Extend laptop battery life (or: Why can’t my laptop hold a charge anymore?)

Most people who own a laptop can probably attest to two things:

1. They wish that the laptop’s battery life was longer.
2. It seems like the laptop’s battery life used to be longer.

Rest easy laptop user, because you are not imagining things. Most likely, your laptop did used to last longer. Like most other things, laptop batteries have a finite lifespan, and degrade over time. For example, this author’s PowerBook is two years old and is only capable of holding 77% of the charge that it could on the day it left the factory.

Maximize battery life

You’re heading to the airport with your laptop, and wondering what you can do to make it last as long as possible. You should know that the length of time that battery lasts is not a set limit, but actually depends on what you’re doing with your computer. Tech/Gadget site Live Digitally has “10 Tips on Maximizing Laptop Battery Performance“. Some of their common sense tips include:

1. Dimming your screen.
2. Single-tasking instead of multi-tasking.
3. Keeping the system cool.
4. Avoiding peripheral devices.

Read Live Digitally’s article for the full list of tips.

Take care of your battery

A little common sense can keep your laptop battery’s rate of degradation as slow as possible. The “Battery Care and Maintenance” article from The Ohio State University Information Systems department has some excellent advice for taking care of batteries. Some tips include:

1. Fully recharging batteries after prolonged storage periods.
2. Properly cycling a new battery to achieve full capacity.
3. Avoiding short circuits, moister, and other dangerous environmental factors.

Read “Battery Care and Maintenance” for the full story.

Monitor PC battery status

PassMark BatteryMon is an extensive software suite for monitoring the health of your battery. It charts your battery life graphically, and can log performance. BatteryMon is shareware, with a 30-day evaluation period and $24 price tag.

Download BatteryMon.

If any readers know of free or open source battery monitoring software, please let us know.

Monitor Mac battery status

CoconutBattery is an OS X Widget that shows you a multitude of information about your battery.

1. Current capacity in relation to original capacity.
2. How often you fully load your battery.
3. How old your Mac is.

Download coconutBattery.

[tags]Laptops,Batteries[/tags]