There are few things that can be more frustrating than a dead laptop especially if you are on a business trip or in a middle of an important presentation, and no charger is at hand. It could be due to corrupted software or bad hardware, but in many cases, the battery simply ran out of juice. If you have been using the same laptop every day for the past four years, chances are it can get discharged easily, and the moment you unplug the charger, poof! It dies! Faster than you can say “somebody gets me the dang charger!”
Batteries naturally lose their capacity to hold a charge as they get older or as soon as they reach their maximum number of charge cycles. A charge cycle is equal to one full discharge down to 0% and one full charge back up to 100%. On average, a laptop battery lasts up to 500 charge cycles, which is equivalent to 2 to 3 years of normal use, while some can go up to as high as 1000 charge cycles.
Technically, how long your laptop’s battery can last largely depends on how you use it. That being the case, below are a few tips you must consider in order to extend your laptop battery’s health and keep it working for a long time.
Four Habits that Can Kill Your Laptop’s Battery in No Time
1. Draining the battery completely
Since a battery’s capacity to hold charge decreases with each charge cycle, the fewer times it runs completely flat, the longer it lasts. Ideally, you should not let your battery level fall below 20%. On a Windows laptop, you can easily do this by navigating through the battery settings and enabling Battery Saver. Enabling this feature will reduce power consumption by disabling some features and background applications and lowering screen brightness. This will give you extra time to find a power outlet before your battery runs completely out of juice.
2. Leaving your laptop plugged in while in use
This is especially true for laptops equipped with nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) or nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries. Leaving your laptop plugged in the whole time it is being used results in what is called “battery memory” or “lazy battery effect” where the battery is repeatedly charged while being only partially discharged. This causes the battery to charge at lower and lower levels, gradually reducing its usable capacity.
Fortunately, newer laptop models are now using lithium-Ion batteries, which are considered to have no memory effect, which means that continuous charging will not affect the battery’s capacity to hold a charge. However, some people maintain that even Lithium-Ion batteries still need to be discharged completely and then recharged, once in a while, in order to somehow calibrate them. Considering these claims, letting your battery discharge without completely draining it and then recharging it seems to be the best practice as far as extending battery life is concerned.
3. Fully charging your laptop and storing it
If you plan on not using your laptop for some time, it is best to store it at about 50% charged. Storing batteries fully charged, especially at high temperatures can result in rapid degradation and loss of storage capacity.
4. Leaving your laptop running in high-temperature environments
High temperature can cause your machine to consume more power by overworking its cooling system, putting more stress on the battery. To avoid this problem, you should not leave your laptop running in hot environments such as near DLP projector vents, inside a parked car, or under the sun. You may also need to minimize placing your machine on your lap to avoid restricting airflow through the cooling vents.
Aside from avoiding these battery-killing habits, you can keep your laptop’s battery healthy by disabling unnecessary apps and background activities, reducing display brightness, keeping your system clean and updated.
Conclusion
Just like anything consumable, laptop batteries are designed to deteriorate over time and eventually fail altogether. Fortunately, modern laptops like the laptop Huawei Matebook are equipped with overcharging protection and other features that allow you to perform simple tweaks to keep the battery pristine for a longer time. While you will eventually have to replace a battery or buy a new laptop, following these tips can help you get the most out of your investment until you can save enough money for a replacement unit.
