The question is why the laptop battery drains so fast which keeps the user all time up for unplugging and plugging a charger into the laptop.
This does not happen only with you but a large number of laptop users is suffering from same issue, especially HP laptop users.
Remember, this is a widespread issue and going to answer about why this battery drainage issue occurs and how to fix it.
First of all, it is important to answer why this issue occurs in the following.
Why My Laptop Battery Drains So Fast ?
There might be several factors causing the battery dies within short time period, mostly because user has been fully utilized its number of recharging times. The battery is old now and needs to be replaced with new one.
Other possible reasons also need to be discussed in the following.
- There are several external devices connected with the laptop which all consuming its power, such as external HDD, external speakers, wireless mouse and number of USB flashes.
- User always keeps the brightness at maximum level or using hardware-accelerated streaming on frequent basis or, both functions consumes more battery.
- User laptop is connected with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth which not functioning properly. Connecting issues dying the battery at higher rate.
- The backlit keyboard is inefficient and consuming more power comparing to other laptops.
- User performs multitasking on multiple applications and tabs. Multitasking puts pressure on RAM which runs faster and drain the battery nothing like.
Once you come to know all these factors can easily deal with them to avoid the battery draining problem.
How To Resolve Laptop Draining Issue ?
User needs to be working on the features and functions which consumes the battery power at higher rate and can also be avoided.
These solutions are applicable on all brands of laptops including Dell, HP, Asus, Acer, Lenovo and all others.
- Adjust the brightness level of laptop screen
According to the experts in I.T. field, decreasing the brightness level by 50% can easily add 40 minutes of battery life. There are several tasks where maximum brightness is not required and can decrease it.
It is very easy to adjust the brightness level on laptop, can use function key or a key with sun symbol while also using arrow keys to increase or decrease it.
- Turn-off your backlit keyboard in daylight
A backlit keyboard is a useful feature in a dark place to avoid typo error, users often forget to turn it off when they do not need it. A backlit keyboard consumes 160 ma to 200 ma battery is a lot. If you have a keyboard with USB 2.0 cable, then its power consumption can go as high as 500 mA.
A user on HP laptop can adjust the light intensity of the backlit keyboard by using the combination of two keys such as HP Function + F5.
User can also disable it by going to the System Control Center > Mouse and Keyboard.
This approach is not only right with laptop screen, but we should not be over-utilizing any other technology for no good.
- Get full control over laptop power settings
A user must create a shortcut menu which helps them to fully control over how to make best utilization of laptop power.
User can choose among sleep, hibernate and active mode. These three modes are supposed to be used effectively to efficiently consume the battery power. A user should be using sleep mode when going away from laptop and do not want to lose the work progress.
Sleep mode will move your documents to the temporary memory RAM and once you get back, can start from where you left. Sleep mode will consume least amount of battery power while user is away. User can give instructions to laptop when going to sleep mode, let’s say 5 minutes of no activity will make laptop turn-on the sleep mode.
Windows operating system also offers “Hibernate” feature to conserve the battery power but it does not function like sleep mode. When your laptop is activated to “Hibernate” mode, it saves all the open documents and work progress in hard disk instead of using RAM. Furthermore, Hibernate mode is something extraordinary comparing to sleep mode, because this mode uses zero power.
- Check all Network Connections
The more devices are connected with your laptop’s battery, the faster battery is going to be drained. Therefore, user should be disable the Wi-Fi, if not using the internet on laptop.
To check the active connections, go to the System Settings > Network Connections and check how many active connections are connected currently.
If you see any useless device connected with laptop or vice-versa, perform the right-click over that useless connection and then click to disable or forget it. Similarly, disable or forget all those connections which not in your use.
Bluetooth also creates a network by get connected with laptop; do not forget to also disable Bluetooth connection if any.
All these network connections consume too much power which causes the battery to die fast.
- Remove all unnecessary applications running in background
We open the new program and after performing the task, close it down. But, our laptop is still running and processing its data from those closed programs in the background.
To see all these running applications in background and then remove them all, user needs to go to the Task Manager by pressing and holding these keys Ctrl + Shift + Esc. These applications in background not only consuming your battery but also RAM for no productive use.
Once you open the Task Manager, select all unnecessary applications being processed and then click on End Task button. All selected programs will be removed from the background.
- Unplug / Remove all unnecessary devices
A hardcore gamer, programmer, web-developer and freelancer are all kinds of laptop users who needs lots of external devices to achieve the work efficiency. For Instance, they use external USB fan, Bluetooth speaker, external HDD, gaming mouse and others.
Once they are not performing these hard core tasks on laptops, must remove all these external devices because consume the battery drastically. Often, users forget to remove all external devices which cause the battery to die soon.
- Replace the old laptop battery with new one
To buy a new battery for a laptop recently bought makes no sense. Still, it is better to replace the old battery with new one if it is dying at high rate. User can claim it from warranty if it is still valid.
A laptop battery has been in used for long time must be replaced with the brand new one. The average lifespan is two to four years and then the old one must be removed for good.
- Keep the laptop cool
There are several factors which cause the laptop to get overheated and as a result drain battery faster. When laptop fan is failed to dispel the heat, it makes hardware less efficient and they eventually start consuming more power to work.
User can avoid laptop overheating issues by not blocking the ventilation area in laptop, keep the room temperature cool or by using the cooling pad.
- Remove disc drive once used
All laptops have CD-Drive, DVD Drive and Blu-ray Drive. All these drives runs the inserted disc to read data and its power consumption depends upon the resolution quality. Blu-ray is sucking up the laptop battery in no time and keeps the laptop re-charging all the time.
Therefore, it is better to press eject button and remove the disk from drive after using it.
If eject button is not working properly, go to My Computer and then perform the right-click on that disk drive icon, the click the Eject option. It will open the tray and now can remove the disk.
To perform little care can help you to enjoy the long battery life.
How proper charging of laptop battery can extend its life up to Four Years
User has to know about the following techniques for charging the laptop battery which maintains its power capacity and protects from deterioration. This information must be obtained to enjoy long years of battery life.
1. Keep charging the laptop instead waiting for fully drained
A laptop can be recharged from the charging point when already half of battery is fully charged. It is not a wise technique to start recharging the laptop, after battery has been fully drained.
2. No damage using the laptop while charging the battery
One can use own laptop while charging its battery will not affect the charging process; neither reduces the lifespan of battery.
3. Remove the plugged charger soon after battery is fully charged
User needs to keep looking for how much battery has been charged. It might be deteriorating for keep connecting the fully charged battery to the socket.
4. Use the battery soon after fully charged
A laptop battery has to be consumed soon after it is fully charged. If a user does not use it for days, it will affect the performance of battery and discharge much faster.
Final Words
The failure of laptop battery and its faster drainage is definitely going to impact the user and its productivity. It hurts the user experience and such issue cannot be neglected for long. To buy the new battery is not the only solution and rather can try above techniques to extend the battery charging period.
User can try above techniques without compromising quality of user experience and work productivity. Overall, a careful usage of laptop battery can extend its life up to four years.
