This post was written by Maureen Jones
On PCMag.com, Erik Rhey shares certain tips to extend the life of your laptop battery. Rhey says that apart from the usual tips that most of us know, there are few more tips that can help you get more minutes per charge.
- Turn off ports. Disabling unused ports and components, such as VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, USB, and yes, your wireless, too. You can do this through the Device Manager or by configuring a separate hardware profile (see next step).
- Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles. Configure your laptop for the various scenarios in which you use it (on a plane, at the coffee shop, at the office, and so on). You can do this through the Hardware Profiles menu by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Preferences or by using a freeware utility such as SparkleXP (for Windows XP users).
- Configure your display to turn off when not in use. This is different from just using a screensaver, because in many cases a screensaver still requires the display’s backlight to be on. You can set the interval to turn the display off in Windows’ Power Options—found in the Control Panel.
Read the full article here
In PCWorld, Christopher Null said that replacing an old, slow processor in your laptop with new one can result in an exceptional boost in speed. Before upgrading, make sure that your laptop does not have non-replaceable, soldered-in CPUs and the new CPU is compatible with your portable. Be sure to consult your laptop’s service manual before attempting to open up your machine. Also, make sure to guard your hardware against possible electrostatic discharge by wearing an antistatic wrist strap whenever you handle any internal components.