How to make a Laptop Battery Last

If you are a regular laptop user, then you know how it’s like to have the battery give up on you right when you need it the most. Having a few tips under your sleeve that you can implement to get more from the battery at such times is invaluable and avoid a trip to a laptop repair center. When looking at how to make you laptop’s battery last longer, there are two paths you can take. The short-term path encompasses using techniques that reduce your laptop’s power consumption and hence the how much it lasts in between charges while on the other hand you can look at extending the laptop battery’s life. 

Let’s begin with how you can squeeze the most out of a dying battery when you need a few more minutes to meet a strict deadline. In such cases, the main factor to look at is reducing the current power consumption. Most computers and in this case laptops usually have a lot of different performance parts running in the background consuming power even when they are not in use. By shutting down these operations you will be able to squeeze a few extra minutes into your immediate battery life and get the opportunity to get your work done.

Some of the background operations you can look to shut down include, dimming down the screen, shutting off the keyboard backlight when typing in lit spaces, shutting down Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, disabling USB ports as well as shutting down any and all applications that might be running in the background but are not essential to your work. Running one application at a time also means that you consume less power. It is recommended that you avoid running anything that requires the graphics card and if possible disable it a well.

Now let’s look at some of the best strategies to use in preserving the life of your laptop battery in the long run. One of the main strategies to use here is to reduce the number of times you charge the laptop battery. These batteries usually come with a given number of charge cycles before they die. On average these are about 400. Always let the battery discharge totally before recharging and when using it at home or at your desk remove the battery and use a direct power connection. It is also recommended that you avoid overheating the battery during use at all times.