I’m a little sad writing this, as I’d love to be able to extend my
Well, electrical giant Ebuyer ha
1. Make sure you switch off Wi-Fi when not being used
Although most
of your laptop use will likely require internet access, there is an option to
disable the Wi-Fi features for when it is not in use. The Wi-Fi adapter draws a
lot of power from the battery, so switching it off when you are somewhere with
no coverage could save you a significant portion of battery life.
To do this,
there is often a shortcut button feature on your keyboard, but if not, this can
be done via accessing the settings through the start menu, selecting ‘Network
& Internet’ and then the Wi-Fi tab which can be simply switched off. This
can be replicated with the Bluetooth adaptor, which can also be turned off by
accessing the ‘Devices’ section on your settings home page.
2. Dim the backlight
The
brightness of the screen is one of the most significant factors that can affect
battery life.
Backlights
allow you to clearly see the colours of your LCD or LED display and, although
markedly improved from where they once were, still use a substantial amount of
power. Dimming your backlight is easy to do and should reserve a significant
amount of battery.
A simple way
to adjust this is to use a keyboard shortcut, which is an available function on
most laptops, (usually the Fn button, plus one of the F-number keys on the top
row) or navigate to the system settings via the start button, select ‘System’
and then adjust the brightness on the scale accordingly under the ‘Devices’
tab.
3. Use your battery once it’s charged!
A lot of
people like to keep their laptop battery on permanent charge unless they are
using it on the move. This can be detrimental to the longevity of your battery.
Some laptops do include a battery care function to avoid this issue by
preventing batteries from being fully charged, but the best practice is to run
your battery down before charging it to increase its lifespan.
4. Disconnect any unnecessary peripherals
Every process
you run on a laptop needs the battery to power the function. Simple dormant
items such as an unused disc sitting in your disc drive, an external microphone
or an attached USB will impact the efficiency of your battery and so removing
those when not in use will be extremely beneficial.
5. Manage your applications and programs
There are
plenty of people out there who are guilty of having countless internet tabs
open on their web browser. Whilst it is an impressive feat for your laptop to
maintain all those pages, more power is required from the battery to keep those
applications running. Simply closing any unused tabs will not only speed your
laptop up but will prolong its running time as well.
This is the
same if running multiple programs at once. There is nothing wrong with doing
this, but once you’re no longer using a certain program or software, it is good
practice to close them down until you need them again.
(One for luck) Change your power settings
There is a
solution as simple as changing your battery settings to ‘Battery Saver’ mode,
which is particularly useful when on the move. With a lot of laptops, there is
a shortcut to adjusting your power settings to ‘power saver’ by simply clicking
the battery icon on your toolbar in the bottom right corner and adjusting the
slider scale down. Alternatively, you can access the ‘Control Panel’ through
the start menu, select ‘Hardware and Sound’ and alter your battery settings in
the ‘Power Options’ section, which will reduce the power consumption of your
system processes by minimising background activity.