About Your Notebook Battery

At some time or the other you will hear every owner of notebook asking - how long will my notebook battery last? The disappointing answer to this is - not long enough! But there are a lot of things you can do to maximize your notebook battery power.

Some notebooks have a power console applet that will enable you to create customized power profiles. You can use it to adjust the settings and get the appropriate mix of functions and notebook battery life. In absence of a power management software in your notebook, you can use the Power Options utility in Control Panel of Windows.

Reducing the brightness of the LCD screen - with the keystroke sequence, function key or software utility provided in your notebook - can help conserve notebook battery life. As far as notebook battery life is concerned, a blank screen is better than a dim one - you can adjust the length of time the screen can sit idle before it goes blank.

The hard drive also consumes a lot of power, reducing the notebook battery life - you can reduce the frequency of auto saves in some software like the word processor. Disable the built-in wireless card and remove PC cards and USB or FireWire devices when not in use - they can drain the notebook battery. You can further save the power of your notebook battery by disabling the devices you will not need as they may draw a small amount of power when on but not in use.

Clean the metal contacts of your notebook battery once in every 2 months with a cloth moistened with alcohol. Adding more memory to your notebook helps save power, thereby increasing notebook battery life.

If possible purchase and carry an extra notebook battery pack with you especially when you are traveling. Charge your notebook battery frequently - carry a battery charger or AC adapter with you whenever you are on a tour, and plug it in whenever you get the chance.

Most new notebooks use a standard lithium-ion notebook battery that you need not drain completely to maximize its chargeability. One great advantage of a Li-Ion notebook battery is its low self-discharge rate of only approximately 5% per month, compared with 30% per month and 20% per month in a nickel metal hydride notebook battery and nickel cadmium battery respectively. But the Li-Ion notebook battery should be charged very frequently.

Take care of your notebook battery.