How to Boost Laptop Battery Life

Whatever the latest generation laptop you are using such as Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Hp, Lenovo, Sony Vaio, Acer they all are equipped with the highest battery life of 8 hours to 12 hours maximum unlike their predecessors. Some Notebooks can last upto the greatest life of upto 14 hours which is the longest duration known. 

So how long does you Laptop battery last ? That depends on the task you perform with the laptop and its capacity. Heavy tasks such as such as Gaming can drastically decrease the lifetime and ultimately make it dead. So it is advisable to use some applications and monitor the laptop battery performance incase in future you don't need to buy a external new battery as a replacement.

Unless you consider the tasks and other factors you perform with the laptop you won't be able to make upto the Laptop manufacturer's life expectancy. Just imagine you have a budget or cheap laptop and you are in a situation where you need to perform an important task and your charge is running out without a charger so you are in a state where you must find a maintenance way to extend the health and complete the task.

So in this post we will look how to boost laptop battery life, most of the tips used here will be similar to the charge saving options you use in a smartphone. 

Now let's get started and discuss the tips,

1. Lower the Screen Brightness

By reducing the Backlight brightness you can save significant amount of power because brightness is one the biggest battery drainers out there. Percentage of power saved by reducing the brightness depends on several factors such as Screen size, Number of Backlights used, Edge lit etc..... but generally you can simply add 30 to 60 minutes of life by lowering the brightness to 50 to 60 %. 

In many modern PCs you can find the shortcut key to lower the brightness. Incase if you don't find one you can open the Windows Mobility Center and adjust the brightness by pressing Windows + X key.

2. Adjust the Power Settings

It is one the advantages of the Windows that it comes with Energy Saver mode. This Energy Saver mode automatically turns on when you are running out of charge. But manually you can enable Power saver on Windows if you do not want to waste any little amount of charge. 

For Enabling Power Saver,

        1. Press the Start Menu.
        2.  type ''Power Options''
        3. Choose Power Saver from the row. 

These instructions may change depending on the configuration of the Control Panel and the version of the Windows.

3. Turn Off Bluetooth

It is true that Bluetooth too drains charge as it transmits data through Radio waves. Sometimes you might have connected your peripheral devices such as Bluetooth mouse and Bluetooth keyboard to your PC, simply remove them and replace them with a USB mouse and keyboard. By this way you can save a fair amount of power. 

To disable Bluetooth manually,

        1. Press the Start Menu.
        2. Select Devices Bluetooth.
        3. Turn it Off.

4. Turn Off Wifi

Wifi too drains Power as it uses Radio waves to its transmission, but this too in a fair little amount. The amount of Power used by the Wifi is measured using the decibel milliwatts (dbm) . 

Wifi with higher decibel milliwatts will have a higher signal range with uses more Power and Wifi with lower decibel milliwatts will have a lower signal range which uses less Power. Most of the moden Laptops comes with Wifi having higher decibel milliwatts. So it is advisable to turn it off.

For turning off the Wifi manually,

         1. Go to the Start Menu.
         2. Press Settings.
         3. Select Network and Internet Settings.
         4. Choose Manage Wifi Settings
         5. Turn it Off.

5. Remove Not Needed Peripheral Devices

Disks rotating inside your DVD / CD drive can draw considerable mount of Power. So make sure to eject unnecessary disks. And also remove peripheral devices such as USB flash drive and Webcam when you don't need them. Do not forget to mute the speakers if you don't need for a sound.

6. Close Background Programs

Various programs you download from the Internet especially from the Microsoft Store may continue to run to give various features. Even if these features are useful in some way they can drain charge. These programs can be easily controlled in the Windows.

For closing the Background programs,

         1. Go to the Start Menu.
         2. Press Settings.
         3. Select Privacy.
         4. Choose Background Apps.
         5. Turn Off the Background Apps which you choose want
             want to run on the background.     

7. Keep the Laptop Cool

Laptops contain sealed Lithium ion batteries which cannot withstand heat well. Even though they are sealed some tasks such as Gaming as drastically make the CPU and the GPU to function strong. As a result it may cause too much Heat to build inside which decreases the Battery life. And also placing the PC where it might get hot such as near a window that get direct sunlight can also make the PC get Hot. 

So always make sure that the Air Vents that expel the heat out are not blocked  and remove the Battery and let it cool down. There are many Apps out there which will monitor your Laptop Heat level.


[ FURTHER READING :  8 Best Ways to Cool down a Overheating Laptop ]

8. Use Integrated Graphics Instead of Dedicated Graphics

Using Nvidia or AMD gpus will also consume more power. Generally these GPUs are designed for gaming purpose which will release high level of Heat. So if you are performing Background tasks you don't need to use dedicated gpus. You can manually switch to Integrated Graphics using Nvidia or AMD's Control Panel.

9. Manage Your Memory

If you run several background programs and open several tabs on your browser it will consume more memory. As a result the laptop will not be able to conserve the Power. So always make sure to close the unnecessary Background programs and close the Unnecessary tabs. One of the major ways to Manage your memory is by upgrading your RAM.

10. Avoid Full Discharge

Going beyond the full charge will harm the Chemical process inside the Battery. As a result the conservation power will be decreased and the lifespan of the battery will also be reduced. So always make sure that you remove the charger off when it indicated that it has been charged 100 %.