Laptop battery goes down quickly

nobby24

The battery on my laptop loses it's charge very quickly (about 20 mins). How can I stop this happening, I know there used to be a setting for making the widows less transparent but I cannot find where it is. Any advice would be welcome.

kwikbreaks

As batteries get older their capacity reduces so you probably need a new one unless it's only a couple of years old.

The power saving options can be found in windows control panel and mostly relate to when the laptop is idle and having a dimmer display.

Transparency is in the personalise display options window colour. If you have a Win 7 laptop then I wouldn't have thought that your battery would be naffed yet.

Hammyman

nobby24 wrote: »

The battery on my laptop loses it's charge very quickly (about 20 mins). How can I stop this happening, I

Buy a new one. At most, you're only going to gain 10 minutes or so. Consumer grade batteries typically last 12-18 months before a large loss in capacity, business grades double that time.

Batteries are also classed as consumable so you can't claim on guarantee for it unless its 6 months old or newer.

Misstress

What's the best way of preserving the life of a battery. Should I say use the battery until it goes nearly flat and then recharge? Or should I try and keep it plugged into the mains and not use the battery unless really needed?

Al1x

I think keeping it plugged in is what kills the battery. Ours dies pretty quickly as well. we only use it in the house anyway so having it plugged in is not a problem.

Meadows

nobby24 wrote: »

The battery on my laptop loses it's charge very quickly (about 20 mins). How can I stop this happening, I know there used to be a setting for making the widows less transparent but I cannot find where it is. Any advice would be welcome.

I have just had exactly this problem with mine and we bought a new battery as the power supply seem to have the right output voltage. The new battery was not the answer, it turned out the the power supply was actually faulty it had the right output voltage but no power under load. Shop around you can get a new power supply for a few £'s up wards.

free4440273

Misstress wrote: »

What's the best way of preserving the life of a battery. Should I say use the battery until it goes nearly flat and then recharge? Or should I try and keep it plugged into the mains and not use the battery unless really needed?

I let mine go flat and then recharge from the mains every two weeks/

spike7451

I was getting around 45min on my 8 month old Dell Equim.The other week I decided to bin a load of start up programmes & the Dell Dock,since then,my battery life has increased dramatically to over 1 hr.
Turning off unwanted start up programmes does make a difference.