Maximize the Life of Your Laptop Battery

Perhaps your laptop battery is not lasting quite as long as it used to and you're not quite sure what the problem is with your battery. There could be several causes as to why your battery isn't lasting as long as it used to and holding a charge. Usage habit could be one of the reasons why your battery isn't hold charge very long.

Physical devices on your laptop that you use, which requires using electricity, will also cause your battery run time to not last very long. The physical devices that are some of the problems with your battery's charge to be depleted are the hard drive, CD-ROM and the floppy drive. There are probably some processes that you are using on your laptop that cause your physical memory to become exhausted in your system. The system will change to the virtual memory to finish the process you are in the middle of completing. The virtual memory is created to increase the system memory resources by devising a memory swap file on the hard drive and transferring the needed data between the hard drive and the physical memory.

The hard drive is greedy when it comes to the electricity, so in turn the virtual memory will also drain the electricity because of the use of the hard drive. The audio and the display devices can also use a lot of electricity that will help drain your battery charge. You could try turning down the display screen where it is not as bright and this will help save electricity. Video devices that require graphic programs also consume electricity. Video software can contribute highly to on your electrical requirements because of its activity of virtual memory, computation and calculations.

Another factor to consider in why your laptop battery is not lasting is battery memory. Battery memory is where the battery becomes conformed to run for less time than it is actually created to run. For example, if you use your computer on battery for two hours and then plug it back up to recharge, the battery will become basically "trained" to be useable only two hours before it runs out of energy.

In order to repair battery memory problems, you must totally drain the battery and then recharge it. Go to your Windows Control Panel and select power to totally drain your battery. Turn off Power Management. Then go into your BIOS and check and see if there is a power management setting there, if so, you must turn it off also. After you finish these steps, use your Escape key to return back to the top level menu, choose Save Settings and Exit. After you have finished turning off the power management in the BIOS and your operating system, unplug the computer, turn the computer on and let it go until it is totally drained of electricity.

After these processes, charge the battery for twelve hours. Once the charging time frame is over, run the computer again until the power is dead and charge the battery again for another twelve hours. Repeat this procedure four times and this will return the computer back to its original power management settings. It is suggested that you should use your battery once every two weeks, and to also keep the battery inside the system so the AC adapter can keep the battery charged all the time. Also, if you do not use the battery for more than two weeks, it is suggested that you totally discharge the battery and keep it at room temperature so it doesn't become damaged from becoming too hot or too cold.