Laptops are designed to be used on the move but extended periods of time away from a power point can soon result in a flat battery. If you use your laptop on public transport or in libraries or cafes then keeping your machine charged up is vital to your productivity. Toshiba are one of the largest manufacturers of laptops and PCs in the world and they sell some of the best value for money computers on the market for home, student and business use. If you own one of these models or are considering investing in a new one there are a number of things that you can do to keep yours charged up for longer on the move.
- Limit the number of programs that you are running at the same time, especially if you are not using them constantly. Running lots of features makes the processor work harder which draws more power from the Toshiba laptop battery.
- Remove all USB devices, such as a mouse or speakers, and any other cards that are not vital as these can drain power from the laptop battery.
- Lowering the brightness setting on the screen can help conserve power. Screen brightness uses up a large amount of power so the lower you can make this the better. Obviously take care not to lower it so much that it damages your eyes or makes working too difficult.
- Double check that there aren’t any unnecessary programs that may be running in the background of your laptop without your knowledge. Simply open the task manager in Windows and this will highlight any programs that are running which you can manually stop.
- Take the time to fully empty and recharge your battery about once every three months. This can help the machine to run more efficiently and you may even find that after doing this some programmes will run faster.
- Take good care of the battery and clean the metal contacts every so often by rubbing a small amount of alcohol on them as this helps to ensure a good connection. Make sure that you store the battery in a cool place in an anti-static bag or container too and don’t use the battery or laptop if you have gone from extreme temperatures. Allow the battery and laptop to reach room temperature before using them as hot batteries discharge very quickly and cold ones can't create as much power.
- Check that the vents on the machine are not blocked in any way as it could overheat and overheating can lead to a number of problems one of which is an increase in the self-discharge rate of the battery.
Your Toshiba battery won’t last forever and after around 5 years it’s likely that the battery will end up with a very low capacity. If you follow the tips above though, you should give your laptop every chance of operating effectively for a substantial amount of time. It will also help to ensure that you don’t waste vital battery power unnecessarily so that you can keep working and studying when you need to.
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