Top Tips for Better HP EliteBook 8440w Laptop Battery Life

HP EliteBook 8440w Laptop Battery Life

On our LAPTOP Battery Test, the HP EliteBook 8440W’s 6-cell laptop battery achieved 4 hours and 41 minutes of runtime, which is about 10 minutes less than the thin-and-light average. By comparison, the T410’s six-cell battery lasted 3:53, and it’s nine-cell battery lasted 6:02. HP sells an 8-cell extended life HP EliteBook 8540w Battery that connects to the bottom of the notebook for $159; it adds 1 pound to the overall weight and should more than double your endurance.

Ever been on a long flight, ready to hunker down and get some work done, only to discover that your notebook’s battery is plunging toward the red zone an hour after takeoff? So we’ve gathered these simple tips that will preserve your HP EliteBook 8440w Battery Life and boost your productivity.

1. Sleep Is Good

Use the operating system’s power-management features (in Windows XP, under Power Options in the Control Panel; or in Windows 7, under Mobile PC in the Control Panel) to set aggressive targets for when the display will go dark. And if you can spare the extra time it takes for the machine to resume, set the PC to hibernate, not just sleep, when you close the lid.

2. Don’t Be Performance Hungry

Unless you’re running high-order mathematical calculations on that long plane ride, chances are you don’t need all the processing power your CPU is capable of giving. So in Vista, select the “Power saver” power plan to extend battery life when on AC power adapter, and leave the 3D gaming for when you’re near an AC outlet.

3. Dim the Lights

Turn down the brightness of the LCD panel to the lowest level you can tolerate. The backlight sucks power like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

4. Banish Non-Essential Components

When you aren’t actively using the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and IR radios, turn them off , so they don’t trickle you dry trying to connect. Also, use USB-attached devices only when absolutely necessary. They aren’t getting their power from positive ions in the air, you know.

5. Watch Scheduled Tasks

Be sure that your periodic virus scan is set to a time when you’re usually plugged in; running a full-disk virus check keeps the hard drive and CPU fully engaged for the better part of an hour.

6. Lay Off the Multimedia

A little in-flight music is nice while you construct that PowerPoint presentation, but streaming music from your hard drive (or playing a CD) means the disk is always spinning.

7. Get More Juice

Let everyone else fight over that free HP EliteBook 8530w AC Adapter. Designed to sit underneath your notebook, the APC Universal Notebook Battery 70 can provide up to six hours of endurance using its lithium polymer technology. It comes with a variety of notebook tips and features selectable output voltages. The unit adds 1.8 pounds to your carry-on, but it’s better than having your HP EliteBook 8440W Laptop run out of gas midflight.