HOW TO MAKE YOUR LAPTOP BATTERY LAST LONGER Leave a comment

Laptops are of great use when it comes to work, study and traveling. Laptop batteries do not last for long, especially for people who work on the go. Here are tips for extending the battery life of a laptop and keeping it up for more hours. These tips will be useful in maintaining some of the more expensive machines like MacBooks, Gaming Laptops and Hp Laptops whose batteries may not be easy to replace.

1. Avoid Working On Multiple Programs.

Most of us think that working efficiently means you multitask on your Excel sheets, Powerpoint and Adobe Photoshop. To some point it is helpful but also this will drain your battery as it puts a strain on your battery. Graphic-intensive applications drain batteries even faster. To increase your battery’s lifespan, ensure that you work simultaneously on one or two programs, maximum.

2. Remove The Battery When Near A Power Source.

An average laptop battery has about 600-700 charge cycles (one cycle is equal to a full charge and discharge). When near a power source, we advise that you remove the battery from your laptop and use the power adapter directly to power your laptop instead. Unplugging the battery and powering your laptop directly using the adapter helps keep the charge cycle count low, meaning your battery is healthier and will last for a long time.

3. Adjust The Display.

Adjusting a few minor display settings will help keep your laptop battery juiced up for much longer. Switch out your vibrant background for something with dark colours. Also, turning your brightness down as much as you can without it getting to the point where you are straining your eyes is another way of taking care of your battery. It must be nice turning on your laptop and seeing your family photos of the Christmas vacation, but it is draining your battery unnecessarily. Always ensure you use the original display background to save on energy. Another important display adjustment you can make is setting your screen to automatically turn off after a certain amount of time. These few adjustments will save on energy and increase your working hours when travelling or when operating your laptop in a place with no access to power or where you can not recharge your laptop.

4. Don’t Overcharge Your Laptop.

Keeping your laptop plugged into the charger all the time, even when you’re not using it, is a threat to your battery especially for MicroSoft Surface. Just like your smartphone, your laptop battery should never be at a 100% charge or 0% charge at all. Always ensure your laptop is not at 100% charge and should not die of no power. Keeping the battery charged between 50-80% is what we advise here at Phones and Tablets Kenya. We also advise you to always keep your laptop unplugged for the rest of the day if not in use.

5. Always Keep Your Laptop’s OS Up To Date.

Whether iOS or Windows user, always ensure that the operating system of your laptop is up to date. Why? “Manufacturers will sometimes release updates or patches to fix bugs. Some are bugs that cause your battery to drain faster,” says Katsch. When your computer tells you to install an update, don’t ignore it. These tips will help to make your computer faster and ensure your battery does not drain that faster.

6. Turn Off Things And Ports That Are Not In Use. 

Turning off simple things like the sound, backlight on your keyboard, turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you are able to work offline, make a difference and can have a significant impact on the life of your laptop battery. Switch them off when not in use. In addition, always disconnect your wireless mouse, thumb drives, the external keyboard (If any), and external hard drives. They all use power when plugged in even if you’re not using them.

7. Use Apps That Analyse Battery Life.

Some laptops like the Asus have easy access to the control panel. In the control panel you can check your battery’s health. Select ‘Power Options’ in the control panel and customise your power plan to ‘power saver’ there you can also use other power optimising applications such as BatteryInfoView, BatteryCare and BatteryMon to help keep the battery healthy.

8. Turn-off/Hibernate.

When you’re not planning to use your laptop for hours, turn it off to save energy and your battery. But if there is a need to resume quickly, always set it to hibernate instead of sleep. Through this the laptop’s CPU slows down while the memory stays active in sleep mode and saves your battery from straining.

9. Keep It Cool.

It is clear to all of us that excessive heat can damage your laptop’s battery likewise to your phone’s battery. Avoid leaving your laptop on the cover of your bed or seat. This way your laptop heats up. At Phones and tablets Kenya we advise that you leave your laptop on a hard, flat surface where air can circulate underneath, keeping the battery at a good temperature degree ensuring the battery stays charged and stable for longer.

10. Turn Off Notifications And Auto Update.

Websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, news sites, and even your email, ask to enable notifications when there is activity on your profile or a breaking news story. Do not allow them. They drain your battery because your laptop constantly keeps refreshing information from them even though you may not have them open.