Conserving Laptop Battery Life

This article will explain how to get the most out of your laptop's battery life. We all know the feeling of trying to read the last few paragraphs on an interesting article online only to have your laptop telling you that the battery is about to drain. It can be very frustrating. Luckily we are here to help! Follow the listed steps and you will enjoy a longer experience with your laptop or notebook the next time you charge up.

Adjusting Your Power and Brightness Settings

One of the easiest ways to save on battery power is to adjust your power and brightness settings. For Windows 7 users, click on the Windows orb, then in the search box, type “power options.” A few items will be presented and at the top should be Power Options (shown below). Clicking on this will take you to the control panel where you can adjust many settings. For maximum battery life, decrease the screen brightness (but not too dark so you can't read it) and set the laptop to dim the screen after a short period of time. By dimming the laptop screen after a short time on inactivity, this will help save battery life. Also, the screen brightness uses quite a bit of the laptop's battery, by reducing this setting you will get considerable more computing time with your laptop or netbook.

Shown above - Accessing the power options in Windows 7 Control Panel

Shown above are good power settings for a laptop or netbook while on battery.

Closing Unused Programs

Another great way to get more out of your laptop battery is to close unused programs on your desktop. For example, if you are reading an article on the internet and still have Microsoft Word open or another typing program open, closing it will help prolong battery life. Having programs open requires power from the CPU and this power in turn is supplied to the CPU from the laptop's battery. By closing programs that are not needed, you will reduce the power required by the CPU and ultimately, give you a longer battery life in between charges. Laptops and netbooks are the ideal portable computer solution. However, the battery life can be a major drawback if it only lasts a few hours at a time. By following the advice mentioned above, you can increase your laptop's battery life and not have to be tethered to the wall all the time.