Squeezing More Life Out of Your Notebook's Battery Part I

News
By Harald Thon
published

OEM spin aside, notebook battery lives just are not up to what consumers and business want. Industry group Mobile PC EBLWG says laptops that run eight hours on a charge will be available by 2008. But how do they expect to pull the feat off and what can you do in the meantime to squeeze more life out of your notebook's battery? Keywords

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

Harald Thon
2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • denist44
    As far as I am concerned ,the temperature, amount of usage and nature of usage contributed signfically to the laptop battery lifespan.On the other hand, You can lower screen brightness, reduce CPU processing speed, chance cooling method, and other settings available on your laptop to prolong your battery life.HP Probook 4410s battery battery for HP Probook 4410s
    Reply
  • denist44
    As far as I am concerned ,the temperature, amount of usage and nature of usage contributed signfically to the laptop battery lifespan.On the other hand, You can lower screen brightness, reduce CPU processing speed, chance cooling method, and other settings available on your laptop to prolong your battery life.
    Reply