Introduction
If you’ve noticed that your laptop is draining battery power much quicker than it used to then you aren’t alone. It can be exasperating to watch your battery die while you’re trying to work or do something online without being tethered to your charger.
Various reasons can contribute to the drain on your laptop battery: high screen brightness, too many programs running in the background, intensive applications, old drivers, and questionable power settings. Moreover, your old battery might not be able to recharge to its original capacity as it used to do.
Luckily, there are quick fixes that will help the battery last longer. In this manual, we will list some easy actions which can be taken to figure out what makes the battery short-lived. You will learn how to change the settings, lower screen brightness, control startup apps, and measure battery status for improving your battery recharge time and capacity.
In cases where the battery life on your laptop depletes at an abnormal rate, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a replacement is required. The reason for the drain is usually due to various factors including hidden background applications, high settings on the hardware or simply because of an outdated system configuration. Making a few adjustments to the display screen settings could restore lost time in no time.
A Step by Step Process for Optimal Battery Life1.
Checking System Screen and Display SettingsLower screen brightness: Keep your display brightness between 40% to 60% to conserve hours worth of power.
Display refresh rate reduction: Reduce the refresh rate on the display screen down to 60 Hz.
System-wide dark mode: This helps in conserving power especially on the OLED display screens.Keyboard backlight: Ensure the keyboard backlight is off when typing in well-lit rooms.
Eliminate Background Resource HogsStop unnecessary applications at boot time:
Launch Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and disable all the unnecessary programs.Close heavy tabs: Bookmark and close all unused tabs which are consuming memory and CPU resources.
Disable networking services: Turn off the Bluetooth, WiFi, and Location services if you are not using them offline.Undo any drawing devices: Remove all the unnecessary external hard disks, gaming mouse, or USB pen drives.
Enable OS Efficiency SettingsEnable Energy Saving Mode:
Find the battery tray icon for putting your system on dynamic power efficiency mode.
Set timeout period to less value: Put the display to sleep in case the system is idle for three minutes.
Download drivers from the official website: Visit the official website of your OEM, such as HP support or Dell support, and download the required drivers.
Create a system report: Run a system report from the Windows command prompt by typing powercfg /batteryreport.
Reduce Brightness
The brightness on your laptop screen could potentially use up quite some amount of battery. Lowering down the screen brightness will certainly lower the amount of power being used and thus increase the battery life.
In Windows 11, you can lower the screen brightness by pressing Windows + A keys together to access Quick Settings and then move the Brightness slider. Alternatively, you can lower it through Settings -> System -> Display.
Try adjusting your screen brightness at a lower level when you are in a place that is dark. You may even consider turning on the Battery Saver mode or Energy Saver mode to conserve more energy. By having your screen brightness at a comfortable lower level, you could notice a significant change in battery life while using your computer for a long time.If your laptop supports automatically adjusting screen brightness, you can turn it on as well so that your screen adjusts to the light conditions.
Close Background Apps
Background applications may consume energy even when the person is not actively using those apps. In the background, programs may use the processing capability of the device, RAM, internet connectivity, and other resources available on the device, which may cause quick depletion of battery energy.
In order to minimize the unnecessary use of battery in Windows 11, one should open Settings > Apps > Installed Apps and see what apps are installed there. For those apps for which it is possible, go to advanced settings of the application and choose never for background activities of that app. Another way is to check the apps consuming a lot of CPU or memory with the help of Task Manager through the command Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
One should close all the unneeded apps, but it is better not to terminate any important Windows processes or security apps. Such measures may help one save the battery power of a laptop and may positively affect the laptop performance as well.
The background processes always utilize processing power and RAM and secretly drain the battery of your laptop even when you are not working with them. To stop such a battery drain, one should figure out these applications and shut them down.
This can be done by using the activity manager on your device or changing the settings in order to stop automatic loading of these applications at startup.
Quick Commands to Handle Background ApplicationsWindows 11/10: Use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager. Go to the Startup apps tab (it looks like a speedometer) and right-click any heavy application such as Spotify or Steam and select “Disable”.
MacOS: Use Command+Space to activate Spotlight and then type “Activity Monitor” and hit Enter. Select any resource-consuming application under the CPU tab and press “X” at the top to force-quit it.
ChromeOS: Use Search+Esc to launch Task Manager. Click any unnecessary background extension/application and press “End Process” at the bottom right.
Battery Saver Mode
Energy Saver is a useful feature of the Windows operating system which allows your laptop to save battery when the charge level is low. This setting decreases the number of background operations, notifications, and other energy-intensive processes which allows your computer to work for longer before requiring to plug it in.
In Windows 11, it can be turned on via Settings → System → Power & battery where you can configure the Energy saver settings. Alternatively, the quick access to the setting is available from the Quick Settings panel with a shortcut Windows + A. Energy Saver is useful if you have no access to the power supply and want your laptop to work for longer.
Be aware that certain background processes will be decreased during its operation, so some applications might be updated less often. The combination of Battery Saver with reduced screen brightness, decreased number of background applications and proper power setting will allow decreasing the unnecessary battery drain.
Battery Saver Mode is a built-in OS feature that allows to extend the work time of the device by restricting background data, reducing the screen brightness, and lowing down the processor speed. This mode is the easiest way to get more hours from a dying battery.
How to Turn On Battery Saver ModeWindows 11 / 10: Open the Action Center by clicking the battery icon in the corner of the Taskbar (or Windows Key + A) and turn on the Battery saver .
Energy Saver option.macOS: Open the Apple menu > System Settings > Battery and change the Low Power Mode option in the Low Power Mode dropdown menu to Always On or Only On Battery.
ChromeOS: Open the Action Center by clicking the clock in the bottom-right corner of the screen, click the Settings button (gear icon), go to Device > Power, and turn on the Battery Saver option.
Disable Bluetooth
Bluetooth will use some battery power when activated, especially if the laptop is connected to various wireless devices like wireless earphones, wireless speaker, mouse, or keyboard. When you are not using Bluetooth, it is recommended to disable this feature in order to save some energy.
To turn off Bluetooth on Windows 11 computer, simply press Windows + A keys to go to Quick Settings and then click on the Bluetooth icon. You may also navigate to Settings -> Bluetooth & devices to turn off Bluetooth. Even though disabling Bluetooth will not help to save much battery power on its own, along with other power saving measures, it can increase the battery life of your laptop.
There is no need to keep Bluetooth turned off if you use wireless devices on a regular basis; just turn it off when you are not using the wireless devices.
When Bluetooth remains on, it drains the battery because your computer will continuously scan for wireless connections regardless of whether there are any devices connected to it. Turning off Bluetooth stops this process from consuming your battery power.
Windows 11/10: Press Windows Key + A, and turn off Bluetooth by clicking the Bluetooth icon.
MacOS: Click the Control Center icon (two switches) located at the right end of the menu bar, click the Bluetooth icon and turn it off.
ChromeOS: Click the Time in the bottom-right corner of the shelf, and turn off Bluetooth by clicking the Bluetooth icon in the Quick Settings menu.Turning off this radio can save a lot of battery power when you travel or work remotely and do not use any wireless devices such as mice, keyboards, or headphones.
Update Drivers
Keeping drivers of your laptop updated may resolve several issues and increase the performance of your device. If the drivers of your laptop are not updated, they may consume more battery power than needed, especially graphics card,processor,wifi card, or other hardware drivers. To update your drivers on Windows 11, right-click on the start button and open Device Manager.
Next, expand Display adapters, Network adapters, and Batteries, and look for any other devices that need an update. Once you have found them, right-click on the device you want to update and select Update driver. Another way to update your drivers is to visit your laptop manufacturer’s website and download the most recent versions of drivers for your laptop there.
It is essential not to download them from other sites since they can be unreliable or unsafe. After updating your drivers, restart your laptop and observe how much battery it now uses. Updated drivers may not enhance the battery performance of your laptop by a significant amount.
However, they will undoubtedly resolve some issues related to power management and optimize the performance of your hardware, which will increase your laptop’s battery performance. As a result, it is critical to keep your drivers and Windows up to date.
Outdated and flawed hardware drivers may make the processor and power management controllers work inefficiently, making your laptop components consume more power than needed. Upgrading the most recent official software ensures optimal functioning of your hardware.
How to Update Your DriversWindows 11 / 10: Head over to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates. You may also check Advanced options > Optional updates for hardware and firmware fixes.
MacOS: Head over to Apple Menu > System Settings > General > Software Update. Drivers for Macs are included in regular OS updates.
OEM Software: If you have dedicated hardware such as graphics cards, then launch an official laptop maker’s app like Dell Command, HP Support Assistant, or Lenovo Vantage and scan your system.
Battery Health Check
To be able to identify the source of fast battery drain on your laptop, check the battery health status. As a rule, all laptops lose battery capacity with age, that is why your battery can’t contain as much power as it could initially. Windows 11 has a function that can generate a battery report, which can give you an overview of battery performance.
To create a report, open the Command Prompt as Administrator and type powercfg /batteryreport, press Enter. Windows will generate a battery report, which will give you details about initial battery capacity, current battery capacity when fully charged, and other battery performance details. Compare these two figures – original and current capacity, to assess the level of battery degradation.
In case the current capacity is much lower than initial, the battery needs replacement. You also need to pay attention to battery behavior, such as sudden drops in battery percentage, unexpected shut-downs or low battery life. If the battery is swollen, damaged or excessively hot, stop using the laptop and contact an experienced specialist.
Before investing in a new battery, one should assess its health to find out whether it will be able to hold a sufficient charge [1]. Due to the natural chemical degradation, the capacity of a laptop battery is permanently lower than when it was bought [1].
A built-in diagnostic utility can help establish the current performance grade in comparison with the original capacity [1].
How to Check Battery HealthWindows 11 / 10 (Detailed Power Report)Launch Command Prompt: Hit the Windows Key and type cmd.exe .
Right-click the found app and choose Run as administrator Execute the Command: In the new window, enter powercfg /batteryreport and hit .
Enter key Read the Report: The system will create an HTML file, so one should copy the address displayed in the address bar and paste it into a browser to open the file. After accessing the document, scroll down to the Battery Capacity History section and evaluate the Full Charge Capacity in comparison with the Design Capacity.
If the former is less than 50%, the physical cells inside the battery are defective and should be replaced.
MacOS (System Status Indicator)Access Settings: Open System Settings by hitting the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the screen Check Battery Health: In the System Settings window, click on the Battery option located on the left panel, and view the information under the Battery Health category Read the Grade: On the same panel, click on the information icon (i) to access the detailed report. The normal laptop battery will have the Status of Normal .
This section also displays the maximum capacity percentage, so one should consider replacing the battery if it is less than 80%.ChromeOS (Diagnostic Tool)Access Diagnostics: Hit the Search key and type Diagnostics into the search bar.
Open the Diagnostics utility from the list View the Status: In the Diagnostic application, click on the System tab to view the hardware grade.
Read the Percentage: Under the Battery section, one should see the Battery Health percentage and the number of charge cycles.
Conclusion
A quick battery drain will definitely be annoying if you use your laptop without a power supply connection, but there are some easy methods which can enhance your laptop battery usage time. Lowering your screen’s brightness, closing all unnecessary background programs, activation of Battery Saver, and switching off your Bluetooth when it is not required can lower unnecessary battery drain.
Updating your Windows as well as your driver software is another way which can enhance your laptop battery efficiency. Another critical step is that of checking your battery condition. Your battery may need replacement if it is more than a few years old or if your battery starts draining unusually fast.
Extending the lifespan of your laptop battery can be done through a proper balance of instant hardware changes and regular software maintenance. Instantly extending your computer’s lifespan is possible by reducing your screen brightness, eliminating any resource-intensive background tasks, and enabling efficiency mode options.
Regular maintenance of your laptop battery condition and updating your hardware drivers will help you have an efficient machine that works for years to come.
Final Checklist to Extend Your Laptop Battery Lifespan Daily Practice: Maintain your screen brightness at 40% to 60%, and remove any additional USB devices when you don’t need them.
Weekly Practice: Use your laptop’s task manager to close background applications that drain battery life.
Monthly Practice: Update your system to get the latest updates of your battery management software from your laptop’s manufacturer.
Annual Practice: Conduct your laptop’s battery health diagnosis to check your physical battery condition.