Tech Yoda's Tip of the Week: Streeeeeeettttttttch that battery life!

Just as doing routine maintenance of your car will result in a longer life for it, taking certain steps with your laptop's battery will result in longer use per charge, and a longer overall battery life. Replacement laptop batteries are expensive, so it benefits you and CRHC to keep your battery running well.

Batteries degrade gradually, and ultimately can no longer hold a charge.  My personal laptop's battery maxes out at a whopping 35 minutes on a full charge, however, the laptop itself is decrepit, so I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new one, which will arrive later this week (hooray!).  There are ways to extend your battery life long past the life of your laptop, though, and now would be a good time to start taking these measures.

1. If your laptop always (or usually) is plugged in, you may inadvertently be decreasing your battery life.  At least once a month, let the battery run down completely until it shuts off, then recharge it all the way.
2. Some laptops have software installed that can recondition the battery to improve its life.  If you are ever prompted to do so by such software, it would be a good idea to allow it. Note--if you are concerned that the software is actually a trojan or virus that is a trick, DON'T click on it, and bring it in to CRHC for evaluation as soon as possible.
3. Don't leave your laptop in a location where the ambient temperature is an extreme high or an extreme low.  Extreme temperatures speed up degradation significantly.
4. Use the Power Management settings on your laptop to have it hibernate when not in use.  You can access these settings by right-clicking on Start > Control Panel > Power Options.  "Stand by" and "Hibernate" are the two main energy conserving features--stand by is for short-term (an hour or two), leave everything open, don't write anything to the hard drive situations; hibernate is for longer-term (overnight or for the weekend) situations.  A computer that is hibernating can be left for days without any adverse effects.  You can also set the computer to hibernate whenever the battery reaches low battery (whatever level you determine that to be), saving all of your work until you can get it to a power source, rather than shutting down.