z60t battery question from someone who usually plugs in

I'm planning to be using my z60t for a mission-critical application next month: playing DVDs for my 3-year old on a cross-country flight.

I'm looking for tips on battery life. Honestly, I don't need to rely on battery power that often, and whenever I do, it sure don't seem to last long. Not as long as a cross-country flight, anyway. Okay, she'll probably nap, or maybe -- gasp -- read a book for some of the time, but God save us all if the little bar slides down to 0 in the middle of Totoro somewhere over Kansas. . . .

I just have the standard 4-cell battery now. Should I just by an extra one of those to swap out? Or the 7-cell instead? Other options?

Thanks for your help!

 

I'm not sure even a 7-cell would last on a cross country flight, but an alternative is to buy one of those universal battery types which sits under the notebook and plugs into where the a/c adapter plugs in. In effect it is an external charger for the internal battery, but consists of rechargeable batteries itself. Check www.batteryspace.com

The advantage of this type is that with the right tip, it can be used with several different laptops.

 

Where you flying from?
I make the Indy to LA trip often.
I say you hold out as long as you can without the dvd's. Then pull it out as a last resort. Hopefully she'll fall asleep first!
That's what I did with my old Dell.

 

I'll be in the same situation as you soon hehe!

My parents-in-law keep telling me and my wife to visit them and bring my 2-yr old daughter with us to Canada. Its going to be a 13-14hr flight from Manila and I'll be lucky if I can get a direct flight.

My plan is to borrow a friend's pocket DVD player and use my T60 as a last resort when batteries run dry.

 

many newer international planes have ac plugs, even in coach. You may want check into that.

www.seatguru.com

/flies a lot

 

Thanks for the advice. It's a San Francisco-Boston nonstop, so 5.5-6 hours. It's on a 727, no plugs. I'm going to look into that outboard power source, and try to hold out as long as possible with the videos. . . .

 

If you rip the DVDs to your hard drive, the hard drive consumes less power than the optical drive. Probably can squeeze out some extra minutes. There is also a modular battery in place of the optical drive. So if you got the seven cell and the three cell modular would give you a total of 10 cell. My 15" T42 will go six hours with the nine cell and modular batteries. I would suggest DVDFab for ripping your DVDs.