How to extend your laptop’s battery

How to extend your laptop’s battery one tweak at a time.

Don’t you hate it when you’re on the highway and the gas gauge needle is pointing at “E” and the sign you just passed says it’s 43 miles to the next town?  You do whatever you can –  roll up the windows, turn off the air conditioner, coast down hills — to make your last bit of fuel stretch to the next gas pump.

Laptop users often have a similar experience when their PC warns them that their battery power is running out and there’s no power outlet in sight.
If you know you’ll be a long time between places to plug in your laptop, here are a few steps you can take before and during your unplugged periods to stretch out the available electrons in your battery.

Adjust your power settings
To take advantage of power-saving features the manufacturer has built into your laptop, you’ll want to consult your user manual, as they vary from one machine to the next. But you can also give battery life a significant boost by tweaking the power options in your operating system. Here’s how:

Windows Vista gives you control of how your laptop manages power by bundling various hardware and system settings into three default power-plan options:
• Balanced offers full performance when you need it, but conserves power when your laptop is idle.
• Power saver gives the biggest boost for extending battery life, but results in lower performance.
• High performance maximizes system performance at the expense of battery life.

Switching between plans is a simple two-step process:
1. Click the battery meter icon, located in the notification area on the Windows taskbar.
2. Select one of the three default power plans: Balanced, Power saver or High performance.

Windows XP offers two power schemes designed for laptops and other portable PCs:
• The Portable/Laptop power scheme minimizes power use to conserve battery life, but adjusts as your processing needs change so system speed isn’t sacrificed.
• The Max Battery power scheme also minimizes power use but doesn’t adjust to changing processing demands. This setting is meant for situations requiring minimal processing, such as reading documents or taking notes.

To switch from the Portable/Laptop power scheme to Max Battery:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, verify that you're in Category view, and then clickPerformance and Maintenance.
3. In the Performance and Maintenance window, click Power Options.
4. On the Power Schemes tab of the Power OptionsProperties dialog box, click the arrow under Power Schemes, and then click Max Battery.
5. Click OK.

Apple MacBooks, iBooks and PowerBooks have battery settings that can be optimized with Energy Saver preferences. These basically put the hard disk to sleep when appropriate and reduce microprocessor performance to extend battery life.
1. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
2. From the View menu, select Energy Saver.
3. Click Show Details.
4. Select Battery or Battery Power from the "Settings for" pop-up menu.
5. Select Longest or Better Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings pop-up menu.

Care and maintenance of your battery
There are a few best practices that can help preserve battery life:
• Keep your laptop battery out of extreme heat.
• Defrag your hard drive regularly so it runs efficiently.
• Clean your battery contacts with rubbing alcohol periodically.
• User Hibernate mode rather than Standby mode.

Saving power on the fly
Here are some quick things you can do for short-term gain when you suddenly realize you don’t have enough juice to last through a meeting or plane ride:
• Dim your display; the less brightness the less power consumption.
• Close down unessential programs and keep graphics use to a minimum.
• Remove devices you aren’t using, such as a USB flash drive or a DVD.

Are you making a difference?
By adjusting settings to make your laptop less of a power hog, you not only help extend your battery’s life, you’re also doing your small part to reduce energy consumption.

Want to do more?
• Download Edison and see what you can save. Edison is a free energy-monitoring application for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista that was developed by Verdiem. You can choose the level of energy savings you want to achieve.
• Search for an energy-efficient laptop next time you buy. Computers with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star label have met requirements for energy efficiency in three modes: standby, active and sleep.

Fixing your laptop

Many people now have a laptop of some sort and that group is growing daily.  Repairs to laptops have always been fairly high but are dropping some.  If you have a laptop that has issues like no video, slow speeds or even bad power dont just go buy a new one.  There are many small shops are around that most likely can fix these problems for less than you think.  Make sure you take it to a reputable shop or tech.  Try us if your in West Michigan Area.  Or check your local listing.  So dont throw out that laptop when just maybe you still have a great laptop just needing some small work done!

Wipe Vista and load XP?

So many people are buying new laptop\pc's and turning on their new system only to be confused and scared with Vista and its drama. It has been fun finding the drivers for xp with no support from the manufactures of the computers. I advise many people to try and use it for a bit first to see if they can adjust. However for those wonderful pc's with low ram from the manufacture they need to upgrade to speed up that anchor dragging plastic and steel gizmo. Vista just has terrible RAM needs but thank god for the low ram prices at the moment. Systems running XP after the reformat of the drive run with blazing percision compared to the other operating system. So what would you do?

Verizon Voyager

Today Verizon Wireless showed off the LG Voyager, a followup to the popular LG enV. The LG Voyager features a large touchscreen on the front with haptic feedback, giving users a small vibration when they touch a button. This messaging-centric phone flips open like a laptop to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The LG Voyager is exclusive to Verizon Wireless and features support for its high-speed EV-DO 3G network. The Voyager also includes a full HTML web browser, as well as V CAST Music and Video and V CAST Mobile TV. The music player on the LG Voyager supports .MP3, .WMA, and unprotected .AAC music files.

The LG Voyager also features a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture, as well as a microSD card slot, with support for capacities up to 8GB. The LG Voyager will be in stores by the end of November 2007, pricing has not yet been announced.

Topps Meat

ALBANY, N.Y. — A meat company is voluntarily recalling some of its hamburgers after a cluster of illnesses in the Northeast caused by E. coli bacteria, officials said Tuesday.

At least six people have fallen ill in New York, and three were hospitalized, officials said. All are recovering, the state Health Department said.

The recall affects boxes of frozen hamburgers distributed by Elizabeth, N.J.-based Topps Meat Co. Contaminated burgers were found in one victim's home freezer by health officials, said agency spokeswoman Claudia Hutton.

Topps is "fully cooperating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure all customers are informed and the potentially contaminated products are.....more at

kelly pavlik

Looks like it was a great fight wish I would have seen it. Kelly Pavlik

The entire town of Youngstown, Ohio, came down to the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City to witness the crowning of a new star as Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) came off the deck to stop Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) in the seventh round to capture the world middleweight title.

The fight lived up the hype as both guys came to fight with a loud, pro-Pavlik crowd cheering on the action.
Taylor jumped on Pavlik in the first round with power punches to begin at a quick pace. Pavlik began to come back with a longer jab to set up his big shots. In the second, Taylor caught Pavlik flush with a right to stun him and followed up with a barrage of punches to send him down to the floor. Pavlik made it up, appearing to be in serious trouble but was able to hang on for his life as Taylor tried as hard as he could to finish him off.

In the third, Pavlik came out stronger than before, pushing forward and went right back to work with his long jab and hard power punches. In the seventh, Pavlik caught Taylor with his own flush right and made him wobble to the corner. Pavlik immediately rushed in with big combinations and uppercuts that had Taylor out on his feet and slumping to the floor in a half-conscious state. At that point, referee Steve Smoger jumped right in to stop the fight.

Computer Slowing Down?

Most people buy their computer hookit up and go surfing the net. Forget a few things that can help them protect their system. Microsoft Updates and spyware blocking tools. I see so many computers without any MS updates and still systems with only service pack 1 on them.

These updates are made for a reason. Updates are made to fix security holes in Windows operating systems and office software. These updates also now with sp2 have a malious code remover from windows which helps distingush code with intent to harm your system.

Also what I see missing is a good spyware removal or blocking program. Some people have adware or Spybot Search and Destroy but never actually run these programs or even update them. Their whole mindset is that they have the program and it should be doing it for them. We as PC techs should be pushing software that is automatic for the everyday user and stop puching the free stuff as the only source (still use it though as a secondary program) of spyware removal programs.

Two programs that seem to have high ratings are Microsofts Spydefender and Webroots Spysweeper. Spysweeper is known to remove up to 70% of spyware which is one of the highest out there. (that is why a free version of adware or spybot defender is good for the other 30%) So spending the 29.99 or more to save the customer in the long run is a good thing instead of giving them the feeling of false security with programs they are not using correctly.