One of the most common complaints by laptop users, how to get longer usage time. We've all been there, ready to take advantage of our mobile status, get some work done on the train or on the plane, batteries all charged are ready to go, when 45 minutes into your project, the first signs that the battery is going to fail appear. The screen dims and before you can save, your laptop shuts off.

This is not only frustrating of defeats the purpose of being mobile with your laptop. There are some steps that you can take to get longer life out of your battery.

Dim your screen - you can dim your screen considerably and still comfortably view it while saving battery power. If you're using a laptop to listen to something and don't need your screen, you can turn off the screen altogether in the control panel. This will save even more battery power.

Power schemes adjustment - windows XP offers two power schemes appropriate for laptops on the go. They can both be chosen in the power schemes tab of the power options properties box and are intended to conserve battery power. The portable laptop adjustment will adjust conservation to the amount of power you need at the time, while Max battery is much less flexible and keeps your computer at a very low constant power rate no matter what you're doing. The power scheme you choose also determines how long the computer will wait to go into standby mode or hibernate after remaining idle. Standby, conserves energy because it turns off your hard disk and monitor. Hibernation saves even more energy because it saves your work to the hard drive and then shuts your computer down almost all the way.

Turn off wireless network card - the wireless network card puts a drain on your battery, so a few not going to be using it, disable it. In windows XP, you can do this by going of the control panel, category view, network and Internet connections, then network connections, click disable. If you have a wireless card, you can just remove it.

These are just a few of the things that you can do to get longer runtime that a battery. Following the manufacturers recommendations will also maximize battery life.

Article Courtesy of http://laptop-camcorder-battery.com/