Laptop battery life is a common problem for most mobile users. Batteries seem to run out of power at the most inopportune times.

The length of time that a portable computer can be used on a fully charged battery varies depending upon use. There are several things that you can do however to increase the battery life of your laptop computer.

• Use the laptop's power management features. The power management options, when fully used, will greatly extend battery life. This extension usually comes with a trade-off: your system will run at a lower processor speed and the various devices, as well as the whole system, will go into a sleep mode much faster when inactive but it saves large amounts of battery power. Please see the instructions above for more information.
• The use of CD/DVD drives and external peripherals such as USB devices should be avoided as they are one of the largest consumers of battery power.
• Turn the brightness and contrast-control of your monitor down as far as possible.
• When you're laptop is in the docking station allow the batteries to charge and then remove them.
• If you plan on purchasing an extra battery, remember that batteries degrade over long periods of non-use. This means that if you purchase an extra battery but it then sits on a shelf for six months, it will lose some of its ability to store power and wont last as long. If you have more than one battery, cycle the batteries out so that they all have an equal amount of usage.