Notebook battery-saving Life Hacks

Laptops (or Notebooks) are great because you can use them anywhere, thanks to the internal battery. However, once your notebook starts getting a little older, or you’ve spent too much time at the cafe, and there’s no power point in sight, battery life becomes a problem…

Laptop owners often neglect battery health, and as your battery’s lifespan gets shorter, you’ll probably wish you had it serviced earlier. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to power up and help your laptop battery last a little longer.

Lower the Display Brightness

The more light your laptop display is giving off, the more juice it’s consuming. If your laptop has an intelligent brightness feature, you might have noticed that the brightness of your screen automatically adjusts itself. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t always available, particularly on older computers. 

There will likely be an option for ‘low power mode’, which will bring down the brightness on your laptop. You should also be able to manually adjust the brightness in settings or on the keys at the top of your keyboard. Changing the settings yourself means you can find the perfect setting for you (and your eyes!).

A Melbourne winter will probably see your battery life last a little longer, thanks to the dreary days (and less light required on your display), while sunny summer days might require an increase in brightness!

Reduce PC Battery Use in Power/Sleep Settings

Tinkering with your power and sleep settings can do a world of good for your battery life. If you run a quick search on your machine, you may even find that your laptop suggests specific changes to help battery longevity.

For example, changing your settings so your laptop enters sleep mode after five minutes of inactivity, instead of fifteen or twenty, will save plenty of power. Of course, you don’t even need sleep mode; simply having your screen switch off after some time means your laptop is ready to go, but it isn’t wasting any power on running your display while you’re off making some avocado on toast. Don’t forget the feta!

Enable Battery-Saver Mode

Battery-saving mode usually kicks in when your MacBook or PC drops to about 10-20%. However, you can turn this mode on whenever you want, meaning your battery will last much longer. It’s great to run your computer in battery-saving mode when you first power up, especially if you know you’re not going to be able to access a power source for a while… 

Use the Manufacturer’s Battery Calibration Tool

Every manufacturer will have their own maintenance tools installed on your laptop. These will include utilities allowing you to calibrate your battery, ideally fixing any battery issues your machine may have. If that’s the case, your computer’s battery life should increase.

You’ll be able to find these tools on your computer by looking in settings or using the search bar. In addition, the tools may well inform you that you do require a battery calibration or some other maintenance tasks.

Get a Computer Tune-up

Getting in touch with a professional IT provider for a tune-up is never a bad idea, particularly for older laptops. They can help you solve a host of problems, not just limited to battery issues. That might include speeding up your computer, improving its efficiency and streamlining storage.

Consider Using Microsoft Edge Browser for Its Efficiency Settings

There are many internet browsers out there. Unfortunately, when we use these browsers, mainly when we open plenty of tabs, we consume quite a bit of battery power! Microsoft Edge has been gaining popularity since it incorporated the Chromium engine, the same one that Google Chrome uses. 

Microsoft Edge provides several power-saving features designed to prolong your battery life while staying busy online. Search for ‘sleeping tabs’ in your Edge settings to locate these features. These features include:

• Enable efficiency mode (choose from available options)
• Choose when you would like to put unused browser tabs to sleep to save battery power.
• Enable sleeping tabs and fade them when asleep

We all know that Chrome is the most commonly used browser by hip Melburnians… but try breaking the mould (and improving your battery life) by trying Edge. You might even set a new trend and be the toast of Fitzroy.

Turn Off Unnecessary Apps Hogging Battery Power

Take a look at your Task Manager, and note the apps your laptop runs in the background. A lot of them will be entirely unnecessary… Do you need to be running apps you aren’t even using while trying to save battery?

These might include cloud storage syncing applications, updates or something else. Jumping into Task Manager and shutting off these apps will help you conserve power in the long run.

Keep Your PC Out of Too Much Heat or Freezing Temps

This tip will be sure to help people all over Melbourne… keep your laptop out of the freezing cold or boiling heat! This is because icy winter days and boiling summer afternoons can shorten your computer battery’s life.

Common sense should prevail here; never leave your laptop in the car on a boiling hot day or overnight during an icy Melbourne winter. However, do keep in mind that it can be deceptively hot in the car even when it’s not a furnace outside. You should also keep your computer out of the direct sun… a tan isn’t good for it!

Looking for a PC Tune-Up or Battery Replacement for your fleet of Notebooks?

Are you looking for a tune-up or a battery replacement? We’re here to help! Short battery life doesn’t have to be the norm – we can fix this for you so that you don’t have to stay plugged in at all times. So give us a call today, and let’s chat.