on battery.

3. No to Extreme temperatures and Harsh environment: Don’t leave your laptop with batteries in extreme hot, cold conditions and tough environment. E.g.: In open sunlight with very hot conditions, snowy weather, cold waves and rain.

4. No Overheating: If you work in an environment where the power rarely goes or you have a power backup facility, then plug out your laptop battery and keep it in your laptop bag separately. You can use it when you feel that the battery backup is required. Also, use the battery once in a month till it discharges completely. (For NiCad and NiMH batteries only).

5. Use Branded Batteries: Always use branded batteries of good reputed companies. Don’t use local, bad quality batteries as it may damage your laptop. The money saved by buying low quality unbranded batteries isn’t worth it as you might have to spend a lot in laptop repairs due to poor power supply from the inferior battery that might damage your laptop electronic parts. Take bill of the branded battery, check its warranty and verify its genuineness.

6. Cleaning Battery Contacts: Clean the battery contacts at the battery and laptop end once in few months. Use cotton with slight isopropyl alcohol to clean the deposit on the battery and at battery pins at laptop. It leads to better conductivity and current flow. Oh! don’t forget to disconnect the power supply to the laptop when cleaning the battery connectors at the laptop side.

7. Use Prescribed Power Cord: In case of any change in the original power cord of the laptop, check the laptop manual and buy the suggested power cord only. This ensures proper supply and a quality cord that doesn’t break or get short circuit in normal use.

8. Discharge and Disconnect In Case of Long Non Usage: If you are not going to use laptop for few days, then discharge the battery fully and disconnect it.

9. Take Proper Care: Treat your laptop battery nicely; don’t mishandle it carelessly by dropping, throwing, letting the children play or accidentally pouring coffee, tea or water on it. If you take care of your laptop battery it will also take care of your laptop :).

Hope that you use these tips to increase age of your laptop battery. Did you find them useful?

Cheers!

Rajesh Mago

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13 Comments »

1. Hi Rajesh,
   They sound like really useful tips.
   Keep going - I’m sure you’re benefitting readers!
   Cheers,
   Sonika

   Comment by Sonika — January 27, 2008 @ 9:05 am

2. a. Dim your screen - Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.
   b. Defrag regularly - The faster your hard drive does its work - less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.

   —————————————————————————

   Hi Aitian,

   Thanks for adding two more useful tips. They are good and meaningul to the post.

   Rajesh Mago

   Comment by batteries — April 9, 2008 @ 1:10 am

3. Cut down external devices - USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

   ———————————————————————————-

   Hi Aitian,

   Yes you are right. On battery mode, cutting down external devices without whom you can still manage to work can definitely save the battery power.

   Thanks for your useful tips.

   Rajesh

   Comment by laptop — April 9, 2008 @ 1:11 am

4. thanks,Other small improvements in battery life may be gained by the ability to turn off USB ports individually to save power.

   Comment by tool battery — May 12, 2008 @ 1:21 am

5. There are several steps you can take to help you get maximum performance from your laptop battery: Prevent Memory Effect - Keep the laptop battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks.

   Comment by batteries — June 4, 2008 @ 9:43 pm

6. There are several steps you can take to help you get maximum performance from your laptop battery: Prevent Memory Effect - Keep the laptop battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks.

   Comment by laptop battery — June 10, 2008 @ 1:14 am

7. Thanks for the link. Sounds like interesting read

   Comment by promosyon canta — July 31, 2008 @ 7:21 am

8. Either I’m confused or something isn’t clear (which would actually lead me to be confused so… i guess i’m confused).
   What I don’t understand is if the memory effect is applicable to li-ion batteries or only the older nickel ones.
   Is there any benefit to charging and completely discharging a li-ion battery?

   Comment by zak weigensberg — August 1, 2008 @ 9:49 am

9. Hi Zak,

   Thanks for putting up your confusion of memory effect. Yes, you are right that the memory effect is valid for old NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) and Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries and not for Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries.

   There is no point of fully discharging the Li-Ion batteries, it is valid for NiCad and Ni-MH batteries only.

   I have edited my post and made it more clearer on Li-Ion and NiCad batteries.

   Thanks for pointing it out.

   Regards,

   Rajesh Mago

   Comment by rajeshmago — August 1, 2008 @ 12:02 pm

10. Your blog is interesting!

    Keep up the good work!

    Comment by Alex — August 16, 2008 @ 8:30 am

11. Interesting…I wait untill the battery is completely dead and take it out for a month. Then i plug in the mains and leave it on overnight switched off and this always doubles my battery life !!

    Comment by Laptop Repairs — August 31, 2008 @ 1:57 pm

12. ketchum id…

    I discovered your site on faves.com bookmarking site…I like it and gave it a fave for you, I’ll be checking back regularly…

    Trackback by ketchum id — September 8, 2008 @ 2:18 am

13. @ketchum:

    Thanks a lot for your appreciation of my site and giving it a fave on faves.com.

    Comment by rajeshmago — September 8, 2008 @ 9:17 am

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  Glad to be finally Administrator of my own blog after working as a Network and System Administrator for many IT Companies in past :). Sex: Male, Marital Status: Married and still happy with my wife and two beautiful children, Nationality: Does it Matter? (BTW: I am an Indian). Thanks. Check "About" for more details.
• Rajesh Mago
  I am Rajesh Mago, the Administrator of this blog. I reside in New Delhi, India. I have years of experience of installing and maintaining computer hardware, networking, system software and application software and am here to share my experiences. I have worked with some reputed IT companies (CMS, HCL and SIFY) in my industry work tenure and am freelancing from 2003.