are there secrets to getting your laptop computer battery to last longer?

Answer 1

Yes, it's called re-calibrating your laptop battery. I received this info recently from HP tech support. What you need to do is fully charge your battery, then open your control panel then go to performance and maintenance>power options>power schemes, under "running on batteries," set all four options (turn off monitor, hard disks, system standby and system hibernates) to never, don't forget to re-apply these settings when you're done. Then let the battery discharge all the way down to where your computer warns you of critical low-battery, do this all at once, leave your computer on until it is discharged. Then fully charge your battery until it is 100%, your battery is then re-calibrated and should hold a charge longer. HP says if you use your battery often, this should be done about once a month, also if you don't use your battery (a/c instead), you should also perform this function occasionally. If this doesn't help, it could be your battery needs replacement. Give it a try, hope this helps.
This in addition to many of the suggestions above, turning the brightness down, adjust your battery power schemes, etc.

Answer 2

newer laptops have Cool N Quiet technology that will downclock the processor speed when it's not being fully utilized, you can go into the settings and have the monitor auto shut off after 1 minute so you do not waste battery life, you can turn down the graphics card setting from the its control panel to not use as much battery and you can also dim the brightness on the monitor.

Answer 3

Buy an Apple - they have the longest battery life...at least that was true when Motorola and Texas Instruments were making their chips... I don't think that has changed since Intel won that business - it's still apple's design, and it's more efficient than windows based laptops.

Answer 4

Just turn the LCD monitor backlight off when not in use.

Answer 5

Fully discharge
Fully charge
Switch off every time its not in use.