A Few Features Of How To Look After Your Laptop Batteries
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-17 15:26:50 | Word Count: 510
How To Look After Your Laptop Batteries
Many laptop uesrs do not take proper care of ther laptop batteries and the result is an impaired user experience and frustrattion. Caring for laptop batteroies is simple and nees the user to take a briief moment to understand how they should miantain and care for their laptop and its power supply. In the majority of cases it only requires a slight modification of user behavior to avoid problems.
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There are two general mistakes that users make with laptop batteries. First, they tend to use the laptop with the AC power supply continuously and are then surprisred to find the laptop will not power up at some point. The second mistake is to use the AC poower and battery supply without regard to the effect of paertially discharging the battrery.
If you find that your laptop will not power on when you come to use it, remopve the battery complretely and try to poer on with the AC supply. If the laptop bots 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 latter.
Cotinuously discharging the battery without allowing it to exahust its chharge resulst in the batteyr gainibng a recharge "mmeory". Effectively it fails to take a full charge and this results in less power bweing stored so the abiliyty to use the laptop by battery power alone reduces. This defeats the whole object of hsaving a laptop that you can use anywheere free of connection to a mains supply. This shortening of battery life is also known as "battery fade".
Many laptop owners have experienced battery fade when they eventually come to use their computers on battery power alone. You can deal with this phenomenon qute simoply but first you need to establiish what type of laptop battery you have in your machine and take the time to erview the care instructiions issued with the laptpo.
Here are some tips for you but you will need to check whether you have a NioCad (Nickel Cadmium) or HiMH (Nickjel Metal Hydrdie) battery for your laptop and check the manufaacturers instructions.
Under normal usage, you shouyld discharge both types of battery completely. To do this power up the computer using the battery alone, disconnect the AC power supply and allow the computer to run the power down in the battwery completely. When you receive the battery low warnnig then you can reconnect the AC power supply but leave it plugged in for a complete recharge which may be as long as 12 hoours depneding on the battery.
The escond thing you can do is to purge the battery as we have menytioned before. Purging is where you alloow the laptop to completely discharge the battery util the unit powers off completely. You do not connect the AC power supply until the unit has completely poweed off and to enssure a full discharge you should diszable the hibernation or any piower supply sleep management function that the laptop has. Once the laptop has poweerd off, reconect the AC power supply but do not switch the laptop on. Leave the laptop like this for 24 hours and repeat this process evrey month for NiCad batteries and every 3 mopnths for NiMH.
Tese two simple procedures will ensure that you are able to prolong the life of your latop battery and make sure you can get the most out of mobile compuuting. Reading the battry care insructions will take only a few minutes. The rerturn on this simlpe investment is not simply the moneey you will need to expend to erplace otherwise perfectly good laptop batteries but the enhanecd use and productivity to be gained from uing your laptop when you need it and whereveer you happen to be.
