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Laptop Battery Life

Since laptops now out-sale desktops, I decided to bring this tip out of the archives.

We had a call last weekend, and I get the same question from many laptop users: “Why is the battery life on my laptop so poor?”. The biggest reason is that the battery doesn’t get enough exercise. Most rechargeable batteries today don’t have the memory problem like they did eight and ten years ago. However, unless the battery does get used on occasion, it tends to lose its ability to hold a charge.

Even if you don’t take your laptop outside of the home, I recommend that you run your laptop off of the battery at least twice per month. You don’t have to drain the battery all the way down (some battery experts say not to let it completely deplete ever), but use it until it’s pretty close to empty then plug it back in to recharge. Cycling the charging and depleting of the battery will give your laptop many more productive hours of battery time.

laptop battery indicator

When running from the battery, your laptop will show a little blue battery icon by your clock that shows the approximate batter life remaining. The time shown isn’t 100% accurate, but gives you a quick place to eyeball the remaining time you have on your battery.

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