How to Handle Your Notebook Batteries to Avoid Overheating
Most notebook batteries are lithium ion. Lithium ion batteries can slowly lose their capacity to hold a charge. But they hold their charge better over some time compared to other rechargeables like nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride.
Shut Down (or Hibernate) instead of Stand By. There are things you can do to extend the charge of your batteries when you’re using your notebook on battery power. You should shut down completely instead of putting computer on Stand By mode to preserve your battery power. The hibernate feature saves you computer’s state in your hard drive but completely shuts down the computer.
Turn off your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Cellular Modems. Don’t forget to turn off the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular items when not in use. These wireless technologies can drain your battery.
When not in use, remove all CDs, DVDs, flash media cards, PC Cards, Express Cards, and connected peripherals because computers continuously try to connect with any media inserted. This automatic process uses up a lot of your battery power.
Power Settings. Display settings used to drain batteries big time. But Windows XP and Vista now includes a utility for adjusting display and other settings that greatly affect your battery charge. Still, some manufacturers encourage you to use their default power management utilities. There may be some wisdom to this since most of these utilities configure your computer to the optimal settings. It’s a hit or miss thing though. By experience I get better mileage out of Vista’s default Power Management settings.
To have this utility functional, go to Start, Control Panel, then Power Options. With the Portable / Laptop power scheme, you can choose to have your notebook’s LCD turned off automatically after your selected time. You can also choose to have your hard drive spin down after a period of disuse or you can have your laptop automatically go into Stand By mode.
Remember that your notebook must consume power every time the hard drive and monitor are awakened from hibernate mode. For maximum efficiency, make your chosen settings fit your usage patterns. When running on battery power, have the hard disk turned off after about 20 minutes, while the monitor after about 10 minutes.
Screen Brightness. Save battery power by lowering your notebook’s screen brightness. This is usually done using a combination of function keys.
Long-Life Battery. Some notebooks have an extended battery life. These batteries are usually heavier and bulkier and are more expensive than the standard types. But these heavier, bulkier, and more expensive battery with longer life can significantly extend the time your notebook operates when running on battery power.
Don’t overcharge. Remove your adapter/charger as soon as the indicator light goes off. Some batteries do not act well with the charger plugged in. Take a look at these burnt babies.
An overworked computer sucks the life out of your batteries. And the more demand placed on your laptop battery, the more liable it is to overheat. So just take your use in moderation. If you have to do load-heavy work, make sure to work on a cool place and a flat surface.
Tags:battery_power, bluetooth, cellular_modems, Computer, flash_media, Hardware, hibernate, lithium_ion_batteries, media_cards, nickel_cadmium, notebook_batteries, shut_down, wireless_technologies, wi_fi
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