Your Laptop's Battery - a Few Important Points to Remember

Your battery is low again, ah?? Here's a pack of small details you probably don't know yet, and might be helpful for you:

1. What's better : keeping the laptop plugged in to the power socket or letting it get empty and recharging it ? most of you might jump and say "sure, keeping it plugged in". Wrong! the battery is like a muscle, if it gets some training, it preserves its potency. If it's always fully charged, it gets older very fast.

2. If you think that after some 6 months with the laptop, the battery holds for less hours than when it was brand new, you're absolutely right! To know exactly how much capacity the battery has lost, you may use the following software: http://download.cnet.com/BatteryBar/3000-2094_4-10866804.html

3. Along the laptop's life, the power meter (this little meter that tells you how fully charged is the battery at the moment) gets less & less accurate. This may cause you problems like: sudden shutting down of the laptop while doing something important. You can fix this issue by "recalibrating" the battery.
How to recalibrate:
a. Charge your battery completely. Then,wait 2 hours with the laptop plugged in.
b. Drain the battery completely (till the laptop turns off). Then. wait 5 hours.
c. Charge again the battery. Now, the power meter should be more accurate.

4. When is the appropriate time to dump your battery and purchase a new one? Experts claim that it's recommended to keep the battery while it's at least 25% of its original strength. Below this point, the battery can't give you a reasonable service.

Summary - the battery is the laptop's #1 headache, but using the points I've mentioned, might prevent this pain from becoming a migraine..