Change Your Power Profile to Power Saver
Windows laptops come with the option of changing the power profile in the Power and Sleep Settings menu. Select Battery Saver mode to optimize your laptop to focus on efficiency over performance. That can go a long way to extending battery life.
Lower Screen Brightness
A bright, high-resolution screen is a major factor in draining your laptop’s battery life. While you can’t do much about its resolution once you’ve bought it, you can lower the brightness to make it use as little power as possible. This will make the laptop more dull to look at though, so it’s not the best for watching films of playing games, and can make it hard to see the screen when you’re in a bright environment (especially outdoors).
Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting
Keyboard backlighting is really useful for typing in the dark, but it also requires power, which means it’s another source of battery usage. If battery life is important, do your best to do without the backlighting and turn it off.
Unplug Any External Devices You Don’t Need
External devices all draw power from your laptop, whether they’re exclusively powered by it, or use it to charge their own internal battery. If you have devices like your phone, external hard drives, or external displays plugged into USB ports on your laptop, they will draw power from it and therefore reduce your laptop’s battery life. If you aren’t using them, or can charge them somewhere else, unplug them to extend your laptop’s battery.
Keep It Cool
Batteries remain more efficient and last longer when kept around room temperature or even slightly below, so do your best to keep your laptop from getting hot. That means making sure that you don’t use it in rooms that are too hot, or in direct snlight, and ideally, make sure the laptop itself has plenty of ventilation to ensure it can cool down its components well enough toi avoid excess heat build up.
Turn-off or Hibernate When Not In Use
If you’re not using your laptop, turn it off, or set it to hibernate after a short period of inactivity. Even when sitting idle it will consume battery life—just because the screen’s off doesn’t mean it isn’t slowly de-charging. Shut it down if you’re done using it.
Why Does My Laptop Battery Last Only 30 Minutes?
Some laptops just have short battery life because they have powerful components, a small battery, or have grown old. You can use the above techniques to try to extend it, but 30 minutes of battery life probably means your battery has grown inefficient and lost charge over its lifetime. It may be time for a battery or laptop replacement. Alternatively, leave it plugged in and use it as a type of desktop system.
Can I Leave My Laptop Plugged In All Night?
Yes, it’s fine to leave your laptop plugged in overnight if you have a modern laptop. Newer machines have circuitry built-in to cycle the battery during long periods of charging to ensure you still get maximum life out of the battery. As far as older models go, however, you should check with the manufacturer to see what they recommend. An old rule of thumb was charge to 80% and then unplug, but, of course, that’s nearly impossible to do while you are asleep.
Is It Bad to Leave Your Laptop Plugged In All The Time?
The same rules apply as above: It’s fine if you have a modern laptop. If you find yourself using your laptop plugged in all the time, consider replacing it with a desktop machine. Those are, obviously, meant to be plugged in all the time and can offer more power for less money.
