Factors that contribute to draining battery charge are:

• Processor speed - Intel® SpeedStep® will extend battery life on applicable systems.
• CD, DVD, CD-RW and hard drive access frequency - Try moving files and applications directly to the hard drive.
• Amount of video and main memory - Depends on usage. More memory will help if several apps are open to limit use of the swap file.
• Applications that are active, as well as running in the background - Run only what is necessary.
• LCD brightness - Lower the brightness as far as is tolerable.
• Power management and SpeedStep settings - Set power management as low as is comfortable.
• The age of the battery - A battery's average life expectancy is 1 year. After this time, it is normal to experience a decrease in battery life.
• Applications that cause intensive use of the system processor and drives (such as playing a DVD movie and 3D games) can more than halve the amount of time that the system can be used on battery.
• If the battery will fully charge and power the system, the current understanding of expected battery life and the amount of time the system can be powered by a battery may be inaccurate.

Setting power management to Max Battery

 For portables that use Quickset, perform the following steps:

Click the Quickset icon in the tray at the bottom-right (located by the clock).
Point to Select Power Scheme, and then click Maximum Battery.

To set power management to Max Battery in Control Panel, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click the Performance and Maintenance icon.
3. Click the Power Options icon.
4. On the Power Schemes tab, verify that it is set to Max Battery.
5. Click OK.