The batteries in our portable devices often leave us at the worst possible moment! But there are some things you can do to get more time on your laptop.
Some of the techniques we suggest are intended for those moments when you urgently need to extend battery life, while others are more of a preventative measure, which is good to implement before the battery reaches its end.
Some of the strategies we will describe may overlap, however, even when the actions you need to take are common, the reasons why you need to do them may differ.
Short-term strategies
If you're in a tight spot at any given time, there are some things you can do to instantly extend battery life.
None of the actions below will actually increase the amount of power left in the battery, but they will reduce the amount of power your laptop uses, saving you a few extra precious minutes until the battery is completely discharged. The key phrase in these cases is power consumption, and you should keep it to a minimum.
1. Activate your laptop's battery saving mode or eco mode.
Both of these features are designed for exactly these situations, so they will automatically make some changes to extend the useful life of the battery - several of which we will make here. This profile will adjust your laptop's settings and transfer the subsystems to low-performance - and consumption - states.
Once you enable the automatic battery-saver tool, there are still several steps you need to take to achieve better performance. This is done by turning off unnecessary devices, adjusting settings to reduce power consumption, closing unnecessary apps and processes, and adjusting your activities so that they use less energy.
2. Turn off devices and ports you're not using
The easiest way to reduce power consumption is to simply turn off various devices. Start by unplugging any peripherals you don't need [like a USB mouse or external hard drive] and turning off the most power-hungry subsystems and peripherals that aren't needed at the moment, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth receivers, graphics processors, and unused optical drives.
Warning: Before disabling any subsystem or device, make sure that the device in question is not being used and is not essential to the operation of the laptop. For example, you do not want to disable the hard drive from which the operating system runs, or Wi-Fi if you are connecting to the local network through it.
To disable unused devices in Windows, open the Control Panel and find Device Manager. There, the individual components are grouped by category. For example, Network Adapters often includes both the LAN adapter, which provides Ethernet connectivity, and Wi-Fi for wireless networking.
The four best candidates for power saving are the graphics card [under Display Adapters], the optical drive [under DVD/CD-ROM Drives], and the Ethernet and Wi-Fi adapters [under Network Adapters]. Find the device you want to disable in the relevant category. Right-click the device name and select Disable from the drop-down menu.
While in Device Manager, you can also disable any unused ports, such as the serial port. The actual impact on battery life will be negligible, but you'll probably be able to save a little extra work time.
3. Adjust the settings
Both the display and the keyboard are essential when working on a laptop. However, you can adjust the settings for each of them to limit power consumption. One power-hungry source that we often overlook is the backlit keyboard. Unless you're in a dark place and absolutely need the backlight, turn it off completely.
The display is the next power-hungry part of the laptop, and it doesn't necessarily need to be running at 100% brightness or full resolution. Many laptops have hotkeys for increasing or decreasing the screen brightness, but if not, you can adjust it in the Control Panel. Dimming the display to 50% or less when the battery is low can add significant extra runtime.
Finally, turn down or even turn off the sound. If you still need it, turn it down as much as possible and use a pair of headphones instead of your laptop's speakers. Whenever possible, simply put your laptop on mute. This way, the speakers won't draw any power, saving you a little more precious battery life.
4. Turn off apps and processes
Battery life doesn't just depend on the hardware. Multiple apps and various processes running on the system also eat into its autonomy. As with devices, start by turning off anything that is not being used.
In Windows, first take a look at the System Tray, the collection of icons in the lower-right corner of the desktop, next to the clock. At the far left of it, select the icon to show hidden icons and see which applications are running in the background.
Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, and select Task Manager from the menu. Once you’re in the Task Manager, look at the open applications – you might find that one or two programs are left running simply because you forgot to close a window.
Then, go to the Processes tab. Here you’ll see the processes running on your computer. While some of them are essential, others, like those related to music and video playback or cloud storage services [like Dropbox or Google Drive], can be disabled without any hesitation.
For MacBooks, the process is slightly different. Look in System Preferences > Users & Groups for a menu called Login Items. Kill any power-hungry programs you no longer need, or disable features like Google Chrome starting automatically at startup.
You can also see which programs are using the most power at any given time by pressing the Option key and then clicking the battery indicator in the Menu bar. Alternatively, you can open the Activity Monitor utility and see a list of all the programs and processes you currently have open, as well as which ones are using the most power. You can stop these processes by selecting the program and then clicking the Stop icon. Power Nap is a feature of Apple’s OS X that monitors your email and Twitter feeds while the system is in sleep mode. If you’re looking to maximize battery life, it’s a good idea to turn this feature off.
5. Simplify
Another way to extend your battery life is to simplify your own actions. Multitasking is great when your laptop's battery is full, but running multiple programs at once puts a significant strain on the processor and drains more battery power. Adjust your computer usage by running one application at a time and avoiding programs that consume system resources.
Start with “single-tasking”: if you need to type a text, close any other program. The result will be longer battery life if, for example, Spotify is not running in the background. If you need to keep playing some music files, prefer locally stored files rather than streaming media – they will still require additional power to play, but streaming over Wi-Fi also uses the laptop’s wireless communication.
You can also benefit from choosing simpler tools for the same tasks, such as a plain text file instead of a Word document. With fewer features and none of Word's automatic actions [like spell checking and auto-saving], you can get your writing done with significantly less power consumption.
It is also a good idea to completely avoid some activities such as photo and video editing tools, which significantly load the processor and graphics card, and are particularly energy-intensive.
Long-term strategies
With the following tips, you will transform your system into a more energy-efficient device, while saving the useful time that a single charge offers, but also extending the overall battery life.
6. Battery Care and Power
It all starts with the care you should give to the battery itself. If your laptop has a removable battery, make sure not to damage any of its contacts with it. The contacts connect the laptop to the battery and, if they become dirty or damaged, this can reduce or even interrupt the flow of current. You can clean the contacts yourself using a cotton swab moistened with a little alcohol, however, damaged contacts will need professional care.
In the past, experts advised charging the battery only up to 80% and not leaving it on its charger all the time. However, most of this advice is now considered outdated and applies to older nickel-hydride batteries but not to the lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries used today.
While modern batteries don't require you to worry about how often you charge them, it's a good idea to occasionally drain them completely through normal use, meaning using the device until it turns off or almost turns off because the battery is empty.
Finally, watch your temperature. Heat will shorten the life of your battery and components, so take steps to provide optimal airflow and cooling. The biggest problems come from blocked air vents. Dust buildup is a problem that can be addressed by cleaning your laptop's air vents and fan. Use a compressed air product to blow out the dust. The most common problem is when you use your laptop on a pillow or blanket, both of which block the fan and trap the heat that it's trying to dissipate. Use your laptop only on flat surfaces like a desk or table, and a laptop stand will make a difference when you need to use your device in bed.
7. Tune Up
The next step is to make sure your laptop is making the most efficient use of power. A few simple maintenance and upgrades will not only help your battery last longer, but will also result in an overall faster system.
For starters, regularly defragment your hard drive to make data recovery more effective. It should be noted here that DO NOT attempt defragmentation on an SSD, as it will reduce its useful life.
An active disk consumes more power than an inactive one, and by defragmenting your hard drive, you reduce the amount of time it takes to access data. Over time, as you add and remove files from your system, data becomes scattered across your hard drive, scattered across different parts of it. This "unorganized" written [or fragmented] data takes extra time and energy to access that information during regular use. Defragmenting your drive is the digital equivalent of organizing your closet, as everything is cleaner and easier to access. Both Windows 7 and 8 have automatic tools that defragment your drive periodically, but it's a good idea to at least make sure that this feature is enabled and running properly.
The efficiency of your drive also improves when it's kept in order. Keep your computer in good shape by regularly removing various programs that you no longer need.
8. Upgrade
Another option is to ditch the hard drive and upgrade to an SSD. SSDs use flash memory and have no moving parts, automatically saving power. You'll also get rid of problems related to fragmentation, the Achilles' heel of hard drives.
By upgrading to an SSD, you improve battery life as well as system speed, as SSDs offer faster boot times and better performance than traditional drives.
Finally, increase the RAM in your system. RAM stores data for short-term use, much like an SSD. The more data that can be stored in RAM, the less the system will rely on searching for and retrieving that data from the hard drive or SSD.
9. Spare Battery
Of course, the easiest way to ensure you never run out of battery is to always carry a spare or external battery. For laptops with removable batteries, the simplest option is a spare. You can order one directly from the manufacturer or buy one from a third-party manufacturer, at a cost that is usually well under 100 euros.
Another, similar option is to get an external battery. Although technically a battery, these external power sources connect to your laptop just like a charger. “Power banks,” as they are called, for laptops are not particularly widespread in our country, unlike those for mobile phones. Their average cost is around 150 euros.
Source: tro-ma-ktiko.blogspot.gr
