[NPMUG] Laptop battery optimization and maintenance

[Dave Sevick]

This comes up so often as a question ... it is worth posting in it's  
in entirety ....

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20090306155555550


Friday, March 06 2009 @ 03:55 PM PST
Laptop battery optimization and maintenance

Description: Apple laptops ship with well-engineered battery systems  
that are advertised as providing some of the longest runtimes when  
compared with portable computers with similar specifications. Despite  
this, while some people are able to get times similar to those  
advertised by Apple, others are frustrated with their experiences of  
these runtimes being truncated by at least an hour from the advertised  
times, even on brand-new machines. This is mainly due to a difference  
in Apple's testing conditions versus the way an average user will run  
the laptop. It's best to consider the advertised battery times as  
being at the very high end of what's achievable, since in Apple's  
tests the environmental and computing conditions are optimal, and the  
batteries are fresh.

There are many factors that can contribute to battery performance,  
including age, usage, calibration, environmental factors, and overall  
load. When someone goes to a cafe or library and browses the Internet  
while listening to music, even with seemingly minimal load on the  
computer, many tasks are performed that can quickly drain the battery.  
Bright screens and running multiple applications are just a few tasks  
that can affect battery life.



Tips for basic computer usage
For basic computer usage, here are some tips for how to run the  
computer to lengthen the battery life. This involves minimizing the  
computing experience, but if done correctly, you can increase the  
battery runtime, and sometimes well above the advertised times.

1. Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If they're not needed, turn off  
wireless technologies, since these will consume battery power to both  
broadcast and receive wireless signals. This will not only disable the  
hardware (or at least put it in a low-power mode), it will also  
prevent the system from running driver tasks to control these devices.  
If networking is required, you should use an Ethernet connection, if  
available.

2. Dim the screen. The screen is one of the largest battery drainers  
in the system, and we recommend that you dim the screen as much as  
possible. Ideally, you should run the screen on the first brightness  
setting for the best battery life. This can take some getting used to,  
but the difference in the time yield between minimal brightness and  
full brightness can be hours.

3. Turn off the screen when pausing work. Depending on what's being  
done on the computer, there may be times where you are thinking about  
your work, or not actively looking at the screen and interacting with  
the computer. This can be for a few seconds or minutes, but one habit  
that will increase the battery life is to fully dim the display when  
not in use. For instance, before taking a break to stretch or chat  
with people, hit the dim key until the screen turns off completely.  
Then only brighten the screen enough to do the next few tasks and dim  
it again when done with those tasks. This habit can greatly increase  
the battery runtime.

4. Turn off keyboard backlighting. As with the display, the backlight  
on the keyboard should be turned off unless you absolutely need it,  
and then only turn it on minimally.

5. Put computer in sleep mode when taking long breaks. Avoid turning  
off the computer, since booting it up will drain the battery. Instead,  
if you are taking a break from you work for 5 to 10 minutes, put the  
computer in sleep mode. This can be done via the "Apple" menu, or can  
also be done by pressing the power button followed by the "s" key when  
the shutdown options appear. This may be a slightly faster way of  
performing this task than using the menus.

6. Optimize System Preferences settings. In the "Energy Saver" System  
Preferences, you should switch over to "Better Battery Life" graphics  
when running on the battery (for newer MacBook Pros), and also check  
the option to put the hard disks to sleep whenever possible. There are  
several additional system settings that can increase battery life:

Turn off Spotlight by deselecting all items in the "Search Results"  
list of the Spotlight System Preferences.
Turn off "Automatically adjust brightness..." in the "Displays" System  
Preferences.
Disable screen hot corners (accessible in the "Screen Saver" or  
"Expose" System Preferences) to prevent accidental activation.
Avoid using Spaces, Expose, or Dashboard. If you have already  
activated Dashboard, you can quit by restarting the Dock. To do this,  
enter the following command in the Terminal:
killall Dock
Disable the infrared remote control receiver in the "Security" System  
Preferences.
Turn off unnecessary sharing services.

6. Disconnect peripheral devices Any peripheral device will take some  
power to run, and we recommend you minimize the use of these devices.  
USB mice, hard drives, and even thumbdrives all will take some energy  
to run, and as such, will lower the runtime of the computer. In  
addition, avoid using the CD/DVD drive.

7. Turn off unnecessary applications. Any open application will take  
up additional CPU cycles. Any antivirus programs, media players, menu  
widgets, and utilities that you have installed will use CPU cycles,  
and we recommend you quit these applications while on the battery.  
Minimize Web browsing, and when you're done viewing a Web page, close  
the browser window.

Tips for battery maintenance
Beyond optimizing how you run the computer when on the battery, there  
are some ways you can help keep your batteries as healthy as possible.  
The following tips should ensure longevity of your batteries.

1. Regularly calibrate the battery While batteries do lose their  
capacity with usage, they will also die over time without usage. This  
doesn't mean you should use the battery all the time, but it is good  
to periodically run it down to ensure it's being fully used on a  
regular basis. Regardless of use, we recommend you regularly calibrate  
the battery (once every 1 to 2 months), which will not only ensure the  
battery is being used, but will also set the computer to properly  
determine the remaining time left in the battery. To calibrate the  
battery, you will have to charge it up fully and then allow it to  
fully drain. More on calibration can be found in this Apple  
knowledgebase article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

2. Reset system management controller
The system management controller helps power management in the  
computer, and if there is corruption in the SMC's settings, it can  
potentially drain the battery faster than normal. Reference this  
article for instructions on resetting the SMC for a particular MacBook  
model: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

More information:
Apple has a few resources on its computer batteries, including some  
additional information and tips on batteries in portable devices.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2332

Dave






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://davesevick.com/pipermail/npmug/attachments/20090307/7e8917c9/attachment.htm