Unfortunately, laptops are not immune to the problems that plague other electronic devices, including battery drain, crashes, freezing, and random reboots. And for some people, no matter how much they spent on a new or powerful laptop, it simply doesn’t seem to last very long.
Laptops can be a great device for saving our time and making the world a more efficient place. However, like any other electronic device, they can be prone to drain far too quickly. How come? The truth is, different laptops use different types of batteries. However, there are certain things we can do to make sure our laptops last long and don’t slow us down.
If your laptop battery is draining quickly, you should check its charge levels regularly. If it’s been a while since your laptop was last charged and you’ve been using it regularly, chances are your battery is going to die before you even get a chance to put it on a charger.
Is the battery on your laptop rapidly depleting? There are a variety of reasons for this, and luckily, many of them are simple to repair, allowing you to reclaim your laptop’s battery.
The most frequent reason of a laptop battery that drains quickly is an outdated battery that needs to be replaced. Additionally, while running resource-intensive applications or when the battery settings are not optimal, your battery may deplete rapidly. This issue may potentially be exacerbated by peripherals.
On your laptop, most things that we can see — and many more that we can’t see – need less or more energy to operate. Even the laptop’s power button led uses energy while it is illuminated (although tiny amounts). However, they may pile up over time. Or you may have a single peripheral that is rapidly depleting your battery without your knowledge.
It’s critical to figure out why your laptop’s battery is draining so quickly before you can repair it. And now I’m here to assist you in achieving that goal by doing all I can to extend the battery life of your laptop. Let’s get this party started!
Causes and solutions for a fast-draining laptop battery
While not all of the issues that cause your battery to deplete quickly may be resolved, the majority of them can. But let’s start with the most common cause of your issue (which is, unfortunately, not easy to fix).
1. A battery that is old or defective.
If your laptop displays the warning “consider replacing your battery…”, it’s probably time to do so.
Laptop batteries have a finite lifespan, and although they may often survive for years without issue, they will gradually provide less and less time on a single charge until becoming totally useless.
After approximately 3 years of use, laptop batteries will typically exhibit a significant decrease in battery life (sometimes even sooner). You’ll think the battery is draining faster, but its capacity is really decreasing due to age, which is quite normal.
There’s not much you can do in this situation except replace your laptop’s battery, operate your laptop without a battery, or keep it plugged in at all times.
However, if your laptop is new or you haven’t used it much since you bought it, the causes for its battery draining quickly are more likely due to other issues that may be addressed. Let’s have a look at them now!
2. Battery settings / power choices that are incorrect
Many of your laptop’s settings may cause the battery to deplete far more quickly. Setting your display’s brightness too high, for example, can use a lot of electricity. High brightness settings are not only harmful for your eyes, but also for your battery life!
To assist your eyes and your laptop’s battery life, try to maintain the brightness settings as low as possible at all times.
By right-clicking anywhere on your desktop’s screen and choosing “Display settings,” you may adjust the brightness level. This will open the “Display” menu, where you may adjust the brightness settings as follows:
During the day, maintain the settings at 60 (unless you’re in a brightly lit region) and lower them to 40 or below when it becomes dark.
3. Misconfigured Power Options
Your battery drains at a different rate depending on the power choices you choose. By right-clicking the battery icon in the taskbar and selecting “Power Options,” you can examine and change your settings.
The “Balanced” plan will be chosen on most computers since it provides the best of both worlds, balancing performance and energy usage.
However, you may change this to improve battery life (or to boost device performance at the expense of battery life). To enter the menu, click the “Change plan settings” option.
To completely modify these settings, go to “Change advanced power settings” and select “Change advanced power settings.”
To make these modifications, you don’t need to be a computer whiz. They are readily recognizable and are divided into two categories: those that help conserve energy and those that help enhance performance.
4. Programs that use a lot of resources are running
Some of the applications and software you use can quickly deplete your battery. Some of them may operate in the background without your knowledge, while others may be active.
A computer game is the most apparent example here. Running the newest AAA game on maximum settings on your laptop can quickly deplete your battery since it takes more energy to provide all that visual pleasure.
Video and picture editing applications, as well as your antivirus and web browser, are other apps and programs that use a lot of energy (especially when you have multiple tabs open).
By entering “Energy saver settings” into your Windows search box and selecting the result, you can quickly see which applications use the most battery. Set the time period to 1 week in the new window under “Battery use per up” for a better picture of what’s consuming your battery:
Although there isn’t much to see in the example above since I use my laptop mostly for business, you can readily spot some hidden power-hungry applications.
Furthermore, selecting any program from the list will reveal how much battery it consumes in the background. This will aid in determining which applications and programs should be closed or shut down while not in use.
Also, while we’re here, you can enable battery saving mode, which limits background activities and alerts when the battery is already low.
5. Accessory devices
One of my pals was constantly moaning about how quickly his laptop ran out of battery and how he couldn’t figure out what to do about it. After taking a quick glance at his system, I was able to pinpoint the issue in a matter of seconds.
He has a large bluetooth speaker that is linked to his laptop through USB. What was he thinking when he did that? Because his bluetooth speaker “always ran out of power,” he devised a simple solution.
So he was exchanging the battery on his laptop for extra time on his speaker. However, that speaker still required electricity, which it could only obtain from the laptop’s battery in this instance.
Even if you don’t have an energy-draining item attached to your laptop, if you have Bluetooth enabled and devices linked through Bluetooth, you may still waste more power than you would otherwise.
What’s the name of your nice external illuminated keyboard? Isn’t that a colorful mouse you have? Other devices that you use or purchased only because they are attractive? They all deplete the battery since they need energy to operate.
Most of them, such as a backlit keyboard or a mouse, consume very little power, but if you have a number of them attached, they pile up and cause your laptop to run out of power sooner rather than later.
How long does a laptop’s battery last on average?
Because so many factors affect a laptop’s average battery life, the figures are all over the place. A typical battery life ranges from 2 to 10 hours, depending on the conditions. But, for now, an absolute average would be about 4 hours, which is what most computers provide.
Of course, a variety of factors affect battery life, including the battery’s age, capacity, and the kind of applications you run on it.
Even the greatest computers won’t last much more than 2 hours (typically less) if you’re playing the newest computer game while simultaneously streaming it, for example. If you just use your computer to surf the internet, the same machine might last you 10 hours on a single charge.
The age of your battery is also important. As batteries age, they will simply provide less and less time.
For example, I still have an old Acer laptop that I gave to my 7-year-old son to learn how to use, and it lasts around 45 minutes on a single charge, which I think is quite excellent considering the laptop is 6 years old and has seen a lot of usage.
My mother, on the other hand, is adamant about not changing anything on her old Lenovo (which she’s had for at least 7 years), despite the fact that you only have about 30 seconds after unplugging it before it goes off.
Conclusion
You should now have a better grasp of why your laptop’s battery drains fast and what you can do to solve the problem.
As you can see from the examples above, there’s not much you can do in certain instances, but you do have a variety of choices and adjustments to get the most time out of a single charge.
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Everybody has a computer that they use on a daily basis. In the course of a day, you use your computer on a variety of different tasks, from browsing the web to watching movies, sending emails, and more. But one of the biggest complaints about laptops is that they drain their batteries very quickly, causing you to have to plug them in every few hours.. Read more about why is my new laptop battery draining so fast and let us know what you think.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I stop my battery from draining so fast laptop?
This is a common problem with laptops and can be caused by many different things. The best thing to do in this situation would be to power the laptop off and then back on again. If that does not work, you may want to try uninstalling any software that might be causing the battery drain.
Why is my laptop battery draining so quickly?
This is due to the power consumption of your laptop. The best way to reduce the power usage is by lowering the brightness and turning off unused peripherals such as bluetooth, wifi, etc.
How do I fix my laptop battery drain?
The best way to fix your laptop battery drain is to replace the battery with a new one.
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