General Information About Your Laptop Battery
The world is a very different place compared to what it used to be with the advent of laptop computers. What was once a task that could only be performed at a set work station with a permanent power supply can now be carried out anywhere in the world! Laptops are a great alternative to desktop computers and are great because they are light, compact and can be used anywhere.
If you have a laptop computer or you are thinking about buying one soon, one very important point that you should spend some time to learn about is your laptop battery. The battery that is in your laptop is like the heart of an animal, it provides power to the rest of system and keeping it in tip top shape will great increase the performance of your laptop and increase the overall laptop battery life.
A laptop battery is a complicated bit of technology that does need some knowledge to keep it in pristine condition. The battery in the laptop provides power to the computer when there is no direct power source present. These batteries are not self charging and laptop battery life is usually around 2-3 hours without power although this figure is increasing pretty quickly with the advent of new technology and materials. Laptop batteries can also be quite expensive so you do not want to have to replace them too often, if at all.
The actual time that a laptop battery will stay charged for also depends on the user, the age of the battery, and the condition it is in. If the battery has been well looked after and used in the correct manner then it will keep a longer charge even when it becomes older. This one factor alone should be enough to ensure that you keep your battery well maintained and try to prevent it from any misuse.
There are a few different types of laptop batteries out there and different types will perform differently under different situations. The NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) kind of battery has a life without charge of around 1.5 to 2.5 hours compared to the LiION (Lithium Ion) laptop battery that will last up to 3 hours and sometimes longer. These results are typical but they can vary hugely depending on different factors such as how much power your computer is set to use, what the temperature of surrounding air is, and the climate that the computer is used in. But, as a general rule of thumb, the LiION type of laptop battery will last a lot longer than the standard NiMH laptop battery that comes with most basic laptops.
To maximize the life and performance of a battery, the habits of the user must be looked at. Laptop batteries behave in a very similar manner when compared to other battery powered devices such as a CD player. As you know, when you are playing a CD, the unit will use up the batteries much quicker than if you are only listening to the radio. This is because power is needed to spin and read the CD whereas listening to the radio does not require any of this. To relate this to your computer, just imagine that every program you have open, or every new program that you open, is like playing another CD. The more things that your computer is trying to perform at once, the more power it needs. This is especially true if you are using physical devices on your laptop such as CD/DVD drives or external hard drives. These devices will eat up your battery power before you know it.
Laptop batteries are also susceptible to ‘battery memory’. Say, for example, that you plug your laptop in to be charged every time the power left in the batteries gets down to 50%. What will happen is that your batteries will get used to only having to run for 50% of the time than they should. To get around this, the battery must be completed depleted and then recharged back up to full again. This will help to greatly improve the life of your laptop battery and also the time you get out of each charge.
It is highly recommended that you should try and use your battery once every two weeks (i.e. unplug it from the power source). It is also recommended that if you aren’t using your battery for more than two weeks then it should be completely depleted, removed from the computer and stored in a dry, cool place. This will also help to keep your laptop battery in better shape for longer. Normally, the best laptops will come with the best laptop batteries so be sure to keep this in mind when shopping for a new computer.
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Tags: batteries for laptops, laptop battery, Laptop Battery Life, laptop computer battery, online laptop battery
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