Battery life on a laptop

[SurreyGuy]

I've recently bought a re-con laptop from a well-known high street store (via their on-line shop).

How long should I expect my new acquisition to run on just the battery before I get a (paraphrasing) "your battery is about to run, please plug into the mains" message? The reason I ask is that (having left it charging overnight when I first received it) I am currently getting such a message after just over an hour!

Also, if the battery pack proves to be "faulty", will said retailer exchange it over the counter or will I have to go up the postal route?

T.I.A.

[Ethel]

Many factors affect battery life.

1. Some laptops have longer battery lives than others

2. Have you got it in powersave mode? Lower light, slower hard drive speed and so on,

3. What have you been doing? Watching a dvd is very draining on the battery, whilst mundane tasks such as word processing aren't.

[SurreyGuy]

Hi Ethel

Thanks.

I've not changed any setting to do with powersave, low light, etc. I have no idea how to slow down the hard drive speed, but can't think of a reason to do that.

As for what I was doing................surfing the net and creating a spreadsheet in Excel.

Surely my battery should be lasting longer than it is?

[Ethel]

What make and model is it?

[SurreyGuy]

It's an EI Systems laptop, model number 4215C

[Ethel]

According to the reviews, it has a very poor battery life:

http://www.reevoo.com/reviews/mpn/ei_system/41 15c

Take it back and tell them it is not suitable for your needs - you need a laptop for portability and the battery life makes it not suitable for your purposes

[SurreyGuy]

Thanks Ethel

I bought it on line and the decision was mine, so surely the retailer will say "tough luck, mate!"?

Also, I just wanted something cheap and cheerful that I could use whilst sat in front of the TV. I've never had a yearning to use a laptop outdoors or on a plane or anything like that, so maybe I'll have to live with the battery life. Unless I can buy an after-market battery that will improve things?

[kempie]

Items bought online (with certain exceptions such as those made or customised to a specific order) are subject to the Distance Selling Regulations whereby consumers are entitled to a cooling-off period of seven working days...

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/res ource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/

[Therema]

My son has just bought a re con laptop too and his battery is roughly just under 2 hours

[ACtheTROLL]

cheap and cheerful ... but you should get (is it a month or just a week?) a period of grace to return goods bought on line.

my fujitsu managed 50 mins the other day when I copied 30Gb of data to my NAS box

if you intend to take it out ... you could get a belkin universal car charger ... or slip down to maplins and get an inverter so you can top up out and about

if not ... does the battery life really matter?

look in control panel for the power schemes
give it full power when on mains (if the engines will take it!)

for spreadsheets ... you could let the HDD spin down without much delay and knocking down the screen brightness can make a heck of a difference


just to hi-jack your thread .... anyone seen the top of my USB stick? .... it was here a minute ago

[Ethel]

Yes, Kempie is right. If you are not happy with it you can return it for a refund.

By virtue of it being a laptop means it should be portable and I believe it should have a reasonably usable battery life.

You can buy better batteries, but they are not available for all laptops are expensive.

[SurreyGuy]

Thanks all - great advice.

I've got a lot of "other stuff" going on at the mo and can't really be bothered with the hassle and aggro that (knowing my luck to be what it is) I'll get trying to return it.

If someone could please explain in idiot terms (for me) how I go about changing my backlight and slowing down my HDD(?????), I'd be very grateful.

Thanks again folks

[ArchieWW]

I'm lucky to get 45 minutes out of my (fairly old Dell) laptop, but as I only use it around the house, I just keep it plugged in most of the time. I agree that a bright screen drains the battery and I will be interested to hear how to dim it, as mine doesn't need to be as bright as it is.

[ChuckFickens]

ArchieWW

Hold down the Fn key and use the up/down arrows

AC, it's down the back of the sofa, well thats where mine always ends up!

[Ethel]

Start - control panel -performance and maintenance - power options

From there, you will be able to manage the power and extend your battery life.

That is for XP, by the way, so if you have Vista it may not be exactly the same route.

[ACtheTROLL]

Just to stick my neb in

the basics are shown here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup /learnmore/russel_02march25.mspx

quite often there is a custom power option also ... sometimes in the bios ... sometimes in control panel

and sometimes in the start menu there will be a folder called utils or dell tools ..... or whatever.

chuck .... still no sign ... I found a fiver the other half of Monday's bacon sandwich (mmmmm bacon - still chewy as well) ..... but no top

[SurreyGuy]

My laptop has Vista on it (YUK!) and I can't find anything in "Control Panel" that allows me to alter power, screen brightness or HDD spinning.

I'm used to Windows and XP and it's frustrating that I (seemingly) can't even find a "My Computer" icon nor is there a "Start" option (in bottom left hand corner). I can't even figure out out to "Select All" in a folder :o(

[Jugglering]

The Start button in Vista (a blue circle enclosing the Windows symbol) may be hidden - here's how to unhide it:-

In the grey taskbar at the bottom of your screen, right hand click, then click on Properties. Untick "Auto-hide the taskbar" and ensure that "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" is ticked.

[SurreyGuy]

Thanks

[ACtheTROLL]

see this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935799