Good Laptop Battery Charging Habits?

[drgrudge]

I recently got a Dell Inspiron 6400.

I want to know the ideal lappy charging habits. As of now I just charge when my battery is around 10%, otherwise I dont charge and run without the AC Adapter.

So can I continue to do it and charge whenever it's around 10% or while playing games or watching movies?


Also I want to know some battery saving techniques..now I:
- Charge only it's around 10%
- switch off BT/Wifi when not used
- decrease the screen brightness
- use external usb drives when needed, otherwise I remove them from the slot

Any other tips?

[Arsenal_Gunners]

Here are some
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/03/1...p-battery.html
This one is nice
http://www.laptop-battery.org/batterytips.html
and this
http://www.livedigitally.com/?p=980

[drgrudge]

^^
Thanks of the links man.

By the way, repped ya! 41 points boost and 3 Green "Jewel" from 2.

[Kiran.dks]

One more tip to add up...
When it comes to lappy's one common thing we do is Hibernation or Stand-By mode. Use Hibernation rather then Stand-By mode. Stand-By mode consumes power. Hibernation doesn't.


Here are some useful links...

How to get the best battery life from your laptop (From Intel)

4 tips to extend the life of your laptop battery

Getting More Laptop Battery Life - "Good to the Last Drop"

Save Battery Life, Install Windows XP Patch

Save battery life on your laptop

[Kiran.dks]

You are welcome.
Regarding other two questions:
1. Adapters do get heated up even under no load conditions. Things have progressed well in adapter segment in recent days. Earlier adapters were made using "Step-Down Transformers" which gets heated up more under "no load" conditions. Hence their life is very less. Even overloading the adapter for 30-min duration would end up with Transformer blast. But now-a-days, transformers have been replaced with high speed digital switching circuitry. This greatly minimizes power losses and hence the life of the adapter is increased. It is also compact and light weight. The risk of the adapter blast due to hearting under no load conditions is negligible. I still suggest switch off power to the adapter when your lappy is in Battery mode. This will minimize damage to the solid state devices like capacitors. Capacitors life is directly propotional to it's operating temperature zone.

2. Regarding second question..

To check out the graphics card specifications on your lappy, you have 2 methods:

Right-Click "My Computer" > Manage
>"Display Adapters" will give the chip set family.
Now google that name and see the manufacturers website for gfx info.
Mine says: Intel 945GM Express Chipset family
Google intel: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950

The other method is by using 3rd part tool.
SIW is one of the best- small portable utility.
Review and Download:
REVIEW: SIW System tool <A good tool you ever need>

[drgrudge]

^^
Thanks man!

Now I'm not able to see the "Display Adapters" in the manage thing. Anyway no issues, I'll d/l the software you suggested.