When I first bought my laptop, I was getting about 2.5-3 hours on a single battery. Months later, for some reason I'm only getting <2 hours on a single batt. Startup groups are still the same (as far as I know), program usage is the same, although I'm using more hard drive now than before (possible cause?). Just wondering what yall might think is the problem.

Fan speed ?

Backlight ?

Sounds like a laptop. What sort of battery is it? If it is a Lithium Ion that shouldn't happen, otherwise the other batteries seem to be sort of disposal especially if you buy a pc with a limited warranty that doesn't cover the batteries. I have had about 10 different laptops and within a year on all of them the battery life was reduced significantly.

Also, your CD drive uses more battery than the rest of the computer....you can also set your settings to run the PC with less resources on the battery which will prolong the life.

Fan speed hasnt changed much, and I can control it if I want.

The reduced battery life is with brightness all the way down.

It is a Li-Ion

Guess I'll have to mess around with the settings.

Maybe it has a memory, although, i dont think those batteries do that.

My phone did that, could only talk on it for like 30 min

XPS?

Battery? This thing has a battery?

News to me.

I'll get 45min on a single charge, if I'm lucky.

I get 4.5 right now. Ever leave the battery in a hot car or anything? That'll nuke em.

Then there is the "memory" problem. Li-ion isn't sposed to really have one but you never know when it's decided that they do. Could fully charge and fully discharge it for the next few days. See if anything improves...

XPS?

Battery? This thing has a battery?

News to me.

I'll get 45min on a single charge, if I'm lucky.

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nah, it's a 5160.

P4, 3.2ghz, 512ram, 40gig hd, blah blah blah.

I have 2 batteries and on full charges, they'll last 3 hours combined. I used to get 3 hours per battery.

Guess I'll fully discharge em for a while and see how that goes.

My friends laptop gets like 1hr battery life, its pretty bad.

But then again, it has 2 fans and a 17" screen

Dennis, do you leave the batteries in and run your wall adapter to it for extended periods of time?

Just like a cell phone, if you leave it on a car or wall charger for too long combined with half charging(not fully drained battery then charge) this shortens the life of the battery.

Batteries do just wear out, time for new battery it sounds like.

The length of charge also depends on the number of cells in the battery, I have used some that hold excellent charge for over 4 hours, (i think 8 cell or somethin). Then our laptop holds a charge for a little over 2 hours. But reduce the screen brightness, I have found I can get another 20min or so outa a battery by reducing the screen intensity.

Dennis, do you leave the batteries in and run your wall adapter to it for extended periods of time?

Just like a cell phone, if you  leave it on a car or wall charger for too long combined with half charging(not fully drained battery then charge) this shortens the life of the battery.

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That would be the problem then. Fudge, I dont wanna buy a new battery, those things are like 100 bucks

Some of the better laptops use what they call a peak/condition charger and it is actually better to leave it plugged in with the battery. Basically has a sense in the charger and will only charge when the voltage is low, after that it goes into conditioning mode. Same way you charge trolling motor batteries for boats, good RC batteries and such.

What kind is it that you have a 3Ghz laptop?

Dude, he has a DELL

Dude, he has a DELL

Ha, ha, ha. Best part of a Dell is the service. Usually if it less than a year old they will give you new batteries. Dell replaced mine multiple times in my older PC's, the LiON I have had good luck with in them.

things are too blury to read all of it, so I will say that if you leave it charging too long or do not charge it properly, then that will reduce the life a lot. Same thing happened with me. I was lucky to get a fudgein hour out of mine, and it pissed me off soooo mcuh.