A Refresher on Getting the Most out of Your Laptop Battery

I’m not here to tell anyone their business, but I know that I’m less than careful with the way I treat my laptop battery with an eye towards extending its life, and so it could be that you are too. If you think that is the case, then you might want to read on.

Here’s the thing. I’m pretty sure that I know at least some of the general rules, but after coming across and reading the article linked to here, it is clear that whatever it is that I think I know, I’ve not been sticking to it. For example, although I have only rarely run my battery all the way down until I get a warning, when it is in use I pretty much always have my AC adapter plugged in. This means that my battery does not get to stretch its legs very often. If this is the way you use your laptop apparently you are supposed to unplug it when in use a few times a week. Ooops! And I wondered why my battery charge doesn’t seem near what it was when I first got my laptop. So, there you go. I learned something new today. As I sit here on the couch typing out these last few sentences my cord is now unplugged and hopefully that will do my box some good. If you have had any similar problems with your laptop batteries, or want to avoid them in the future, take a look at the linked to article above and see if you don’t get a much needed refresher as well.

–Tom Milnes