By
Harald Thon,
published on October 25, 2005
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: squeezing, more, life, out, of, your, notebook | Themes: Business Notebooks
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: squeezing, more, life, out, of, your, notebook | Themes: Business Notebooks
Contents
- 1. The Eight-Hour Battery Life Notebook
- 2. Battery Life As A Turnover Multiplier For Vendors
- 3. Battery Life Is Only The Second Most Important Purchase Factor
- 4. Battery Life Is Only The Second Most Important Purchase Factor, Continued
- 5. Intel Claims That The Display And Chipset Consume More Energy Than The CPU
- 6. A Brief Summation Of Battery History And Battery Types
- 7. Higher Energy Density: The Rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride Battery
- 8. The Li-Ion Battery Isn't Perfect, Either
- 9. Battery Care And Preservation
- 10. Battery In The 'fridge?
- 11. Buyer Beware 1: Old Battery In A New Notebook
- 12. Typical Notebook Batteries
- 13. Frequently-asked Question 1: How Do I Determine My Battery's Capacity?
- 14. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery?
- 15. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery? Continued
- 16. More on this topic
14. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery?
Those uninterested in finding out specific information about their battery charge can look to operating system utilities instead. This information is available in a Control Panel program named Power Options. Among its tabs you'll find one labeled Power Meter that shows how much charge is left in your battery, along with an estimate of runtime remaining (on many notebooks, a small battery icon also appears in the system tray when the unit is running on battery power; right-clicking this icon also produces the selfsame Power Meter display).
The Power Options program in Windows reports actual charge levels remaining, where each battery gets its own such display...
...and information is also provided for the sum of all batteries in the notebook.
Click on any battery shown to see a detailed information window, which identifies battery type, maker, part name and current state
- Previous page Frequently-asked Question 1: How Do I...
- Next page Frequently-asked Question 2: How...
"Better still, Li-Ion batteries exhibit none of the memory effects associated with the other two types just named."
Neither do NiCad or NiMH batteries, of course, unless you're using them in a geosync satellite power system. With a charging system as smart as the one required for Li-ion or Li-polymer, NiMH batteries don't suffer from overcharge and the resulting voltage depression (what's generally mistaken for a "memory effect" in the association cited). I wouldn't be surprised to see some notebooks returning to NiMH, albeit the new low self-discharge types.