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Simple Things That Help Prolong Laptop Batteries

Neglecting the care and maintenance of your laptop battery will seriously impair the ability to use the laptop when you need it away from an AC power supply. Investing in a little time and effort will repay you many times over by prolonging battery life and laptop use while mobile.

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 surprised to find the laptop will not power up at some point. The second mistake is to use the AC power and battery supply without regard to the effect of partially discharging the battery.

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.

Partially discharging the battery repeatedly teaches the battery that it does not need to charge itself fully when AC power is connected. When you come to rely upon battery power and you do not have a full charge, then your use of the laptop when away from an AC power supply is curtailed. The battery "memory" is reduced when incompletely discharged and this produces the shortening effect which is 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 quite simply but first you need to establish what type of laptop battery you have in your machine and take the time to review the care instructions issued with the laptop.

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).

The second thing you can do is to purge the battery as we have mentioned before. Purging is where you allow the laptop to completely discharge the battery until the unit powers off completely. You do not connect the AC power supply until the unit has completely powered off and to ensure a full discharge you should disable the hibernation or any power supply sleep management function that the laptop has. Once the laptop has powered off, reconnect the AC power supply but do not switch the laptop on. Leave the laptop like this for 24 hours and repeat this process every month for NiCad batteries and every 3 months for NiMH.

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.

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Additional reading: Learn more about laptop service manuals plus also help for laptop repair - visit the links to the left for more info.

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