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How To Fix Laptop Battery Not Charging
Laptop Battery
10-19-13: Initial Release.
Earlier this morning, I had found out that my Dell Mini 1012 laptop was dead because I had left it on overnight in sleep mode and the battery had drained out.
So what did I do? I just reconnected the AC charger and plugged the laptop into the wall. This should have solved the issue, right?
Well, when I had done that and resumed from sleep mode to go into Windows 8, it said that my laptop was plugged in, but the battery was not charging. What the hell?
Living Lean – How I Keep My Laptop in Top Shape
Revisions:
7-5-13: Initial release.
So this past week, I had come home from work to login to my Internet, only to be greeted by a splashscreen from my ISP saying that a device(s) on my network is participating or infected as part of a botnet.
Before I could go back online, I had to agree to a statement that I would take care of the issue. Otherwise, I would be disconnected from the Internet again until it was taken care of.
So I thought about it and the only device that I use a lot (more than my desktop actually) is my Dell Mini 1012 netbook. I did a virus scan, and malware scan, and found nothing.
But just because I didn’t find anything doesn’t necessarily mean that it was gone, it could just be hidden. I didn’t want to take a chance, so what did I do? I formatted the laptop, reinstalled Windows 8, and I was good to go. The coolest part about the whole thing? I didn’t need to backup any major files, or save my bookmarks or anything. Why? Because due to the way I have setup my laptop, those type of worries that would plague traditional computer users I don’t have. I’ll tell you what I did so you too can run a lean, mean, computing machine.
Laptop Batteries Extended 10 Times
So, guys at Standford are gonna be rich. “Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.”
I had to look up “nanowire” in Wikipedia to understand what it is exactly: “A nanowire is a wire of diameter of the order of a nanometer (10−9 meters). Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a lateral size constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained longitudinal size. At these scales, quantum mechanical effects are important — hence such wires are also known as “quantum wires“. Many different types of nanowires exist, including metallic (e.g., Ni, Pt, Au), semiconducting (e.g., Si, InP, GaN, etc.), and insulating (e.g., SiO2,TiO2). Molecular nanowires are composed of repeating molecular units either organic (e.g. DNA) or inorganic (e.g. Mo6S9-xIx).”
Some sick shit huh?
The research team at Stanford is led by Yi Cui. Hail to asians.
Complete source article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219103105.htm
Note: Versatile has this weird thing with pictures, but since I have very limited time, I think he’ll understand and be nice and put some in for moi. Hail Versatile.
Amazon.com Black Friday Madness.
(click for enlarged image)
As if Amazon.com couldn’t get any better, they’ve finally put down a wicked competition in the Black Friday madness this year.
They have a unique system where you, the consumer vote on what incredible deals you’ll get. There are 8 rounds, each of 3 items under a specific category. For example, the first round consists of the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 (40 GB model) and the new Xbox 360 Arcade system that is replacing the Core system. Each are sold at incredibly lower prices (over 50%!) but you’re only able to get that deal on the one you vote for, if you show up at a specified time and are offered that deal.
You can vote once in each round, careful though, you can’t change your vote. You have to be a registered user but it’s free and you only need your basic information until you buy the product. I would recommend setting up your account for one-click buying however as these deals are highly limited to about an average of 500-1,000 pieces of inventory per item.
Head over to this url to get started: [ http://promotions.amazon.com/gp/holiday/amazon-customers-vote ]
Happy shopping viewers of The Underground!
20 Ways to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer
All credit goes to this site.
I have copied and paste it below for your convenience.
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When there are no power outlets in sight there’s nothing more frustrating than a dying laptop battery. We’ve all been in that situation where we have a couple hours of work left to finish but our battery life is only estimated to last one more. Good news. Often times these situations can be avoided by optimizing the battery performance. Here are 20 tips that will help your laptop battery last longer.
1. Calibrate your battery – Most laptop batteries these days have internal processors that provide an estimate of your battery life. Calibrating your battery so it shows the correct battery time and percentage is the first step in getting the most performance out of your laptop battery. Ideally, you should do this 3-4 times per year and should consult your owner’s manual for instructions.
2. Adjust your settings – Just about every new laptop will have some kind of advanced power options settings. Optimize these settings for maximum performance.
3. Buy the Right Processor – The type of CPU can have a huge impact on how long your laptop will last on a full charge, Newer CPUs even shut down parts of the chip to conserve power. Intel chips tend to be more powerful than the AMD ones with their larger L2 cache but use more power, but you can get your work done faster so the total power used is about the same either way. The newest 65nm Memrons by Intel are extremely powerful and power efficient. Dual cores with 4MB cache and low power. The AMD Turion 64 line when they come out will compete with the Intel Memrons as they will have chips that are even more power efficient. The Pentium M chips use even less power but not as powerful since they are not dual core.
4. Only run programs you need – Having multiple programs running at the same time seems like an unnecessary way to drain your battery. Instead consider running only program at a time. In other words, if you’re browsing the web don’t leave your email client running in the background, check it when you’re done surfing the web.
5. Dim your screen – One of the fastest ways you can kill your battery is by leaving your screen brightness high. Dim your screen to the lowest level you can possibly manage.
6. Disable unnecessary programs – You know all those programs that automatically run on startup? You probably don’t need them or use most of them anyways. So just turn them off before they eat into your battery resources.
7. Keep operating temps down – Batteries perform better when they’re cool. Clean your air vents and avoid placing your laptop in a position that will restrict airflow (such as your lap).
8. Don’t watch DVDs or play games – If you’re going to be away from a power source for more than a couple hours it’s a good idea to avoid watching DVDs listening to music, or playing games. These can be serious drains on your battery.
9. Limit external devices – USB devices or anything else you have plugged in uses battery resources even when they’re not in use. Now is probably not the best time to try out your new USB hand warmer.
10. Don’t standby, hibernate – Not only does using hibernate instead of standby conserve battery power, but it also automatically saves and shuts off your laptop. Standby mode still uses power.
11. Clean battery contacts – Proper battery maintenance includes cleaning the battery contacts that connect your cells to the laptop. Battery power is transferred through the contacts and keeping them clean allows for a more efficient transfer of power. The best way to do this is with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs.
12. Use the battery – Once it’s charged, don’t let your laptop battery sit for extended periods of time. Never let it go more than 2-3 weeks without discharging and recharging. This is especially important for non Li-Ion batteries.
13. Don’t leave it in sunlight – Batteries are sensitive and exposing them to extreme temperatures can cause major damage. Not only can it completely ruin them but it will also suck the life out of them. Avoid placing your laptop in direct sunlight.
14. Turn off wireless and Bluetooth –Turning off your Bluetooth and wireless won’t save you a whole lot of power but in certain situations every bit counts.
15. Decrease hard drive activity – When your hard drive spins it uses power. Defragmenting it regularly will put less demand on it because data is found more quickly.
16. Avoid using the CD/DVD player – Using the CD/DVD drive on your laptop should be avoided at all costs. Even having a disk in the drive uses power. Try copying what you need from a disk to the hard drive before hand.
17. Be picky with software – Some software programs suffer from bloatware and will eat your battery super fast. Avoid using things like Adobe Photoshop, your digital camera software, and other image editing software.
18. Less is more – Next time you’re in the market for a new laptop, think twice about that 17in widescreen. You’d be much better off opting for a smaller machine that won’t devour half of a battery just to power up.
19. Turn off speakers – If you must listen to music use your iPod instead, just make sure it’s not plugged into your laptop.
20. Carry a spare device or battery – This seems like a common sense thing to do, but make sure you always carry a spare device or battery. It will come in handy in case of an emergency or long stretches between power outlets.
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