How can I extend the battery life of my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop?

Question

I'm having problems getting my laptop battery to last more than an hour while the machine is not plugged in.... it's making it entirely a waste to even try to take notes in school... All I need to do is run MS Word and possibly Adobe Acrobat. My config and settings are below. Can someone help with some settings or a solution that will extend battery power? My meter will initially show 3 hours of power left but that decreases exponentially and only last an hour at the most... I generally disable the radio on my internal Intel wireless card to avoid processing cycles used to unneeded wireless access. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I will be open to setting up new Windows Profiles if necessary and it doesn't screw up my desktop and settings in the profile I use most often... Thanks for the help!! Brett

Config: Inspiron 9300
Pentium M 2.13 ghz, 533 FSB
2 gig RAM, 533 FSB dual inline module
256 mg NVidia 9300
set at 1900x1200 dpi in 32bit true color
Dell Lithium 9 Cell 11.1v

Oh yeah, I have the longest life battery available for my model laptop, turn off my wireless card and bluetooth when not used. Plus the laptop is less than 2 years old.

Answer 1

Laptop batteries lose battery life as they age, there is really nothing you can do to stop it, you can slow it down, but it will happen eventually, it is just a technical characteristic of the battery. The one thing I can recommend that I don't notice you have mentioned is turning down the brightness on the monitor, but the best solution is to purchase a new battery.

EDIT: Also, ignore point number 1 that josiah told you. The memory effect applied to old nickel cadmium batteries, you have a Lithium Ion battery, it does NOT suffer from the memory effect. In fact, it is recommended on Lithium Ions that you charge as often as possible, and NEVER let the drain all the way to zero.

Answer 2

usually older laptops alway have this problem. to make your battery last as long as possible:
1. when the battery is used, use the battery all the way, don't use it half way and then charge it. they can form a memory and it will only charge half way even though it thinks its fully charged.
2. make sure your wireless card is shut off, your power settings are on max battery. screen is set on lowest light possible. no other processes are running accept the ones you need.
3. never put your laptop in stand by, it still uses power, most laptops go into stand by when you shut them. the best thing to do is hybernate them and shut them once they are fully off. restart them every once in a while.

Answer 3

in case you have this friendly message from dell which you need to reserve a clean one, then you definately ought to purchase a clean one in case you like good battery existence unplugged. Dell batteries are the worst batteries on earth.

Answer 4

Yeah, you are DOOMED. A new battery might do the trick. Visit http://www.laptopsforless.com to get a good deal.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 5

you can buy a battery booster from dell or a certified radio shack. or in your battery setting set in to power saver.

Answer 6

uh buy a long lasting battery ?

http://dell.com