Small Business

20 Ways to Improve Notebook Battery Life

By Rick Broida

Updated on: October 3, 2007 / 12:00 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Like the old saying goes: You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much battery power. Battery supplier AtBatt.com offers 20 tips for squeezing more juice out of your notebook's battery -- five more than we listed previously. As you might expect, the author advises against power-sucking activities like playing games, watching movies, and listening to music. A few of his other tips:

Dim your screen - One of the fastest ways you can kill your battery is by leaving your screen brightness high. Dim your screen to the lowest level you can possibly manage.
Disable unnecessary programs - You know all those programs that automatically run on startup? You probably don't need them or use most of them anyways. So just turn them off before they eat into your battery resources.
Keep operating temps down - Batteries perform better when they're cool. Clean your air vents and avoid placing your laptop in a position that will restrict airflow (such as your lap).

The best way to tank battery life? Leaving your notebook plugged in when you're working in the office. If the battery never gets a chance to discharge and recharge, its performance will suffer dramatically. Solution: Check to see if your notebook can run off AC power without the battery. If it can, pull the battery when you're on desk duty.