Are you reminiscing about the good old days when it only took three seconds for your laptop to start? Do you have to wait five to ten minutes just for your laptop to load every time you press the “Start” button? If you do, you’re not alone…but should be aware of the fact that there are certain measures you can take to help your laptop run quickly and efficiently for longer periods of time.
You may already know the basics on how to maintain the health of your laptop: Don’t leave it plugged in for too long and don’t run too many programs at once, but sometimes this can be difficult if you’re constantly on your laptop.
If you’re sick of waiting for your laptop to load every day, or buying a new laptop every two years is putting a damper on your bank account, then here are five of the most simplest and cost-effective ways that may not only save your laptop, but save your bank account balance as well.
1. Dim The Brightness Of Your Screen
The brighter your laptop screen is and the more you leave it plugged in all the time, the more your battery is going to suffer because of it. Try dimming your laptop screen if you can, and even unplug your laptop once your battery is fully charged. It may also be a good idea to adjust the power setting options on your laptop as well.
2. Force Your Laptop To Hibernate
Sure the standby mode is convenient and saves a lot of power, but believe it or not forcing your laptop into “hibernation” is actually more effective when it comes to conserving the life of your battery.
3. Don’t Auto-save
If you thought the auto-save functions on Microsoft Word and Excel were great then think again, because each time the program automatically saves a document for you it forces your hard drive to work much harder than it needs to, and it will also consume a lot of your laptop’s battery power as well.
4. Avoid Playing CDs and DVDs On Your Laptop
If you like to watch DVDs on your laptop or even listen to a CD while you’re surfing around on the Internet, it will actually drain the life out of your battery. If you’re going to use your laptop as a stereo then plug in a hard-drive or an iPod to play the files instead.
5. Defragment Your Laptop Every Week
Sure defragmenting can be time-consuming and sometimes a very complicating and frustrating process if you don’t do it very often, but defragmenting your laptop on a regular basis will help ease the amount of strain you put on both your hard drive and battery.
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Paul
May 5, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I never realised autosave would affect your battery life. Damn.
My batteyr life has never been good anyway – always forget to turn it off.
KN
May 6, 2011 at 1:01 am
I sometimes play CDs on my laptop while surfing… I guess I’ll just stick to my iTunes playlist then. Thanks for sharing this!
Henway
May 6, 2011 at 1:18 am
I wish I knew these tips before I bought my MacBook. It’s been a short 2 years but already I can feel it’s dying and I’ll need to get a new laptop
Ava
May 6, 2011 at 6:21 pm
I have my laptop automatically derangement every week; it’s definitely helped. I had no idea not playing CDs and DVDs had an effect on your laptop’s life. I’m going to have to keep that in mind; because sometimes I feel like watching a movie in bed- and usually on my computer. Thanks!
Chris Jones
May 11, 2011 at 12:11 am
Some good power saving tips here. I know this takes ages, but I like to re-format my hard drive and re-install Windows every year or so. My notebook really flies after this and feels just like a new machine. Make sure you back up your data and have all your installation disks to hand before trying this though.
Jes
May 11, 2011 at 1:54 am
These are just a few great tips in prolonging the life of your laptop. There are more when it comes down to maintenance and caring for your laptop. Knowing all these tips will definitely help in not only prolonging the life of your laptop, but making sure it runs like new even after you’ve had it for quite some time.
Matt
May 16, 2011 at 8:09 pm
I had no idea that leaving it plugged in killed the battery. I have had my laptop over 2 years and it is plugged in all the time – last week I unplugged it and though the battery was on full charge it died within 5 minutes!
Alfee
May 29, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Minimize the number of programs running in the background. They have some battery usage there and take up memory too.
And on top of defragmenting, you can disk optimizers such as jkDefrag which speeds up loading time of your most-used programs. Faster loading means less power used.
Joe
September 14, 2011 at 2:01 pm
One method that I found works to prolong the life of your laptop is to NOT let your kids use it, especially if they are toddlers. I know it can be convenient to let your kids watch a movie or play a flash game but if it’s your only computer, you run the risk of them breaking it.
Rosie
November 11, 2011 at 11:15 pm
I didn’t know about the not using the auto-save function, makes sense though. Unfortunately I needed to read this article about 2 years ago, my laptop works on it’s battery for only about 30 minutes at a time now, I kept it plugged in a lot (I use it a lot!) and it isn’t working so well. I think next time I get a a new computer I need to get a desktop for constant use and a laptop for portability.
Ethan
January 24, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Hello,
I have a problem with my Acer laptop. Two days ago it started to show a cross in a place where it shows the battery level (the charge level was 100%). Today, I see it has the same, but the level is dropping down, now as I write it is 73%. I am sure it is connected to the power source.
Please advice me. I’ll look back here
Thanks