working on battery power

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I’ve been having some problem with my laptop’s battery. The life I expected just wasn’t there. I would like to be able to take my laptop places, sit down for an hour or two, get some work done, or just browse the net. Battery life has been under 1 hour. Sad really. You buy a laptop so you can have freedom to use the computer where and when you want, but you are then limited to finding a electrical outlet to work.

Well, to ease that situation, I was able to get a longer lasting battery (I hope). I’ve been running on battery power alone for about 20 minutes now. Taking the battery down to 0 will allow my computer to have a better indication of remaining battery life. Right now it says I have over 2 hours remaining. We will see.

still going…
Update when the battery runs out.

7 thoughts on “working on battery power”

  1. That’s always the thing about batteries, wearing out. At least with laptops they are easily replaced, unlike small household items like shavers and electric toothbrushes. If you have some extra $$, you might spring for a solid state drive. That would save some battery power.

  2. derek, I’ll check the solid state drives. I need a combination of drive speed and size. I would think the solid state drives have the speed, but I haven’t seen any specs on them.

    2 hours with an estimated 45 minutes left. That almost triples my original battery’s life when brand new. 1 hour just never cut it for me. This battery is supposed to have a 2.5 hour life on my computer. I haven’t been using the disk drive much, or using the DVD, so I am being conservative. So with this battery, and the old one as a backup, I should be able to sit anywhere I like and surf the net (Cell Modem!!!) or type up other projects.

  3. Dang, those SSDs are expensive…. Not many yet over 100 gig. If I get a new drive for this it will have to be over 100 gig and 7200 rpm, that’s what I have now. I won’t go backwards on either.

  4. Well, I definitely wouldn’t complain about almost three hours. 🙂

    Yes, solid state is still on the expensive side which is why I said if you had $$. I didn’t know how much space you needed, so I just threw the idea out there. Definitely quick though under most circumstances, and Sandisk is improving on that circumstance. As for size, IBM has been testing tech that would improve it to 4TB, but for now you’re right that 100GB or so is the practical limit.

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