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How To Look After Your Laptop Batteries
Most laptop owners neglect to look after the batteries resulting in impaired functionality and utility of the laptop when they are relying upon them. Looking after the laptop's batteries makes good sense and only requires a minor alteration in user behavior and maintenance practice to prolong not only battery life but also to make sure the laptop functions when needed.
Most laptop owners neglect to look after the batteries resulting in impaired functionality and utility of the laptop when they are relying upon them. Looking after the laptop’s batteries makes good sense and only requires a minor alteration in user behavior and maintenance practice to prolong not only battery life but also to make sure the laptop functions when needed.
Laptop owners frequently omit to read and care for laptop batteries and make two very simple mistakes. In the first instance they use the laptop battery power in continuous conjunction with the AC power supply. Eventually they find the laptop will not power up when they come to use it. The second instance is to use battery power with no regard to the effect of repeatedly discharging the battery only partially.
If you find that your laptop will not power on when you come to use it, remove the battery completely and try to power on with the AC supply. If the laptop boots up then you have a problem with the battery. This may mean a simple “purge” of the battery or replacement. We’ll deal with purging later.
Continuously discharging the battery without allowing it to exhaust its charge results in the battery gaining a recharge “memory”. Effectively it fails to take a full charge and this results in less power being stored so the ability to use the laptop by battery power alone reduces. This defeats the whole object of having a laptop that you can use anywhere free of connection to a mains supply. This shortening of battery life is also known as “battery fade”.
If you have experienced a shortening of the life of your battery charge when it comes to using the laptop on battery power only, then you are experiencing battery fade. The question becomes: what can you do to ensure that you do not suffer from a restriction of the use of your laptop when you are on the move.
Here are a couple of tips to help you get the most out of your laptop battery and maintain laptop utility. First check whether you have Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) batteries or the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) type, and take some time to read the manufacturers instructions for caring for them.
The first tip is to ensure that you completely discharge your laptop battery. You do this by powering the laptop up using battery power alone and with the AC power disconnected. Allow the laptop to run the battery down completely until you get the battery low warning. Reconnect the AC power and allow the battery to be recharged from this state, for the period the manufacturer advises for recharge (as long as 12 hours).
Purging is where you disconnect the AC completely and disable the “sleep” feature of the laptop (or hibernation) and allow the battery to be discharged completely. Once the laptop has completely powered down, and you will know this as the display will die, plug the laptop into the AC but do not power up. Leave the laptop like this for up to 24 hours depending upon the manufacturers instructions. You should perform this for NiCad batteries once a month and for NiMH batteries every three months.
These two simple procedures will ensure that you are able to prolong the life of your laptop battery and make sure you can get the most out of mobile computing. Reading the battery care instructions will take only a few minutes. The return on this simple investment is not simply the money you will need to expend to replace otherwise perfectly good laptop batteries but the enhanced use and productivity to be gained from using your laptop when you need it and wherever you happen to be.