Got any tips for preserving battery life?

My laptop is in my sig.

I currently have a 6-cell battery, which drains pretty easily and am going to replace it with a 9-cell unit.

I go to my local library to study and there's only a few power outlets, so I need something that will last on battery power alone.

I'll have it on sleep most of the time (cos I'll be studying!) but if I want to reference course work online that's why I bring it along....or for when I want to take breaks!

So what do you suggest for maintaining a batteries strength and durability longterm? Particularly I was thinking of the depletion/recharge cycle...

 

- Battery Guide

Also you may want to look at this thread on how to improve battery life

 

Thanks! I'll take a look!

Any other suggestions still welcome, the more the merrier!

 

this might also help

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=au&lang=en&rule=36375&product=3645814&dlc=en

 

As good as that guide is, there does not seem to be a conclusive answer on wether one really needs to deep cycle once a month or not.

Some people say you should, some say you don't need to.

My manufacturer (apple) recommends it so I guess I'll follow that.

 

Another question. I'm worried that having the AC plugged in continuously leaves the battery on constant charge, possibly degrading its performance over time.

I want my new battery for when I'm mobile, that it will last longer, however most of the time AC is available to me so the laptop would be plugged in and charging the battery?

What is your advise?

 

Another thing to do, if you aren't afraid of a little under the covers work, is go check out the Undervolting guide.

 

Any response to the above?

 

+1 for Undervolting. I am very happy with the results just like probably everyone who has tried it.

 

I'm more worried about the effects of having the AC plugged in constantly, when the battery is at full charge. Does the energy supply to the battery 'shut down' automatically when it detects AC power is available, or does it just continue 'burning' the battery and diminishing its strength over time?

I ask this because the 6-cell battery that came with the laptop a year ago used to be able to go a decent 2 hours or so of use, but now it drains in about 45 minutes of light keyboard and browsing, even with dimmed light. And this is after just over a year.

That's what I'm trying to prevent really, I'll almost always have AC power so what do I do, work off battery and only plug in AC when I need a charge and then plug out AC as soon as I'm full?

 

^^^ ?

Got me new batt today so will see how it goes.

 

You might get some useful tips from this thread.

John

 

You could set it so that the battery only charges when the energy level drops below 35% or so.

 

Turn down the screen brightness. The screen takes a LOT of juice to run.

 

My battery saving methods:

-Undervolting, and forcing the lowest multiplier when on battery.
-Disabling all my unused network devices (NIC, Firewire, etc) - anything with a hardware drain.
-Underclocking my video card.
-Using the screen on the lowest brightness setting when possible.
-Use a custom batch file that kills the processes I don't want - basically anything that might make my hardware run.
-Set up a custom fan profile that prevents my fans from running unless really needed -- this goes hand in hand with undervolting, my laptop runs cooler so less fan usage.
-Set your screen shutoff to as fast as possible -- I personally have hard disk shut down set fairly far down the line (or not at all, depending on what I'm using the task for).

Yeah that's about what I do at least. I might be forgetting a few things. Any other suggestions I might be missing?