Battery Life Settings on Notebook

[Dee]

Hello...
Anyone here have any ideas on correct settings to use on a brand new
notebook I purchased for my daughter for college as far as how to get
more from her battery at 100% charge before switching batteries or
plugging into electric?
Pentium 4, 2.4 Ghz (533M/478P)
512 MB DDR RAM
Hitachi 40Gig HD
Combo DVD/CD-RW Drive
Battery: 12 cell 2150mAh Li-Ion battery pack
(Battery life is 2.5 hrs on a PENTIUM 4, 2.4 ghz and 3.5 hours fast
charge).

I know that whenever I use the system to get it prepared for her as she
is leaving in a week, strictly running on battery, I will start off at
100% and within 45 minutes it is beeping at only about 3 minutes
remaining and then must be plugged in.
Although I have several desktops, I am unfamiliar with settings for
battery life on notebooks with XP installed and really need to know how
or what I may be able to change in control panel settings to at least
get her up to the 2.5hour charge or 3.5 hour fast charge? Anyone know
what to do here?

Her university is completely wireless and she has all the toys with the
system, but I am concerned she'll have to be plugging in quite a bit
particularly at only what we are getting right now strictly on battery.
All help very much appreciated.
Take Care....
Dee

 

[Dave - Freedonia]

It depends on how much you use your devices. If you watch DVD's then the
battery will run down faster. If you are burning CD's then the battery will
wear down faster. If you are just surfing the internet with no other disk
activity, then you will get a longer charge.

You may want to go to the laptop manufacturer's website and see if they have
any articles on calibrating the battery.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Not sure what laptop you have, but my Toshiba has it's own power
management software. I presume other laptop manufacturers their own.
When I run on battery power, I chose the setting called 'long life'
which has a whole host of settings for brighness, cpu power, when alarms
turn on, etc. It's setup to be very careful with power and indeed
will last longer than if I use 'high power'. With 'high power' the
video screen is more "bright" and I sometimes need that with bright
ambient light ... but pay for it with reduced battery time.

I recommend you read the instruction manual for the laptop you bought,
or look for an electronic copy of it on the laptop itself or on the
manufacturer's web site. Learn about how to manage the battery. Look
for and use the software provided by the vendor.

I also recommend you buy her a spare battery. She can carry with her
when she knows that extra power will be needed.