How To Increase the Life of a Laptop's Battery

Laptops are important gadgets for work and personal use, especially when you are mobile. When you hold a meeting out of the office, display a presentation at your client's company, keep up with work while on travel, and a lot of other circumstances - your laptop is your companion. A laptop is not a luxurious device. It is a necessity. It makes your work easier, convenient and prompt. Laptops are one of the best and useful technologies ever created. Even so, most laptop users have experienced frustration and inconvenience by the same component of a laptop - the rapid discharge of its battery. Imagine being excited to project your presentation to a group of investors only to be cut short because your battery has depleted. While the actual laptop battery life fluctuates depending on the usage of your computer, it is important to know some tips to extend its life in order to save you trouble during crucial circumstances.

1. Defragment your laptop regularly. Defragmentation organizes the contents of your hard drive in order to make your computer work faster. Schedule defragmentation depending on the usage of your laptop, whether once or twice a month. By doing so, it will also improve the battery life. Do not schedule to defrag when you are mobile and needing the battery.
2. Turn off unnecessary programs running in the background. Stop all running programs that you do not need. If you are working on a presentation or a spreadsheet, stop the music playing in the background, quit e-mail or Internet access including Instant Messaging which reduce the battery life.
3. Lower the lights of your screen and mute sound volume. Reduce the brightness of your screen to a comfortable setting. The LCD backlight is a huge battery drainer. Sounds also deplete battery life thus keeping them to a minimum or completely muting sound volume will help you increase battery life.
4. Disconnect unnecessary devices. CD/DVD, USB or flash drives, memory sticks, external mouse, external speakers, WiFi, PC cards, Bluetooth can rapidly exhaust your battery. Detach them all if you do not need to use them.
5. Instead of standby, choose hibernate. Hibernating your laptop if you are leaving it for an hour or so extends battery life more than standby mode.
6. Do not use screensavers. Screensavers do not save your battery. Turn them off, including graphic drivers.
7. Keep the temperature as cool as possible. Batteries deplete quickly when they are hot and it is normal for a running laptop to get hot. Avoid working or leaving your laptop in a hot environment and make sure air vents are regularly cleaned.
8. Optimize your laptop's power options. You can modify this setting via control panel.
9. Follow manufacturer's recommendation on recharging process of your laptop's battery. Do full charging but be careful not to overcharge. In case of replacement battery, ensure that you obtain only the authorized or recommended battery by the manufacturer. Be particular with the specifications.
10. Take care of your battery. Maintain your laptop battery by always keeping it clean. 

The quality of your laptop is also another factor that affects the life of the battery. Do some necessary updates or upgrade your laptop if needed.