THE LAPTOP BATTERY – UNDERAPPRECIATED BUT CRUCIAL

Humans are excellent at adapting. Since the beginning of time, we have learnt, adapted and evolved. New inventions soon become necessities and we absorb and incorporate these into our daily lives with such ease that they practically become the norm.

Take portable devices for example.  Can you remember the last time you met someone who did not have a phone, PDA or laptop? These are not only the enablers but are also the core components of the support system of our very busy, very mobile lives. Devices like laptop computers have increased mankind’s productivity many folds and the demand for these seems insatiable!

Laptops are at the very centre of this information technology era that we live in today. The rise of laptops in their original mobile format started in the late 1980s. In 1986, battery powered portable computers i.e laptops, had only 2% of the worldwide market share; by 2008, this figure jumped dramatically when more laptops than desktops were sold worldwide. As per Gartner analysts, mobile PCs have been averaging a growth rate approaching 40% during the period 2005-2010. A double-digit growth figure for the mobile PC industry (these include laptops, net books and tablets) continues to be forecasted by Gartner for the period 2011-2015.

With the rise of laptop computers, came the rise of the single most important factor that has made its mobility a reality – the laptopbattery! The laptop computer battery (or as it is sometimes referred to as the notebook battery) is undoubtedly the most important component, the very lifeblood of this modern portable technology. It is the laptop battery that provides power to our laptop computer when we are on the move. Regardless of the hardware specs, or the software you have loaded on your laptop, if the battery fails and you don’t have a power socket nearby – you stop being productive.

Despite its crucial role, the laptop battery is often underappreciated or overlooked by both customers as well as laptop computer manufacturers. While we are all intent in knowing the speed of the processor, or the size of the memory, or the hard drive space – most folks don’t pay too much attention to the specifications of the laptop battery such as its chemistry, its capacity, the number of cells  (Cells are electrochemical units that store power when charged and release this electrical charge when needed later) it uses or even the brand of the cells utilized by the laptop battery pack – all of these elements can make a big difference in the overall performance of the laptop battery.

When we purchase a laptop computer, we invest a decent amount in the hardware and software. One expects this investment to be amortized over a period of several years. It’s safe to assume that most people switch to a new laptops after 3 to 5 years. However, in most instances, the laptop battery has a battery life of only 12 to 15 months.  After this time you will start to notice that the time you can use your laptop on battery power – starts to reduce rapidly to the point when the battery is only able to provide a few minutes of battery power. At this point, there is no need to buy a new laptop or be confined to using the laptop only with its power adaptor in proximity to a power socket! Several consumers are unaware that the best course of action is to invest in a replacement laptop battery that extends the usable life of the laptop computer. Laptop batteriescan be purchased from the original laptop manufacturers or online from other aftermarket laptop battery retailers.

In general, technological progress is growing at an accelerated pace. Many scientists have stated that the technological progress made in the last few decades is greater than the total technological progress made by humans since the beginning of time. Nevertheless, no matter what the new gadget and what the new technology; the battery is not going anywhere! It may change its avatar but it will continue to remain the oxygen for our mobile devices for the foreseeable future!

How to Replace Your Laptop Battery

How to Replace Your Laptop Battery

If your laptop battery fails or no longer holds a sufficient charge, you can easily replace it. Follow these steps:

1.     Turn off your laptop and disconnect the AC adapter.

2.     Release the latch or other attachment devices that hold your battery in place.

3.     Slide the old battery out of its compartment or storage bay.

Laptop Battery

Press the release button if there is one and carefully lift the battery out of its compartment.

Avoid touching the contacts on the battery itself or inside the bay; the oils on your fingertips could reduce the conductivity of the battery.

4.     Take the replacement battery out of the box.

5.     Slide it into the notch or bay.

Laptop Battery

6.     Close the safety latch to lock it into place.

7.     Reconnectthe AC adapter and give the battery a full charge.

Acer Aspire V3-571G Ci3(3rd Genration) 2.5GHz

Overview

Aspire V3-571G

It's apparent that Acer wanted to produce a work horse when they made the Aspire V3-571G. It certainly will get the job done with its impressive 3rd generation Intel Core i3 processor and powerful NVIDIA graphics card. However, the relatively high-end spec points of this machine comes at a cost. The overall build quality of the machine is questionable, and the display is rather lackluster. Can the Aspire's strong performance make up for its weak visual aesthetics and display? Read the full review to find out.

Build and Design

Aspire V3-571G

The Black Glossy plastic exterior of the Aspire 571G initially caught my eye when I took the machine out the box. At first glance it looks sleek, beautifully reflecting light off its surface. However, the second my finger touched the chassis I realized this was a terrible a design choice. The glossy plastic is a fingerprint magnet, as even the lightest touch will sure to result in an unseemly smudge. With only minimal transportation -- usually consisting of taking the notebook to and from work -- the once pristine exterior looked as though someone had viciously whipped their greasy paws all over the device. It's unfortunate that the plastic cover is so easily decremented, as it looked great out of the box; but keeping the machine in that out-of-the box condition appears to be rather unlikely. I fear for the sanity of any OCD consumers (like myself) who may purchase this notebook.

On a brighter note the thin metal coating that supports the keyboard and speakers actually complements the glossy plastic quite well. Furthermore it is fully resistant to fingerprints, it's a shame that the rest of the chassis could not be made of the same material.

Due to how messy the device is sure to become in transport I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but weighing in at only 5.7 pounds (6.7 with adapter), it is more than manageable to use this device on the go. Additionally the device should fit in most travel bags with its dimensions of 15 x 10 x 1 inches.

Aspire V3-571G

While the fingerprints are problematic, what really worries me about this device is its structure quality. When bending the chassis I was startled to find the device giving way without much effort on my part. Pressure on the back of the display case employs noticeable rippling on the display. I was actually worried about stressing the display panel too much for fear that it might actually break. Obviously Acer had to save costs somewhere offering its impressive graphics card and processor, but the poor build quality makes me apprehensive about the durability of this machine. Seeing how easily the device gives to even the slightest exertion of force, I seriously question how well this device will hold up in the long-run, especially if it is being transported on a consistent basis.

Input and Output Ports

Aspire V3-571G

The V3-571G offers the majority of its ports on the left side of the chassis, including a USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, and audio and mic jacks. There are also two USB 2.0 ports on the right side along with the disk tray (which sadly, only feeds into a DVD drive). There are no ports located on the back of the device and only the media card reader is situated in the front, located at the front left corner of the device.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Aspire V3-571G

The notebook offers a full size 'Chiclet' style keyboard complete with a dedicated numeric keypad. Thought this keyboard supports all of the bells and whistles, it is a chore to use. The shallow key compression and lack of tactile feedback makes it difficult for users to tell when they have fully struck the desired keystroke. Furthermore, there were several instances where the keypad failed to read my keystrokes at all. Additionally the exceptionally wide keyboard, which almost uses the entire width of the notebook's 15-inch frame, can make entering functions such as ctrl + alt +delete far more difficult than on other keyboards. Also the strangely spaced keys makes it difficult to navigate to some of the more estranged keys, such as the insert key which is not only oddly placed, but difficult to hit due to its reduced size. While this is fine for average use, if you plan on doing something more extensive such as gaming you will certainly want to use an external keyboard.

The touchpad, (which uses Elan drivers in place of Synaptics) is probably the weakest point of the entire machine. The touchpad by design appears sound, offering a scroll section located to right and dedicated right and left click buttons at the bottom of the pad. However, the touchpad is anything but responsive as it constantly lags or even worse fails to read input all together. Furthermore, thought the machine has a quarantined scroll section, I found myself unintentionally scrolling both horizontally and vertically on pages while simply attempting to move the cursor. It's true that most touchpads occasionally misread input such as this, but the pad on the V3-571 Gwas far too inconsistent to be overlooked. The pad will work for simple pointing and clicking; but if you want to do anything else, such as enlarging images or highlighting text, I'd highly recommend using a USB mouse instead.

Screen and Speakers

Similar to the keyboard and touchpad the Aspire's display is somewhat of a disappointment. The 15.6-inch HD LED LCD display only offers a1366 x 768 resolution, which is more commonly seen on smaller 13-inch and 14-inch displays. The large display and low resolution combines in a visual experience that is grainy with minimal color contrast. Additionally the glossy display also offers limited viewing angles. While not terrible from most horizontal angles, tilting the screen slightly forwards or backwards will quickly make the screen appeared dimmed.

Aspire V3-571G

Light is also proves to be a problem, as the glossy finish is highly reflective. While this of course problematic for outdoor use, strong indoor lighting also significantly catches the glossy screen. Again the display is serviceable; but if you are looking for an optimal viewing experience or want to multi-task, you would be better off using an external monitor.

The speakers on the other hand, which use Dolby Digital Home Theater fare much better. Located at the back of keyboard the two stereo speakers are quite boisterous, only requiring around 50 percent capacity to fill most rooms. At 50 percent the speakers perform admirably offering clear, clean audio; though there is a noticeable lack of bass due to the lack of a subwoofer. However, the sound quality does greatly diminish when the audio is pushed past 90 percent becoming noticeably distorted. The speakers offer better than expected audio quality for a budget lap top. It's great for personal use, just don't expect to be able to crank the volume all the way up and receive the same quality.

Dell Latitude Dell E6400/6500Dell E6400/6500 14.1in Business Notebook

Dell's Latitude range is a regular feature of any commute. Get on any morning commuter train and your bound to see Latitudes of all shapes, sizes and ages dealing with spreadsheets, email, documents and the like and probably the most common would be the 14.1in Latitude D630, or its predecessor the D620, both of which received a Recommended Award when we reviewed them. Whereas in the consumer space this form factor is largely being edged out, in the business sector it remains a particularly appealing compromise between performance, portability and usability. No surprise, then, to see Dell using its new 14.1in Latitude E6400 as the poster child of the new Latitude range.

Dell E6400/6500

In the past we've always praised ThinkPad's, like the wonderful X300, for their timeless design and Dell has clearly tried to achieve a similar effect with the new Latitudes. It doesn't quite manage this but unlike the D630, which was more of a refresh than anything else, the E6400 ispart of a complete redesign of the Latitude range and though naturally it retains the professional appearance of previous Latitude's, it brings with it a level of sleekness and style that's previously been missing.

Dell E6400/6500

This is achieved through a combination of some strong angular lines and a classy magnesium alloy construction that's most evident in the brushed metal lid. It's not complicated but it does work and it helps that the E6400 is fairly light and slim for its size. At its thickest it measures 31mm and with the standard six-cell battery it weighs 2.3kg, making for a fairly portable weight that's 100g or so lighter than the D630 it's replacing. Plus, for the adventurous, Dell is even selling coloured lids for Latitude's too, though we can't see many companies being interested in this!

Dell E6400/6500

So far, so good, but the magnesium alloy construction isn't just about making the E6400 look good, it's primarily about strength and here Dell scores another win. Almost every element of the E6400 looks and feels very sturdy and particular praise must be directed toward the hinge. It's very strong and stiff, so bumpy journeys shouldn't be a problem, while the machine is evenly balanced so the front doesn't lift up when opening the lid and/or adjusting the screen angle - something that's a regular annoyance on consumer laptops. There's also a reassuringly secure lid clasp on the front, so you needn't worry about your laptop popping open when inside a bag.

This sense of quality is continued in the keyboard. As ever with Dell, the basic layout of the keyboard is excellent. There's a large and very usable Shift key on the right, below which sits offset cursor keys, while the Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys are all grouped in a grid in the top right. Everything is more or less exactly where you'd expect and want it to be, the only exception being the omission of the 'Menu' key normally found on the bottom row. It's hardly a deal breaker, though, especially if it allows everything else to be just right.

Dell E6400/6500

This layout prowess is coupled with, without doubt, the best feeling Dell keyboard we've ever come across. Keys are tactile, well proportioned, firm and responsive and you have to press extremely hard to garner even a tiny amount of flex. It still lacks the supreme quality found in ThinkPad keyboards, but other than that it's hard to find any fault whatsoever.

Seeking out for a New Laptop Battery power

Listed here is a quick and easy option to finding the most effective substitute laptop battery on your laptop or computer. In case you are being a lot of people out there and your mobile computer power supply just isn't what it really was once, then you definitely could possibly be inside challenging circumstances when attempting to locate a an alternative one. There are various components that have to become accounted for when selecting a whole new battery pack on your laptop or computer such as the measurement, the particular voltage specifications of one's personal computer, the standing of your battery, along with and you'll discover one particular. Get the electric battery you will need for no more with laptops for less coupon codes.

To start with, you should locate a alternative notebook battery that will actually fit as part of your personal computer. It wouldn't end up being excellent if you get home with your fresh battery to discover that it doesn't actually physically complement with your laptop. To make this happen, everything that is frequently required is made for one to be aware of the personal computers model and make quantity or even the part amount on your own outdated battery. By doing this, it is possible to match up battery for the battery inner compartment.

After that you have to be sure that the alternative battery that you obtain gets the same voltage as the laptop or computer. It is a quite essential action then one that can be effortlessly ignored. If you are buying your substitution notebook battery through the use of laptops for less coupon then you definitely should be able to match up a battery in your computer with no difficulty. Nearly all computers enable some a disparity among voltages, with regards to just one volt, but it is best to find a perfect match up.

Now that you've got discovered the particular voltage, you should decide on the actual rating with the battery pack you wish. This can be based on looking at the actual ranking for the electric battery that may be in a choice of watt-hours (WHr) or maybe milliamp-hours (MAh). This rating simply notifys you how much charge an electric battery can give you as well as for how much time. And so the higher the particular rating, the greater strength battery power offers which often signifies it will be more costly.

After you have discovered the exact electric battery that you want, you need to get a single. There are many niche stores that handle laptop computer battery packs on the web just like laptops for fewer discounts code you could acquireelectric batteries. These are fantastic as they are able give you a great deal of expert consultancy and are also extremely cut-throat in relation to price tag. They even can ship out there many things on the day you set your buy.

Your laptop battery and your health

When you are using the laptop, you should take care of many things related to the battery in order that the battery as well as the user that is you remains safe from any kind of danger.

First, never keep the batteries adjacent to the fire or any place of too much heat since extreme heat can result in the explosion of the batteries. 

Secondly, any people should not carry the charging devices within the pocket as well as in their purse along with the metal objects, coins, hairpins and paper clips because short circuit may happen which in turn will cause extreme heat.

Third common risk, which you should avoid, is mixing the old batteries with the new ones or mixing dissimilar kinds of charging devices together because such things may cause leakage which is injurious to your health as well as your belongings. 

The fourth risk occurs when people try to disassemble the various battery parts of their notebook on their own without calling the expert, in order to rectify any kind of problems in the batteries. By no means, you should do this if you don’t have the particular knowledge, because this may cause heavy explosion, which will harm not only you but also your property and other people in the house. There were such incidents in the past where the users have died due to the explosion when trying to disassemble the battery parts. 

In addition to these, if the users overcharge the batteries or there is anelectrical error, say a short circuit, the chemical elements present within the cells of the battery may turn into an explosive and can catch fire at any moment.

Top quality dell inspiron 9300 laptop battery

Top quality dell inspiron 9300 laptop battery

Inspiron9300 Battery power gives you the ability to use your computer around the house, in the office and when you travel. This Dell li-ion battery is designed exclusively for use with the inspiron 6000,inspiron 9300,inspiron 9400 Notebooks. It is also backward compatible with inspiron 9200,inspiron e1705 Notebooks.

ThisDell inspiron 9300 laptop battery features li-ion chemistry within its cells. The lithium battery technology provides longer run times with less weight.This inspiron 9300 laptop battery replacement is 100% compatible with the original Dell laptop battery specifications and is individually tested and backed by a 1 year warranty. This battery is rated at 11.1 volts and 6600mAh capacity. You can expect 3-4 hours of run time with this battery.It also fits Dell inspiron 9400 laptop computer.

inspiron9300 battery specifications:

Chemistry: Lithium-Ion

Voltage: 11.1V

Capacity: 6600mAh(73WH)

Size: 209.40 x 71.80 x 19.80mm

Weight: 578.33g

AL-Aziz Laptop Parts 

Color: Black

ASUS X54L-SX013V Laptop Review

Features

2nd for today is an Asus X54L series laptop! This is a slightly watered down version of the K53. With less memory and hard drive, this offers an even cheaper everyday laptop with greater versatility

Priced at $649, some might question if the difference in memory and drive space is actually worth the $50 difference, or is there something secret about this laptop were about to find out? Before we begin, let’s take a look at it guts:

Brand New Laptop 

Model: X54L-SX013V

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-2310M (2.1GHz)

Memory: 2GB DDR3 (1333MHz)

Hard Drive(s): 500GB 5400RPM

Optical Drive(s): Super Multi DVD R/W

Networking: Gigabit Ethernet

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Display: 15.6” HD LED Backlight (1366x768 Resolutions)

Audio: Altec Lansing Speakers

Coms: 802.11b/g/n

Inputs: 1x USB2.0, 1x USB3.0,  1x Microphone, SD/MMC Card Reader

Outputs: 1x Headphone Out, 1x VGA

Battery: 4 Cell5200mAH 37Whrs

Pretty average specs.

The factory restore feature on this unit is exactly identical to the previous ASUS review. The lack of extra memory however did cause it to take a little bit longer to complete.

Laptop Keyboard 

The track pad itself has a feature called “Palm ProofTechnology” which prevents mouse movement and accidental clicks with your palm while typing over keys that sit above the pad. And guess what? It works amazingly! I have always had the problem when typing my palms would accidently brush over the track pad and I’d inadvertently clicked away or cancelled a whole heap of work, well this laptop will help prevent errors like this!

Design

Laptop LCD

Unpacking the box was like deja-vu. It was only a few hours beforehand did I unpack a K53, so unpacking the X54 seemed like I was repeating the process. Exactly the same packaging for both units. However the manuals for this unit, instead of having its own pocket within the laptops cover, was placed on top of the actual unit and covered up.

The unit itself looks a bit blander. The lid and keyboardsurroundings are simple charcoal black matte plastic, and as simple as it is, I fell in love with it. It feels so much better than the other shiny laptops, and leaves absolutely no marks or prints anywhere on the unit! On the left side of the unit you have the exhaust, a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port, Ethernet and VGA output. And that’s all you get. Total of two USB ports; however one of them is a 3.0 port. Not exactly sure why they put USB3.0 on a lower end machine and left it out on the higher end. Marketing strategy maybe? On the front you’ll find the audio input and output, which I think is a wise place to put such ports and of course the memory card reader, which is placed in a slighter better position than the awkward K53.

The keyboard is probably NOT one of the most comfortablekeyboards I have used. Although it does stay as cool and quiet as the K53, the keys are slightly raised and don’t have its own mould for it to sit in. This can be a bit more annoying, as I found my fingers clipping the edges of neighbouring keys. If you have fingers like mini breadsticks, then you’d probably get away with it, but any chunk on those fingers and you could find yourself backspacing a number of times to fix your typos. It also encourages any food bits that might fall on it to really get in there and become a pain to get out, so if you tend to eat a bit of food in front of your laptop, might want to be careful in front of this unit as you may collect enough food in their to feed a family of laptop key animals.

The notebook is your standard 15.6” Screen sized laptop, weighing in at 2.6Kgs it’s also not the lightest. The power adapter on the laptop is probably one of the most annoying things I have come across in a laptop. It is positioned on the left hand side of the unit, and it has a 90 degree plug. Also, the cable sits in front of the exhaust, with all hot air coming out of the unit, blowing right onto the power cable. Not exactly the wisest thing to do. I’m sure not all users would be comfortable with their laptops power cable heating up constantly. Unless you plug your cable in on an awkward angle, this could potentially be hazardous in the future. Felt like deja-vu? That’s because you may have read the exact paragraph in my previous review. Same problem on two models. How many more will I come across?

As I went to plug it in, I noticed the power end of the cable, to be ridiculously short and I had the AC unit on the floor because the cables length did not reach the top of the table. This could be a bit frustrating for those who plug it in and walk away to a lengthy distance to use their laptops.

Performance 

Overall, I actually love the look and feel of this laptop, sure, the keys are a bit annoying, but it just feels so fricken awesome! It also feels slightly smaller and more compact than the K53 which makes it a better option for using it on the move.

Performance

Featuring the same Core i3 processor as the K53 I suspect it to perform similar. It does however have 2GB less memory to work with, which may be problematic for memory heavy software.

Booting the unit came in at 80s, which is a significant increase from a machine using the exact same processor. I think the lack of extra memory can be hold accountable for the difference.

The display of the unit is much better than the K53. It is much more comfortable to view and images like photos from a DSLR look very nice, HD Video clips also produced a good contrast between colours. Blacks and Whites were comfortable and not blotchy.

Sound on the X54L is relatively good. Although you’re not going to get boom box equivalent sound coming out of the speakers, it still manages to provide comfortable listening levels

We installed Photoshop CS5 64bit to test out how simple editing will run. Installation took only 8 minutes which is fairly good result, yet slightly longer than the K53. Launching Photoshop was also very responsive, coming in around the 20sec mark. Again, this is where the extra memory would help. It took me just a few seconds to open up 5-10mb files which are promising as these are the average sizes most users will be working with; however opening a 700mb file took roughly 90s. Slightly more than what I was hoping for. After half an hour or so working with the 700mb file, things did get quite sluggish and unresponsive. It was taking longer and longer to perform simple tasks, and this laptop, just wasn’t up to it.

Performance 

Performance 

Having the same CPU as the K53, the X54L performed identically when it comes to simple software like Office, Excel and Outlook. Though it’s an i3 processor, it’s more than capable of handling majority of everyday user’s needs. I am becoming fonder of this i3 processor for the everyday user, as it costs less, produces less heat and consumes less power. It seems like an ideal specification to choose if you’re after all the above.

Our Cinebench software gave us the following test results:

CPU: 2.01pts

OpenGL: 7.71ps

The CPU in this unit performed .02pts better than the K53. Being such a small amount, overall, it will perform no different from each other. The on board Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor however demonstrated why this is not a very good graphical machine, giving half the frame rate of the K53.

Our PCMark07 benchmark gave a result of 1862 PCMarks.

That’s roughly 300 marks higher than the K53. Although it struggled with any of the gaming side of things averaging 11.09FPS, it absolutely creamed the Video Playback and transcoding sections almost doubling the results of the K53. This is a remarkable outcome for a unit that has less memory and graphical power. It seems as though the Built-In Visuals with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor helps in doing simple graphical tasks, but struggles on the heavy end of things.

As this is not a gaming unit, and also being able to roughly predict the score I decided to skip over the 3DMark tests.

Temperatures were interesting with this unit. The hard drive itself barely flinched between idling and being under full load. At no point did the drive reach above 36 degrees. This is a fantastic outcome for such a unit. The unit itself as a whole, and not just the palm areas also remained unbelievably cool, even when the CPU was peaking at 70 degrees. I’m not sure where all that heat is going, but it’s good to know it’s actually going somewhere and not burning up the desk or my legs. I am somewhat bedazzled as to where this heat is actually going.

Conclusion

Brand New laptop 

This unit has a similar target market of those for the K53. Like its successor, it is not aimed at heavy end users that require more power for multimedia applications and gaming. However, for the price this is an unbelievable machine. It has done more than just impressed me but given me hope for the lower end user market. It is good to see manufacturers can still produce machines that don’t have all the beef and oomph yet can still put out a wow factor.

Alaziz Online

Alaziz Laptop Parts 

Laptop Parts Online 

Brand New laptops 

Laptop Battery Care

Batteries are laptops'Achilles' heels. Many mobile users have been let down by their battery meters, too, which can misjudge or misrepresent how much charge is actually left in your battery. The shortcomings of the built-in Windows meter lead to free tools like BatteryCare. It's a simple utility that displays your laptop battery's status and capacity and the time remaining in its discharge cycle. It monitors and displays CPU and HDD temperatures, too.

Replacment Battery 

BatteryCare has a small but attractive interface that offers a lot more information than the built-in Windows tool, or many other battery meters we've seen, for that matter, with tabs for Basic and Detailed Information; the latter includes entries for battery model, designed capacity, wear level, and more. A system tray icon lets users display and hide the interface and access not only the program's options but also Power Settings and Power Plans. Hovering the cursor over the icon called up a semitransparent window showing battery status and charge but also the temperature of our CPU and primary hard disk drive. BatteryCare has a lot of settings for a simple tool, especially in the Notifications section, which includes not only full, low, and critical battery level warnings but also a configurable remaining time warning and a unique option to configure a warning to replace the battery after a certain number of discharge cycles, which can head off trouble before it catches up to you "in the field." The Power Plans section included selections for running on batteries and plugged in to AC power, as well as an automatic option. The Advanced section showed usage statistics as well as an option of particular interest to Vista users: the ability to run at startup in Administrator mode, which enables temperature monitoring and service pausing even when the bothersome User Account Control is active.

Battery For laptop 

If you rely on your laptop's batteries, we highly recommend a good battery meter like BatteryCare. Even if your laptop stays tethered to a wall wart, though, it can help you ensure that your battery is ready to go, when and if you need it.

6 Cell Laptop Battery 

How to fix hardware problems without taking apart the laptop

Here’s how you can fix, or to be precise, work around some hardware problem without taking apart the laptop.

1. Network port failure.

In most laptops the network port (aka RJ-45 port) is soldered directly to the motherboard. If for some reason the network port fails (I’m talking about hardware, not software failure), the whole motherboard has to be replaced.

Instead of replacing the motherboard, you can use a PCMCIAnetwork card (aka LAN PC card). You plug this card into the available PC slot in your laptop and get a network port instead.

Network Card 

2. USB ports failure.

Most laptops have a few USB ports available and if one of them stops working, usually it’s not a big deal because you still have two or three working USB ports left. But what if all of them stopped working at once. Let’s say the USB controller on the motherboard went bad and the laptop stopped recognizing any USB device plugged in any USB port. Again, I’m talking about hardware, not software failure. In order to fix this problem you’ll have to replace the motherboard.

Alternatively, you can use a PCMCIA USB card. You plug this card into the PC slot and get two or four USB ports instead. It depends on the type of your PCMCIA card.

USB Card

3. Internal wireless (Wi-Fi) card failure.

Most newer laptops come with an internal wireless card installed. In some models the wireless card could be easily access through the door on the bottom of the laptop. In other models, the wireless card is buried deep inside the case. What can you do if the internal wireless card fails? You can replace the internal wireless card with another one or use a PCMCIAwireless card instead.

WIFI Card 

4. Internal flash memory card reader failure.

Most newer laptops come with an internal memory card reader installed. You can plug most known flash memory cards into the slot and access the content right away. Usually the card reader is soldered directly to the motherboard and if it fails, you have to replace the whole motherboard or use it as is.

If you don’t want to replace the motherboard you can use an external USB flash memory card reader. All you have to do is plug the card reader into the available USB port in your laptop and it’s ready to go.

San Disk

5. Internal CD/DVD drive failure.

You’ll find an internal CD/DVD optical drive in most laptops. If the optical drive fails and stops reading CDs and DVDs, it has to be replaced with a new one. Internal laptop optical drives are not cheap.

Instead of replacing the internal drive, you can use an external USB optical drive. Simply plug this drive into the USB port, let your laptop detect and install the drive and it’s ready for you. Also, you can use this optical drive with any other computer which is very convenient.

CD/DVD