How To Look After Your Laptop Batteries

Many laptop users do not take proper care of their laptop batteries and the result is an impaired user experience and frustration. Caring for laptop batteries is simple and needs the user to take a brief moment to understand how they should maintain 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.

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.

Continuously discharging the battery without allowing it to exhaust its charge results in the battery gaining a recharge "memory". Effectively it fails to take a full charge and this results in less power being stored so the ability to use the laptop by battery power alone reduces. This defeats the whole object of having a laptop that you can use anywhere 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 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 some tips for you but you will need to check whether you have a NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) or HiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) battery for your laptop and check the manufacturers instructions.

Under normal usage, you should 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 battery completely. When you receive the battery low warning then you can reconnect the AC power supply but leave it plugged in for a complete recharge which may be as long as 12 hours depending on the battery.

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.

Article Source: http://www.myaddirectory.com

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