Taken from PC World Magazine, July 2010

Eventually and unavoidable, laptop batteries die.  Proper care can delay the inevitable. With luck, your battery could last until you need to replace your aging notebook (perhaps with a laptop that has a longer battery life).

Don’t Run It Down – Squeezing every drop of juice out of a lithium ion battery strains and weakens it.  Doing this just once or twice won’t kill the battery, but the cumulative effect of frequently emptying your notebook’s battery will be to shorten its life span.  Make sure your battery is fully charged when you head out on the road.

Keep It Cool – Heat breaks down the battery and reduces its overall life.  When you use your laptop, make sure that the vents are unblocked.  Never work with the laptop on pillows or cushions.  If possible, put it on a raised stand that permits plenty of airflow.  Also, clean the vents every so often with a can of compressed air; (ICS Computers has them for sale).

Give It A Rest – If you’re going to be working exclusively on AC power for a week or more, remove the laptop’s battery first.  Otherwise, you’ll wear out the battery – constantly charging and discharging it – at a time when you don’t need to use it at all. You don’t want it to be empty when you take it out. An unused battery loses power over time, and you don’t want all the power to drain away, so make sure that the battery is at least half-charged when you remove it.

If you do find yourself in need of a new battery, give us a call and ask about used or remanufactured batteries that will save you some money, and buy you some time until you invest in a new notebook.