How can we optimize the battery life of notebook battery?

Tony Salinas, senior systems engineer and consultant at Dell ? keeps tips for you to download

It's your worst nightmare. Now you got a presentation to potential customers, as your notebook computer that is connected to the projector in a popup window indicating that the battery capacity is low. While you are in your laptop bag still looking for the power cord, the screen goes black. You lose the thread, and the presentation falters. You connect the computer to re-start it and move on to the point where you left off. But the impetus is lost.

The life of a Dell Inspiron 9300 battery is affected, according to Salinas by, among other factors:

what applications are running on the computer, such as Microsoft Office, Netscape, Lotus Notes or Norton AntiVirus
how much energy is consumed, the display
how much energy the rest of the system consumes (not further specified system electronics such as processor and memory).

For most companies, information on battery operating time is estimated. Actual battery life may differ materially from this estimate, however, depending on the use of the system.

If you are from your Dell Inspiron 6000 battery time and again left to the most inopportune moment in the lurch and have already done this on a search for a new laptop, you should keep on the lookout for a model that provides a longer battery life. The Dell Latitude D630 gives you the flexibility, for example, up to 15 hours without recharging the battery to arbeiten.1 This is about the flight time from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.

If you would like to buy a new notebook, Salinas has the following five tips for optimal use of the Dell Inspiron 1545 battery life in your current notebook:

Less light's doing well
The largest single consumer, the backlight of the display. The brighter the light, the more electricity is consumed by the system. "A lighter setting reduces the battery life of up to 65 percent compared with a lesser brightness," said Salinas. Since the brightness setting has such a big impact on battery life, are the most portable computer configured so that the brightness on battery power is automatically reduced and when re-connecting the power cord is increased again. If you want to save additional power, you can dim the screen manually. This is on Dell VostroTM - and Latitude notebooks and Dell Precision Mobile Workstation on systems using the "Fn (down)."
Turn off unused equipment
Besides setting the display brightness can also be configured power management functions. In Microsoft Windows, different power schemes, each with different tradeoffs between energy consumption and computing power available. The schemas can be accessed via the "Power Options" in Control Panel.

On Dell Latitude laptops, the Dell QuickSet software is installed, with the settings, including the display brightness, adjust easily. QuickSet in the cargo capacity by pressing Fn + F3 displays. Reaches the value of only 50% of actual capacity, a warning message is displayed automatically.

Salinas is recommended to save battery power scheme "Portable / Laptop" or "Max Battery". These components such as display and hard drive off after certain periods of inactivity, and the processor power is adjusted. If set to "Portable / Laptop" processor and system performance can be adapted dynamically to the running application. At low power requirements, the processor remains in a mode with low power consumption. For higher performance requirements of the processor is stretched to the maximum.
I do not need. I do not want
Salinas advised to switch off unused appliances. A good example is Wi-Fi components. If you do not have to go online, turn off the Internet connection. Some Wi-Fi devices can consume a lot of energy just to keep a minimum amount of data traffic between the computer and the nearest wireless access point. Newer wireless devices have fortunately an energy saving function, so that this problem will resolve itself.

Many new notebooks come equipped with an off switch for this reason, the Wi-Fi capability. Salinas points to James Martin, editor of PC World *, the following suggests:. 'Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular modems, always switch off when not in use these wireless technologies are a major burden on the DELL Latitude D820 Battery capacity of the notebook. On many newer laptops wireless connections can be disabled with a button. You can 'Connect' on 'Start' and 'Show all connections' button and then select the connection you want to enable or disable. "

Salinas also noted the good practice, the connection to external DVD drives, webcams and other peripherals not used to separate.
Relief plate
The hard disk is continuously active, because it is in search of data stored on it. Defragmenting the hard disk for optimal arrangement of the data ensures that information is found quickly and the speed of rotation can be reduced. If the disk is exceptionally active in normal use, the system uses possibly due to lack of alternative storage memory (virtual memory) on your hard disk. In this case, an extension of the working memory contribute to longer battery life.

The same applies to work on multiple applications. Open the same time particularly at low capacity of working memory as few applications as possible. Since many applications are loaded into system memory at startup, only the applications should always be started, that are actually used on a regular basis. This adjustment is done using the command "msconfig" in the "Run" in XP or using the "System Configuration" in the search bar of Vista. Click "Start". The relevant command is displayed.
Measures for high performance battery
When will the new notebooks battery industry standard first fully charged and discharged completely afterwards. This process should be at least two or three times. In this way, will have reached the maximum loading capacity of the battery.

To increase the overall life of the battery, the battery should not be connected when the notebook is connected over a longer period on the power grid.

The loading capacity of older batteries can be increased through the proper handling of the Dell Latitude E6400 battery. "At some point, my battery did not work so well as before," recalls David Davis, the manager of Proven?al Home, a retail store in Austin. "After the batteries of our laptops four or five times completely charged and had discharged, the routine tasks could be performed more efficiently and reliably."

The loading and unloading increases the battery life. However, we can not quite reach the capacity of the battery when new. Depending on which productivity can be achieved through the process of charging and how old your notebook, it is wise to buy a new battery or equal to a completely new system.

Back to basics

In summary we can say that that can extend the Dell Inspiron 1501 battery life by reducing the brightness of the display. The activation energy of options for system and equipment contributes to extending the service life. Think about it in the end, that does not disable unused devices when battery power. Dell is working now and in future together with suppliers, technology partners and industry associations in initiatives and technologies for increased energy efficiency in portable systems, such as a longer battery life due to optimized battery technology and energy management options, or for lower energy consumption of the system components.

So be careful with the next presentation to the tips for maximum operational life of your batteries.

Additional Tips from Salinas:

Older batteries must be recharged frequently. If the capacity of the battery is no longer enough for an hour of operation, you should get a new battery.
If you buy a laptop, make sure that it is a lithium-ion Dell Inspiron 9400 battery and not an old nickel-cadmium battery.
Who is often on the road, comes with two batteries, which are used alternately, cope better.