Any solutions for longer battery life?

I'm planning to use my laptop outdoors where there are no electrical outlets. What's the best alternative other than buying an extra battery or using solar panels for getting 8 hours? My battery is only a 6-cell. I'm not planning on buying a 12-cell. I was wondering if i could bring along a battery generator of sorts. I'm not too concerned of the weight since i'll be using the laptop while sitting.

Thanks in advance.

 

8 hours on a 6 cell seems very highly unlikely, but without knowing the specs of your laptop, I could be wrong. To get the most life out of your battery, I would do the following:

- wifi/bt off
- screen brightness all the way down
- underclock processer to 800mhz
- underclock gpu if dedicated card, skip this if integrated
- avoid usb peripherals (ie jump drive, mouse)

 

i'll add to dragonesse's post with...

-turn off a/v (you won't need it w/wifi off anyway), and any other software/processes that run in the background
-take any discs out of your DVD drive
-take any usb peripherals out (edit: WHOOPS, dragonesse already got this one)
-undervolt
-avoid excessive heat (hotter means more fan activity means less battery life)

 

If you really wanted to, you could lug along a car battery and an inverter

Basically, you can't get it to run that long without an extra battery or 3. You may be able to if you get an ultraportable that's meant for that kind of usage, but I doubt it.

If you're prepared to buy a battery generator (really, just a portable electrical generator, more than likely have to run on gas, it'd be loud, cost extra money, etc.), why aren't you prepared to buy another battery? The generator would weigh more, be more expensive, and not really work that well. You can't get more energy for free. Period. You can optimize it like in the posts above, but that won't give you 8 hours on a 6-cell.

To put it in perspective, it's like asking "Why won't my car drive 800 miles on a single tank of gas? And I refuse to install an additional or larger tank for gas. Should I pull a trailer full of gas?"

 

quite nicely put i must say

 

no one mentioned undervolting your cpu as well.

 

I think drumfu did.

And you could also set disk to spin down.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Try and limit your use of it... that could help bring it down from 8 hours req!

 

OO OO!
Or bring a hamster... and a hamster wheel!
(Sorry I wasn't much of a help, but picture that, and surely you must laugh, a laptop with a hamster attachment!)

 

Well sure........... Freeplay FreeCharge Weza Foot Crank Portable Power Source....

 

lol yea that should do the trick. a workout and some juice for ur lappy

 

Some laptops will come close with a 6 cell battery, i reckon my Q35 wud make 6 and a half hours with all the wifi/bluetooth off and brightness down

 

8 hours is out of the question I think everyone agrees.
But no USB crap
dimmest screen setting
no cd/dvd drive access
minimal hard drive usage
no wifi/bluetooth
undervolt cpu
downclock cpu
don't use your speakers
don't use your graphics card