Have you noticed a lessening of active usage on your laptop? Does that low battery signal appear far more frequently than it should? Then, it would help if you employed some of the following tips to optimise your battery life. Batteries wear out, but their lifespan can differ from laptop to laptop, so it is good practice to optimise your battery as soon as possible.
Maintain A 40 – 80 Percent Charge
If you use your laptop away from the charger, try not to let it drop below 40% before you recharge. Only recharge to 80%. Some laptops will overheat if fully charged. Try to make this a habit, as these are the optimum limits to stay inside.
However, this may not be possible for those who use their laptops on the go. You can use and recharge a fully-charged battery around 300-500 times until it burns out. The laptop battery that charges 80% can make it 850 -100 cycles.
Beware Of Temperature Extremes
While the above is the best way to maintain battery life, most modern laptops left on charge automatically stop charging at 100%.
However, if your laptop starts running hot, this can seriously affect your battery lifespan. You can heat your laptop from charging, sunlight, environmental heat, and other factors that raise the temperature and damage the battery.
Keep Your Laptop Ventilated
Following the above, continuous use of your laptop on your knee is liable to raise its working temperature. The lack of large cooling fans and the compactness of the laptops, combined with the heat from your thighs and lack of ventilation, contribute to this.
Be aware that if a laptop gets so hot, it can cause laptop burn or ‘toasted skin syndrome’. Try to avoid resting your laptop on your thighs, pillows or cushions. Check no vents are covered on the laptop.
Use a laptop stand to ensure sufficient cool air surrounding your laptop. A stand including fans can be essential in hot weather. Remember how hot the air is. The laptop’s insides will be hotter!
Keep your laptop away from sunlight, radiators and heating vents when not in use.
Optimising The Use & Maintenance Of Your Laptop
If you run on a Windows system, type ‘battery’ in the search bar at the bottom left of your screen. A battery-savings option window pops up that you can click on to maintain and improve the work performance of your laptop.
Adjust Screen Brightness
Lower the screen’s brightness by using the keyboard and pressing the sun icon on the top of your keyboard. On the Window search bar, ask to display brightness levels.
Gaming, Graphics & Apps
If these are in constant use, checking how much battery they use is a good idea. If it is using too much, you can change the settings to lower how much it drains your battery.
Various applications can also drain your battery, especially those constantly open or in the background.
You can check this via your Task Master. Keep the number of applications open at any time as low as possible to not put pressure on your battery.
Peripherals & Connections
Removing or turning off peripherals when not in use can extend your battery life. Remove items such as your mouse or any USB-powered accessory. Also, turn off connections like Bluetooth or 3G/4G when not in use.
If you want to learn more about caring for your laptop and battery, please get in touch with us using our online form.
