Tablets: Battery Optimization
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Tablets: Battery Optimization
Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3
What Drains Battery Life........................................................................................................ 4
Automatically Dim Your Display and Turn Brightness Down When Working ........................... 6
Unplug Any External Devices ................................................................................................. 8
Choose the Correct Power Plan ............................................................................................ 10
Sleep Or Hibernate? ............................................................................................................ 12
Disable Built-In Devices That You Aren’t Using ..................................................................... 14
Get In Range ........................................................................................................................ 16
Defragment ......................................................................................................................... 17
Teach your CPU to save energy ............................................................................................ 19
Clean Your Device................................................................................................................ 21
Discard That Aero Theme .................................................................................................... 22
Kill the Zombies ................................................................................................................... 23
Have Enough RAM ............................................................................................................... 25
Update Your Drivers ............................................................................................................ 27
Keep It Simple ..................................................................................................................... 28
Correctly Using Your Battery ................................................................................................ 29
The Future........................................................................................................................... 32
Walkthroughs...................................................................................................................... 33
Technique 1 – Turning Screen Brightness Down and Setting up Automatic Dimming ............. 33
Technique 2 – Choose the Correct Power Plan......................................................................... 38
Technique 3 – Sleep or Hibernate ............................................................................................. 40
Technique 4 – Disabling the Wireless Network Adapter .......................................................... 41
Technique 5 – Defragment ........................................................................................................ 49
Technique 6 – Discard That Aero Theme .................................................................................. 54
Technique 7 – Kill the Zombies ................................................................................................. 57
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Introduction
Battery life is a big deal – without it, a “mobile” device isn’t very mobile and you get stuck
seeking out outlet after outlet when you leave the office. How useful is that? To really drive
home how important the battery life of a good tablet (or phone or laptop for that matter) is,
I’ve written up this supplement to the Tablet series to help you get a bit more out of your
device’s battery.
Along with battery use details, at the end of this guide you’ll find a bonus section containing
useful information about charging and storing your battery. These are meant to help you
maintain the life of your battery longer – much better than watching it drain to zero in less than
20 minutes.
And to drive it all home, I’ve included a step by step plan to actually put all of these tips into
action, so your battery will actually last as long as it’s supposed to (or longer if you’re lucky).
And just a quick note for anyone with a dead or very close to dead battery – batteries don’t last
forever. Eventually they’ll break down and stop holding their charge. If that happens, it’s time
to buy a new one. The tips in this book will then be a huge help for your new battery.
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What Drains Battery Life
Picture taken from Microsoft's Windows 7 Engineering blog
Before you can cut back on battery drainage issues, you need to know exactly how much juice is
being sucked down by each part of your device. Microsoft’s Windows 7 chart for battery life
(above) shows us that the LCD panel is above and beyond anything else on the list in terms of
battery consumption. That screen needs a lot of juice to show off the power housed inside,
even on 7” or 10”.
Next, the chipset in your laptop consumes roughly 21% of the battery’s health. This is to be
expected since the chipset is the core of the device. All electronic devices on your device
communicate with each other via the chipset.
The processor and graphics card follow with consumption close to 10% each. These are the
main processing units of every mobile device. They require electricity to make every calculation
– from a key input in Excel to the video playback on your screen.
Next are the hard drive and the network card. These devices share the remaining consumption,
which is close to 10% total. Both the hard drive and network card tend to require much less
than “heavy” components such as the CPU. These devices can also be removed from the
equation for portions of time with Power Plan settings in Windows or the manufacturer
settings. If we flip these off when not in use, we can cut down on about 10% power
consumption in down times.
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Keep in mind that the numbers above represent laptop power consumption. For the most part,
a tablet PC is fairly similar in its power consumption, but with a capacitive touch screen, the
numbers for your LCD may be even higher, especially with the brightness cranked up outside.
Our goal is to find out how to adjust and change the settings on your device so that they use
less power doing normal tasks. We don’t want to cut back on productivity or give up the fun
things we use our tablets for, but we also don’t want our device to be completely dead after a
couple hours of heavy use.
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Automatically Dim Your Display and Turn Brightness Down When
Working
If you want to stop wasting energy on your device, the number one culprit is always that
screen. On a tablet especially if you’re not carefully, your battery’s lifespan will be cut to pieces
by a screen using up too much energy. When you don’t need the display to operate at full
brightness (in dark rooms, on a plane, or in a meeting for example), turn the brightness down.
To make it easier to adjust screen brightness, laptop manufacturers often provide keyboard
shortcuts. You can adjust screen brightness by holding down the FN key (function key) on your
keyboard and tapping the little sun arrows (also on your keyboard) to turn brightness up or
down. Usually those sun arrows are located on the F1-12 keys at the top of the keyboard.
Please note that this mostly applies for laptops and netbooks. For touch computers and tablet
PCs things go a bit differently, which brings us to the next fix.
Changing the Plan Settings - In this case, the idle time required for the display to be dimmed.
For those without the option for a keyboard shortcut you can change screen brightness by right
clicking the battery meter on your taskbar and selecting “Adjust screen brightness”. This will
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bring up the “Power Options” window where you can adjust the screen brightness by sliding
the bar at the bottom.
Slide the bar to the right and the display becomes brighter (using more energy). Slide the bar to
the left and the display becomes darker, saving more energy. Make sure you find a brightness
with which you are comfortable and use this as the minimum brightness – too low and it can
hurt your eyes.
Windows can also dim the display automatically if the system is idle for a specific amount of
time, and will light up the display again when motion is sensed. Dimming the display
automatically means that, when you’re not using the computer, the display becomes darker
and thus less battery life is wasted.
To choose when Windows dims the display automatically, first right-click on the battery meter
on your taskbar and select “Power Options”. In the new window that pops up choose “Change
plan settings” next to the plan name. In the new window choose the amount of time you want
your computer to be idle before the screen is dimmed. I usually have mine set to about 2
minutes, but you may want to cut down on idling even more so adjust as you see fit.
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Unplug Any External Devices
One of the biggest reasons that a laptop is a battery hog is that it has all those extra devices,
even the ones inside the laptop. A mouse, an external hard drive, and other USB devices devour
electricity from your battery. That’s not even mentioning things like your CD/DVD drive. A
tablet, on the other hand has far fewer plugs to worry about. Nonetheless, be aware of what an
extension will cost you in battery life – that Bluetooth keyboard may be a nice bonus, but it will
cut down your unplugged time.
Mice and hard disks both need power to function and anything that is plugged into a USB port
consumes between 100mA and 500mA (These measurements relate to USB 2.0. The maximum
consumption was raised to 900mA for USB 3.0). Most devices state their power rating on their
label. Multiply the mA number with the 5V current (which is always provided next to the USB
port on your computer), and you will have the number of watts consumed by your device.
Compare this number to the Watts your battery can supply in whole and you’ll see the piece of
the pie each external device is taking from your battery life. Your battery might have a mAh
(mA per hour) number on the label. This means the battery can supply that number of mA for
an hour before being completely empty. You can directly see the percentage of battery life a
component would take if it was left running for an hour and compare it to the capacity of the
battery to get an idea how much battery life you gain by simply unplugging that device.
Even Bluetooth pairing with an external device consumes power. Your Bluetooth module needs
energy so it can create the radio waves required to make the connection. This simply means
that the more you use your Bluetooth connection, the more power you drain from your
battery. If the device to which you’re trying to connect is far away, you’ll waste even more
energy since more radio waves will be absorbed before they reach the target device. When this
happens, your device will have to send them all over again.
It’s really simple to mitigate the battery life loss, though, once you realize what’s happening.
Simply stop using the devices when you need your battery to last. With your device plugged in
or when on a short trip out of the house, it’s perfectly fine to use an SD card reader or connect
a Bluetooth keyboard, but when on a long flight with no way to recharge, it’s time to conserve.
To help cut down on all that excess battery consumption, when you will be working out of the
house, copy the files you need to your internal hard drive and then unplug your external hard
disk and your card reader. This saves you the energy that these units would be drawing even
when you’re not directly accessing them. If you want to really cut back on your energy use,
drop the card readers and external drives altogether and sign up for Dropbox or Box.net and
get a cloud account. Connect to the Internet, download what you need and then disconnect –
easy as that.
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If you’re not using Bluetooth, make sure the radio is off completely – it eats up battery life
whenever it’s on, regardless of actual use, so your battery life can be cut down by a lot.
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Choose the Correct Power Plan
Just because you consider yourself a power user doesn’t mean you should go with the Power
user plan on your device. Unless you’re plugged in at the time or quite literally cannot get
anything done without the full breadth of tools provided in High Performance mode, keep it in
Power Saver mode as often as possible. Here’s a quick look at what each of Windows 7’s prebuild power options provides.

Balanced - The “Balanced” plan allows your laptop components to draw more power
when they need it, but saves on power by cutting off the supply when the system is idle.
This keeps performance loss to a minimum. And when you don’t use those components,
\ less power is sent to them or they are switched off completely.

Power Saver - The “Power Saver” plan limits the performance of your system a bit more
but also saves more energy. It will power off or give less power to components that
aren’t used more quickly than the balanced plan does, making this the best plan for
users who aren’t engaged in energy demanding tasks like 3D drawing or music editing.
For tablet users, this is almost always a plus – if you need a bit more power to see your
screen, you can adjust that independently.

High Performance - Of course, there is also the “High Performance” plan, which does
exactly what its name implies. It allows your computer to provide power to every
component whether or not it’s in use. For obvious reasons, this wastes much more
energy than the others, so there’s really no reason to use this plan while running on
battery power.
You can change your power plan by left clicking on the battery meter and selecting the
appropriate option. You can also create your own power plan, but since energy saving is our
goal, it will be better to just modify the existing “Balanced” or “Power Saver” plans.
1. First open the power options window by right clicking the battery meter and choosing
“Power Options”.
2. In the new window, you will see the available plans. Choose the one you wish to tweak
and click on the “Change Plan settings” next to it.
3. A new window will appear in which you can change the setting for dimming or switching
off the display, putting the computer to sleep, and the level brightness for your display.
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You can also take a look at the “Change Advanced Power Settings” window, but my advice is to
avoid this. These settings are already configured efficiently and the power savings you get by
tweaking them even more is minimal. You can also find detailed instructions on changing and
editing power plans in the Pictorial section.
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Sleep Or Hibernate?
Most users aren’t 100% sure what the difference is between “sleep” and “hibernate” for their
PC – tablet or otherwise. Which saves more energy and when should you use each? Each
option works differently to achieve the same energy saving goals.
The goal is to have quick access to your data and files during the day. Turning a device on and
off a lot is time consuming so using the sleep and hibernate options makes your life easier. If
you’re not going to use your computer it shouldn’t be working, but it should quickly come back
to the state you left it so you can continue working exactly from where you stopped.
Sleeping
Sleep informs the computer to cut off power to non-basic components and most operation is
stopped. However, data stored in the RAM modules stays there. RAM is volatile memory,
meaning that once power is shut off everything that was stored on the RAM module is gone.
Since we don’t want to lose the data, the computer must constantly supply enough energy to
the RAM modules to keep them active and your data safe.
When your computer is sleeping, you can wake it up by simply moving the mouse (laptop),
tapping the screen (tablet), or pressing the power button. You can then pick up working right
where you left off.
Hibernating
The hibernate setting works a bit differently. It first saves all the data regarding your
computer’s current state on the hard disk, in a file called “hiberfil.sys”. In Windows 7 this file
should be the same size as your installed RAM, so make sure you have enough free space on
your hard disk to hibernate. Saving the RAM data on the hard disk allows your computer to be
fully shut down, eliminating all power usage. When you choose to start it up, it copies the data
from the hard disk back to the RAM modules and restores the computer exactly to the state in
which you left it.
Sleep uses a small amount of power constantly to keep the system in a ready to go state.
Hibernating, on the other hand, uses a specific amount of power to store the system condition
on the hard drive and then restores it whenever you wish, even if that time is one month from
now.
Ultimately, if you will be away for an hour or two, you should put your system to sleep. Three
hours or more and you should choose hibernate. And of course, if you plan on being away from
your PC for a long time, you may as well turn it off completely.
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Disable Built-In Devices That You Aren’t Using
PCs have a lot of goodies built in, but if you’re not using them, switch them off. Just like the
external devices we discussed earlier, these built-in devices will drain power whether in use or
not. Think about your network card, your Bluetooth adapter and your infrared interface.
Chances are you aren’t using these devices most of the time, so why let them drain power?
On a Laptop
On many laptops you can simply switch these devices off with the flick of a switch. In fact, most
of them have a hardware switch above the keyboard or on the side that switches them on and
off. The Bluetooth and Infrared adapters can also be shut off by right clicking their associated
icons in the taskbar and choosing to see their settings. There you can find the option to disable
the device.
This process should be relatively straightforward. However, since this is a procedure
personalized to each machine, I recommend searching on Google for how to disable these
adapters on your specific laptop model.
On a Tablet
For a tablet, there are a lot less devices to switch off, but it’s still good to turn them off when
not in use. Many tablets have Bluetooth and WiFi switches on them, but those that don’t can
be controlled with the control panel or the icons in your taskbar. As before, check on Google (or
in your owner’s manual) to see which method is best for your particular device.
Turning Off a Network Card
Disabling your network card on the other hand, is the same for every Windows 7 device.
1. To disable your network card go to “Start>Control Panel>Network and
Internet>Network and Sharing Center” and click on “Change Adapter Settings” on the
left.
2. In the new window, right click on your network card and choose disable. If you want to
enable it, you simply right click again and choose enable.
3. You can also go to the “Network and Sharing Center” by right clicking the network icon
in the taskbar and selecting “Open Network and Sharing Center”.
4. Or simply copy and paste this in the address bar of windows explorer: Control
Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
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Again, there are a lot of devices with switches to turn off your network card – this is a lot easier
than what I listed above, so check for a switch first if you turn this on and off often. Also, if you
have a 3G or 4G antenna in your device, keep it off whenever it’s not in use. Those antennas
can drain your battery nice and quick.
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Get In Range
When using a wireless network, you can extend your battery by ensuring you are in range of a
good signal. When connecting to a bad signal, your network card works harder to connect and
stay connected to the network. Ideally, you want a three bar signal, and if you can see the
router-modem, get a seat nearby, but avoid sitting too close (no less than 2 meters) since this
might mess up the signal as well.
Remember that routers have stronger antennas than your Wi-Fi card, so seeing a router in
range doesn’t mean you can connect to it, or that your wireless network card is working at a
normal rate. Ideally, sitting about 4 or 5 meters from a router will make it possible for your
network card to work at a normal rate.
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Defragment
When you use a standard hard drive on a laptop, it tends to get fragmented. File bits and pieces
are moved around constantly when they are opened, edited or copied and pasted. It turns into
a mess.
Defragmenting is the process of moving all the parts that make up a file on the hard disk back
into locations next to each other, so the file is read in a continuous manner by the hard disk.
When files can be read together in a single stream, they use a lot less battery power to run.
Defragmenting every week, particularly if you move and delete files constantly, can both speed
up your system and save battery life. You can defragment less often if you keep file changes to
a minimum, but it’s still good to do this on a regular basis.
Why You’re Fragmented
The repeated process of creating, modifying and deleting files is what causes fragmentation.
This occurs because the hard disk is forced to break a file into smaller parts and save those
smaller parts everywhere around the disk (wherever free space is available from previously
deleted files) and then makes a map to reconstruct the file when you ask for it.
So, in a fragmented disk, the saved files are scattered around instead of being saved in one
location on the disk surface. When you ask the hard disk to show you the file, the hard disk
heads have to move around the whole area of the disk to gather every single piece of the file
and then put the file together and show it to you.
Defragmenting your disk means the disk will read and then write each file in its own place in a
continuous manner. After the defragmentation, when you ask for a file, the disk heads read a
small segment on the disk instead of moving around to gather the pieces of the file. Less
moving of the hard disk heads equals less wasted energy. You should defragment before your
disk reaches 10% fragmentation.
You can defragment your disk by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Go to Start>Computer and right click on your hard disk
Choose “Properties”
In the new window, click on the “Tools” tab and then click on “Defragment Now”.
Once you start a defragmentation process, you should leave the computer alone until
it is finished or be prepared to lose files and even damage your system.
What About SSD?
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For tablet owners, remember that you should never defragment A SSD (Solid-state disk). SSDs
are designed to work with fragments to extend their life. Defragmenting a SSD shortens its life
and doesn’t improve system response or battery life.
The SSD is actually a big flash memory container, like that flash thumb drive you have but with
more memory. These flash memory modules have a specified number of times you can write
data on them. After that number of write cycles is reached they can fail and should be replaced.
Inside the SSD there are many flash memory modules, and special firmware is designed so data
is divided in parts and distributed on many modules. This is called wear levelling, meaning that
the drive will become old and useless over time, and there is a possibility of data loss.
So when you try to defragment a SSD, you actually damage your disk and make it useless before
it gets old. Also, since the SSD contains no moving parts, there are no energy savings, so there’s
really no reason to defragment in the first place. All data is stored on chips and transferred
directly from the correct location to whichever application you are using. It’s the reason SSDs
are so much faster than traditional hard drives.
With SSDs being available at lower prices in recent years than traditional drives, they have
become popular replacements for traditional hard drives, something I very much recommend
for laptop owners. A few years ago you had to look closely at the specifications of a SSD and
compare it to a HDD to ensure it was more energy efficient. As technology advanced SSDs
became more energy efficient and made the decision a lot easier.
Don’t underestimate the power of a defragmented HDD though. HDDs implement new power
saving techniques too and while an SSD wins hands down when it comes to heavy loads, an
HDD might be more efficient in less demanding tasks such as reading a file on the
defragmented hard disk or watching a DVD. In other words if you can’t afford the SSD yet, an
HDD is just as effective for less-demanding jobs on a laptop.
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Teach your CPU to save energy
We covered LCD displays, hard disks and network cards. It’s time to see what we can do for our
processor.
The power a processor uses is dependent on both the technology it uses and on its “speed” or
clock rate. Processors can be overclocked to give more computing power, or underclocked to
save energy, as we are trying to do. Luckily, you don’t have to underclock your CPU or change
any highly technical settings to achieve better energy efficiency. Instead, you should install a
user friendly windows tool which “dims” and “brightens” your CPU automatically in real time.
Granola is a free-for-personal-use tool that saves energy without slowing down your computer.
It works by limiting the power given to a processor when that energy isn’t needed. When the
processor needs power it can have it, but when it doesn’t Granola intervenes and cuts down on
the processor’s energy supply. You can use it on your laptop to extend battery life, as well as on
your desktop to cut down on those energy bills. And the best part is that you won’t notice a
change in performance, even when playing games on your desktop.
Granola takes less than 5 minutes to install, requires no maintenance, and can save you around
25-30% of your CPU energy consumption. Not too shabby for free software.
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Clean Your Device
There’s no way around it – as you use your computer day after day, it’s bound to get dirty.
What you mostly need to worry about is dust and wool from your surroundings getting pulled
into the air vents of your laptop, clogging them up and blocking heat from escaping.
Dirty Laptop Components
This costs you energy in two ways. Computer components are designed to be more efficient in
lower temperatures, which is why they have fans to cool them down. By letting them overheat,
you force them to perform at a lower level and waste more energy. At the same time, the fan in
your laptop is working overtime, trying to expel the hot air from the system, thus using more
power.
You can clean the air vents and heatsink of your laptop yourself, but you may have to search
online to learn how to reach the heatsink of you specific model. You should also learn how to
clean it with an air duster or a vacuum cleaner. Alternately, you can take your laptop to have it
cleaned at a store. After that, make sure you avoid using your laptop on dusty tables, wool
blankets and cloth material in general. Cleaning your laptop not only makes it more efficient; it
eliminates the risk of overheating and burning computer components because of excessive
heat.
Dirty Touch Screen
Another thing you should take care of is cleaning the touch screen on your tablet PC regularly.
Every time you use the touch screen your Touch PC uses energy to understand where exactly
you touched the screen and then sends that motion to the processor to complete the task.
Having a dirty screen causes the cursor to lose accuracy and navigate incorrectly. Therefore
multiple touches are required for you to achieve a simple task. This causes more unnecessary
battery drain since the PC has to use extra energy to understand your touches and process
them.
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Discard That Aero Theme
Windows 7 ships with Aero as the default interface – while it looks pretty slick and makes a lot
of things easier, it also tends to tax your system, forcing it to process more actions and work
harder. As a result, you use more battery power. So, we want to get rid of it to save power.
What are you giving up by removing Aero? Not too much really. Just some of the slicker visual
effects of the newest Windows. The round edges, the see-through window borders, the quick
preview of a window when you point at it on the taskbar - this is all part of Windows Aero.
If your system has a simple, on-board graphics card with low dedicated memory, then chances
are that you are stressing it with the Aero theme. When you disable the Aero theme, your
graphics card no longer needs to work as hard to produce all those nifty effects. This means
that less power is used to display the same information. Most tablets will come with the Aero
theme turned off (as will netbooks), but not always so double check when you first turn yours
on.
Changing to the “Windows 7 basic theme” will make it easier on your graphics card and save
you some battery life to use on other applications. You can change the theme by right clicking
on your desktop and choosing “Personalize”. There you will see the list of themes available and
can choose the “Windows 7 Basic Theme”.
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Kill the Zombies
Every system has applications which don’t need to run every time you power up. Many
programs set themselves to open once you login to Windows, most of those programs being
instant messengers and search toolbars, while others install applications that check if a newer
version of the program is available. These applications and programs can be used on a lessthan-constant basis and still have the same results. And while one of the best parts about
Windows 7 on a tablet is that it can multitask and run all of this software, it can also be draining
on your battery if you’re not careful.
Close any unnecessary applications that run on start-up such as automatic update downloaders,
search toolbars, media emulation programs and whatever else you won’t be using. Every
application has an options window where you can choose if it starts up once you log in or not.
Make a list of the programs that start automatically and remove them from your PC through
these options menus. When you see an application that you’re not using, close it. Less
programs and processes open mean less calculations by the CPU and the system, resulting in
less power used.
Of course, the stuff you see in your taskbar is only the start. Windows has a whole litany of
processes, programs and tasks running in the background at all times that can eat up battery
power. We need to disable these tasks from the start-up menu.
1. To access the start-up menu, click the Start button and then type “msconfig” (without
the quotation marks) in the search box.
2. This will open the system configuration menu. In that menu, click the Start-up tab and
then un-tick any program which you don’t want running on start-up.
3. You’ll get a much better battery life and your computer will thank you later.
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Keep in mind that there are a lot of tasks and programs you want to run when you startup.
Anything from a manufacturer like Intel or Microsoft should stay on. Your antivirus should stay
on. Tools like One Note and Dropbox should stay on. Only remove tasks or programs if you
recognize them and know for a fact that you don’t need them, like Acrobat and Reader in the
screenshot above.
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Have Enough RAM
RAM is the volatile memory used by your system to carry out calculations and tasks for your
system. This chip conducts electricity (this is actually the data your system will use later to
display your webpage, essay, spread sheet, etc.) and stores it as long as the system says it
should be stored. However, once you shut down your system, anything stored on that memory
is gone.
For example, when you use a program, some files need to be copied from the hard disk to the
RAM memory so the CPU can run the program. RAM is used for this task because it handles files
much faster than your hard disk.
Not having enough RAM forces your system to use the hard disk for data storage. When this
happens, the system will reconstruct data into a file that can be written on the hard disk. It will
then write the file, and at the system’s request, the data will be reconstructed, stored on RAM
that just became empty, and sent to the CPU for processing.
This costs you more battery life since information is processed slower and the hard disk has to
be accessed constantly. A simple solution is to upgrade your RAM to at least 2GB for smoother
operation. RAM comes with an energy price itself, but since most laptops only have two
memory slots, you won’t be adding unnecessary RAM (which would have an energy draining
effect instead, if it was going to be underused).
What About Tablets?
Upgrading RAM is all fine and good for laptops that have easily accessible memory slots, but
what about tablets? The best advice I can give here is to buy a tablet that has enough RAM to
start with. Most devices these days are being released with upwards of 1GB of RAM, which may
not sound like much, but on a dedicated device with a smaller screen and less power heavy
programs, this is actually quite good. Some newer slates are even running with 2GB or 4GB of
RAM – a massive upgrade from tablets of only a few years ago.
What Type of RAM?
Aside from having enough RAM, make sure you have modules that are compatible with your
motherboard and that the modules (if you have two) are compatible with each other. There are
multiple types of RAM, the most popular being DDR2 and DDR3. RAM also comes with a clock
speed. To see that you’re getting the most out of your RAM, make sure that your motherboard
can support the full specifications of your modules.
For example, if you have a DDR2 supporting motherboard with 533MHz bus speed, there’s no
use buying a more expensive DDR2 module which works at 800MHz since your motherboard
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won’t be able to use it effectively. Also, if your motherboard supports both DDR2 and DDR3
modules, don’t mix them. Go for either DDR2 or DDR3, the latter being preferable since it’s a
newer technology. RAM works better in pairs, and pairing RAM is better when you use the
same type of RAM at the same clock speed and at the same memory capacity. So if you have a
DDR2 533MHz 1GB module, buy the exact same module to add to your machine.
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Update Your Drivers
Every piece of hardware on your tablet or laptop has a driver used by Windows to operate the
device. And a great way to conserve energy is to update those drivers regularly. Drivers are
“instruction programs” that direct Windows on how to send and receive data, and the use the
hardware installed on your laptop or tablet to process that data.
New drivers are released to improve performance, compatibility and power management, so
installing the newest stable drivers is always a plus. Updating the driver for a device is essential
since manufacturers often release patches to fix power management and performance issues
via new device drivers.
Aside from downloading the driver for the correct device, you should download the driver for
the correct version of Windows. Windows comes in either 32-bit (x86 architecture) or 64-bit
(x64 architecture) depending on your CPU. Always double check driver versions to make sure
you have the right one when updating.
Installing drivers in pre-built systems is easier, since most manufacturers have a list with the
drivers you should download depending on your laptop or tablet model number. Go to the
official page of your device manufacturer and locate the support page for your model. There
you can find and download the latest drivers for your components.
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Keep It Simple
I’m sure you think multitasking saves you time but let’s face it, you can’t look at all ten tabs in
your web browser at the same time while also working on an Excel chart, sending your client an
email, and listening to your latest playlist. To save a LOT of energy, only open applications when
you need them, then close them when you’re done. Keeping open multiple programs that you
don’t use drains your battery faster and offers few advantages.
Imagine two friends bought the same tablet on the same day. They charged their tablets to full,
and after work they went to grab a cup of coffee at their local coffee shop. At the coffee shop,
they both went online to check their email and downloaded a new CAD file that a colleague
sent them. They checked the football news, logged in to their social networking accounts and
continued browsing the Internet – all the normal tasks an average tablet PC user would
perform.
But Bob didn’t close the CAD program after he opened the file. In fact he opened the same file
twice by mistake. As he was browsing the internet, he always opened new tabs in his browser
without closing the old ones. He also ran his computer at “High Performance”. His battery was
dead in less than an hour.
Tom on the other hand checked the CAD file and then closed the program. He was surfing the
Internet for an hour, but he closed each tab when he didn’t need them. He had his system
running on the “Balanced” power plan and he even turned up the brightness of his LCD display
a bit because it was too bright in the coffee shop to see with the dark display. Ultimately, Tom
still had three hours of battery life left when he and Bob left the coffee shop.
Your battery is only as efficient as you are. Think about your energy wasting habits and correct
them if you want to get the very most out of your battery every time you leave the house.
Yeah, Windows 7 devices are fantastic because you have full control over everything you do
and can open as many windows as you want, but you will pay for the convenience – balance out
your use of the tablet or laptop you own and it will be much more useful in the long run.
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Correctly Using Your Battery
Cutting down on energy use is one thing, but what about keeping a healthy battery in good
condition for a long time? I want to share with you some tips I use to minimize lost capacity and
ensure the battery works like a charm for months or years to come.
While the techniques in the first section were meant to help you get more time out of your
battery, this section is dedicated to helping the battery hold the same amount of power for
more charging cycles.
One thing to keep in mind is that most modern laptops and tablets come equipped with Lithium
Ion batteries. You can tell that your laptop has a Lithium Ion battery by looking for the “Li-ion”
text on it. In the past, Nickel batteries were used (NiMh, NiCd) which behave in a different way
than Li-ion batteries. Those who used the Nickel batteries in the past may have misconceptions
about how to handle their batteries because of this.
Should I discharge my battery completely?
While this was true for Nickel batteries, Li-ion batteries can be severely damaged if they are
drained completely and then stored. Always stop discharging your battery when it reaches 15%20% of its capacity. Also, never store a fully discharged Li-ion battery if you plan on using it
again.
Li-ion batteries don’t need any special care or maintenance whatsoever. You just need to make
sure you don’t fully discharge them and that you don’t keep them at a 100% charge all the time.
Cleaning the battery contacts with a rag soaked in a little bit of rubbing alcohol once every
month or two will keep a Li-ion battery happy, but remember that Li-ion batteries are free of
the “memory effect”.
(On a side note, Nickel based batteries need to be fully discharged before you recharge them in
order to function properly. You should at least do it once every two weeks to counter the
“memory effect” of the battery.)
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Should I remove my battery when I am plugged into the outlet?
Having your battery plugged in when you are connected to the outlet is not advisable. On
modern laptops, once the battery reaches 100% the current is cut off to avoid damage to the
battery, but the heat generated from the various electronic components decreases battery life.
Don’t forget, the air vents are right next to the battery. For a tablet, this isn’t much of an
option, but you probably won’t use a tablet while plugged in much, so it’s really an issue mostly
with your laptop.
Also, according to the BatteryUniversity, if you have your battery at full charge all the time it
loses 20% capacity every year.
(You should avoid using your Nickel based battery while plugged into the outlet. Nickel
batteries develop the “memory effect” when you don’t fully discharge your battery before
recharging it. This makes the battery hold less capacity during the next charge, so you should
make sure to plug it in when it’s empty, and leave it until full, preferably charging on a laptop
that is turned off. Then you should remove it and use the laptop without the battery).
So how should a charging cycle work?
There are a lot of myths out there about charging cycles and battery care, so to make things
easier, here are a few simple things to remember about your Li-ion battery:





You should charge your battery to 100% if you plan to use it later in the day or
tomorrow.
You should use it until it reaches 15% capacity. Then you should recharge it.
Letting it drain completely might damage it.
Letting it drain completely and then storing it WILL damage it.
Avoid charging your battery if it is above 80% capacity. Many modern laptops won’t
start charging the battery unless it is below 80% capacity.
(A Nickel based battery needs to be fully discharged before a recharge. This counters the
“memory effect” of the battery, so it can hold the same charge every time.)
How should I store my Li-ion battery?
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Drain it to 40% capacity and then store it. Storing it empty will damage it and storing it at full
charge will decrease its lifespan. If you don’t get it to exactly 40%, it’s not as big of a deal as if it
were empty or full.
Say, for instance, that you are now connected to the outlet with the lithium-ion battery still in
your laptop. Doing this for a year at normal temperatures will cost you about 20% of your
current battery capacity. Anytime you work with your device plugged in, think about how soon
you’re going to use your battery.
If you will use it later in the day or tomorrow, then simply shut down your computer and take
your battery out to put it in your bag until you need it. If you are not going to use your battery
soon, then pull the charger cable and let your battery drain to 40% capacity. Then switch off
your computer and remove the battery so you can store it safely. When you put the battery
back into the computer, charge it to 100% before use so you have a full charge. Finally, make
sure that when you unplug and go on the road, you only let your battery drop to 10% before a
full recharge.
It may sound tricky, but if you want your laptop’s battery to last a good long time, this is the
best route to take. For a tablet PC, obviously things are a bit different (unless you have a
removable battery, in which case follow the same tips). You should keep your tablet PC’s
battery at the same power levels (around 40%) when not in use. When using your device,
charge it to 100% to start the day and try not to let it drain to empty. Most devices will turn off
before reaching the 0% mark, but make sure you pay attention in case it does not.
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The Future
The most energy hungry component of a laptop is the LCD panel. This component has come a
long way from the blurry, energy hungry screens of 10 years ago to the high resolution LCD
panel that your laptop has now. And now there is an even newer innovation in the form of noncaptive LCD panels, designed during the “One Laptop Per Child” program by the company “Pixel
Qi”.
These displays are LCD and e-paper hybrids which promise power consumption five times lower
than that of a typical LCD panel. And best of all, with these displays you can actually see what
you’re typing outdoors.
The same company is planning wide view angle screens, slim versions, and touchscreen
integration in the future. Even now, they are offering replacement screens for netbooks and
panels, as well as secondary screens for those who want to give the new technology a shot.
Keep an eye out for the first tablet releases with Pixel Qi screens, including Notion Ink’s Adam.
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Walkthroughs
Technique 1 – Turning Screen Brightness Down and Setting up
Automatic Dimming
1. Right-click on the “battery meter” icon in the taskbar
and choose
“Power Options” from the list that pops up.
2. Turn screen brightness down to the level you feel comfortable with by
sliding the bar at the bottom of the new window.
3. Proceed to setup automatic screen dimming. Click on “Change plan
settings”.
4. In the new window, choose the time limit after which the screen will be
dimmed.
5. Click “Save changes” to apply your changes.
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Step 1 – Access the Power Options
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Step 2 – Change brightness by sliding the bar at the bottom of the window
Step 3 – Click on “Change plan settings”
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Step 4 – Select the time after which your display will be automatically dimmed
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Step 5 – Save Changes
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Technique 2 – Choose the Correct Power Plan
1. Right-click on the “battery meter” icon in the taskbar
and choose
“Power Options” from the list that pops up.
2. Choose your preferred power plan.
3. Click on “Change plan settings” next to the name of the plan that you
selected.
4. In the new window that appears, change the basic plan settings to the
values that suit you best.
5. Click on “Save changes” to apply the changes.
Step 1 – Access the Power Options
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Step 2 – Select your preferred power plan
Step 3 – Click on “Change plan settings”
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Step 4 – Change the settings for your selected power plan
Step 5 – Save changes
Technique 3 – Sleep or Hibernate
1.
2.
3.
4.
Click on the “Start” button.
Click on the arrow next to the “Shut down” button.
Choose whether the computer should Sleep or Hibernate.
Wake the computer up when you need it, by pressing the power button.
Steps 1 to 3 – Putting your computer to sleep or making it hibernate
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Technique 4 – Disabling the Wireless Network Adapter
1. Click on the “Start” button.
2. Click on the “Control Panel” button to gain access to the computer’s control
panel.
3. Click on the “Network and Internet” category.
4. Click on “Network and Sharing Center”.
5. In the “Network and Sharing Center” window, click on “Change adapter
settings” – the blue text on the left.
6. In the new window that opens, right-click your wireless network adapter
icon and choose “Disable”
7. Re-enable the network adapter by right-clicking your wireless network
adapter icon and choosing “Enable” this time.
Step 1 to 2 – Access the Control Panel
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Step 3 – Click to access the “Network and Internet” category
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Step 4 – Click to access the “Network and Sharing Center”
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Step 5 – On the left, click on “Change adapter settings”
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Step 6 – Disable your network adapter by right-clicking its name and selecting “Disable”
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The network adapter is now disabled
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Step 7 – Right click the name of the adapter and select “Enable” when you want to enable your network card
again
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The network card is now enabled and functional
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Technique 5 – Defragment
1. Click on the “Start” button.
2. Click on “Computer”.
3. Right-click on your main hard disk, in this case “Local Disk (C :)” and select
“Properties”.
4. In the new window click on the “Tools” tab and then click on the
“Defragment Now” button.
5. The defragmenter window opens. In this window, choose the disk(s) you
wish to defragment and click on “Analyse disk(s)”. This will analyse the
disk(s) to see how fragmented they are.
6. If they have above 5% fragmentation, click on “Defragment disk(s)”.
Windows 7 can defragment multiple disks simultaneously.
Steps 1 to 2 – Access the “Computer” window
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Step 3 – Right click on the name of your primary hard disk and select “Properties”
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Step 4 – Access the Defragmenter window by clicking on the Tools tab and then the “Defragment now” button
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Step 5 – Analyze your disk(s) to see the fragmentation level
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Step 6 – Defragment your disk if the fragmentation level is above 5% by clicking on “Defragment disk”
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Technique 6 – Discard That Aero Theme
1. Right-click on your desktop and on the list that pops up choose
“Personalize”.
2. The personalization window is now open. Slide down the list of themes to
find the “Windows 7 Basic Theme”.
3. Click on the “Windows 7 Basic Theme”. It will be automatically applied.
Steps 1 - Access the Personalization window by right clicking on the desktop and selecting “Personalize”
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The Personalization window
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Steps 2 to 3 – Slide down and find the “Windows 7 Basic” theme. Click on it to apply it.
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Technique 7 – Kill the Zombies
This is to disable applications from launching on startup.
1. Click on the “Start” button.
2. In the search box type “msconfig” without the quotes and press the “Enter”
button on your keyboard.
3. The “System configuration window” is now open. In this window click on
the “Startup” tab.
4. There you will see a list of all the applications that start when your
computer starts up. You can prevent any unnecessary applications from
starting by un-checking the box next to their name. Remember not to turn
off any system tools from Microsoft or your device’s manufacturer.
5. Restart your computer to apply the changes.
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Steps 1 to 2 – Click the Start button and type “msconfig” in the search box
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Steps 3 to 4 – Click the Startup tab in the new window. In this menu you can disable unwanted applications from
launching
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