We all know the feeling; you need to finish some work on the train but your sony vgp-bps8 battery has but seconds left and the charger is still on your desk. So how can you avoid it?
Logic will tell you that playing games or watching DVDs on your sony vaio laptop might just be a slight drain on its battery life. But what else can you do to use your power pack more miserly? Here's 14 top TechRadar tips to make your vgp-bps8 battery life a whole lot longer:
1. Turn everything off
It might seem straightforward, but you'd be amazed at how many people walk around with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi switched on. Turn them off when they're not in use – which is even easier if you've got a hardware switch or keyboard shortcut to do it.
2. Dim the screen
Running out of power fast? Turn the screen brightness down; you'll be amazed at how much juice it saves. That's because your screen is the most power-intensive component in your sony laptop.
3. Unplug unnecessary kit
If you don't need to have a flash drive or host-powered hard drive plugged in, take it out. This is doubly important for USB wireless adapters, 3G data cards and USB sticks as well as chargeable items such as phones and iPods; they can be very draining.
4. Optimise Power Options
In XP and Vista, visit Power Options in your Control Panel. If miserly power consumption is your top priority, ensure this is reflected in the settings there. Make sure you turn off your screen and hard disk after a short period of inactivity.
5. Battery care
Lithium-Ion sony vgp-bps8 laptop batteries don't need a complete discharge (contrary to popular belief) but also you should use a battery once you've charged it. If you have a spare you keep topped up, use that instead of your main regularly. If you have an older non-Lithium-Ion battery, you'll need to regularly discharge it.
6. Don't work your graphics chip hard
Change your screen resolution and, if you're in Vista, you can also switch off the fancy graphics. Some dedicated laptop graphics chips can be quite thirsty, though this is improving. Nvidia's latest 9400M from the MacBook still has a power consumption of 12W.
7. Get more memory
Give your laptop a break. If you're using intensive apps that usually require a lot of virtual memory, you'd be better off buying more RAM (though it's worth noting that more memory will need more power). Virtual memory isn't too efficient when it comes to battery life; it spins your hard disk more.
8. Get your priorities right
Working on an important presentation? Only one hour of battery left? Well what are you doing listening to iTunes and opening and closing emails. If you've got one important thing to do, do that – as a result of you not running your notebook into the ground your battery will last longer, too.
9. Hibernation is better
If you're going to be leaving your sony vgp-bps8 laptop for a long time, hibernate it rather than leaving it to sleep. This still saves the current state of the desktop, but means your machine completely switches off.
10. Take CDs and DVDs out of the drive…
Reduce optical drive spin by removing that disc. When it spins every time you wake up your laptop or start it up again, you're using more power.
11. …and don't install apps from disc on the move
Try to reduce the time you use optical drives to a minimum; they can be pretty power hungry and installing apps from CD or DVD can have an instant effect on your battery life indicator.
12. Mute your speakers
Playing music at loud volume? Even if you're not, your laptop beeping every time it gets an email and starting into Windows can be a drain. Switch it to mute if you've no need for sound.
13. Keep your hard drive lean
Remove rubbish files from your hard drive and defragment it regularly (while it's plugged in). The less leg work the drive has to do, the better your battery life will be.
14. Reduce background apps
Having clever stuff like Desktop Search and media software running in the background can be handy, but such folly makes your laptop work harder and run out of power faster. The same goes for scheduled tasks.
Of course, you could always get yourself a newer, more efficient laptop.
Now read The best free laptop deals and 12 ways to make your battery sony vgp-bps8 last longer
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