Conserving Battery Life
If you're traveling and
using your battery extensively, make sure your power saving
options on your laptop are set appropriately. The basic idea
is for the computer to shut itself down, incrementally, if
it detects that you've stopped using it.
When running on AC current, these settings don't matter
much, but when you're sitting on a five hour flight, trying
desperately to maximize battery time, saving power is
critical. Under Windows, you can manage these settings using
the Power Schemes page of the Control Panel's Power Options
applet. You can turn off the monitor or hard drive, and put
your laptop into various states of conservation according to
your specification.
Choosing the best mode: Most laptops have two shutdown modes
to conserve batteries while still enabling fast resumption
of normal operation: The first is standby mode which powers
down your hard drive. Standby mode is meant to be used when
you're leaving your computer, but only for a short period of
time. When you power up again the laptop quickly resumes
from where you left off. Because standby does not save your
desktop state to disk, a power failure while on standby can
cause you to lose unsaved information. Standby mode is great
for when your airline meal arrives and you want a 15 minute
of break; it's not good to leave it on for hours at a time.
Hibernation mode, on the other hand, is when the computer
saves its state on the hard disk and then shuts down. A
computer can't resume operation after hibernation as fast as
it can after standby, but it's not consuming any power
during hibernation. If you're not going to use the computer
for a while choose hibernate.
Windows tip: You can choose power options using the Control
Panel's Power Options applet. But to choose an option
on-the-fly, simply choose 'Turn off the computer' on the
start menu. You normally get 3 options: Standby, Turn Off,
and Restart. To get the hibernate option simply hold down
the Shift key. (If hibernate doesn't appear, you may have to
enable hibernation using the Power Options applet's
Hibernation page.)
Also, many laptops ship with customized power applets from
the manufacturer, which sometimes give you more control.
Proper Disposal: Before discarding that ancient laptop,
remove its battery and dispose it properly. Do not put the
battery into regular trash collections as it contains
hazardous materials. For a drop-off site near you, the
Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC).
By Robin Raskin
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