Neglecting the care and maintenance of your laptop battery will seriously impair the ability to use the laptop when you need it away from an AC power supply. Investing in a little time and effort will repay you many times over by prolonging battery life and laptop use while mobile.

Users usually make two mistakes with laptop battery care. The first is that they use the laptop continuously while connected to the AC supply with the batteries inserted in the laptop, only to be surprised to find the laptop will not power up at some point. The second common mistake is partially discharging the batteries.

What do you do when you try to switch on your laptop and all you get is dead silence? First step: remove the battery and then connect to the AC power supply alone. If the laptop powers up you know you have a problem with the laptop battery. A process known as purging is often enough to resolve the battery issue and we'll show you what to do later on.

Partially discharging the battery repeatedly teaches the battery that it does not need to charge itself fully when AC power is connected. When you come to rely upon battery power and you do not have a full charge, then your use of the laptop when away from an AC power supply is curtailed. The battery "memory" is reduced when incompletely discharged and this produces the shortening effect which is known as "battery fade".

If you have experienced a shortening of the life of your battery charge when it comes to using the laptop on battery power only, then you are experiencing battery fade. The question becomes: what can you do to ensure that you do not suffer from a restriction of the use of your laptop when you are on the move.

Here are some tips for you but you will need to check whether you have a NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) or HiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) battery for your laptop and check the manufacturers instructions.

The first maintenance procedure is to allow the laptop to be powered only by the battery itself, so disconnect the AC power supply and allow the laptop to discharge until you get a "battery low" warning. Reconnect the AC power to the unit and leave it for 12 hours so the battery can regain its charge. Check the manufacturers instructions for the length of time that they recommend for a recharge, but typically 12 hours is sufficient to perform this adequately.

Purging is where you disconnect the AC completely and disable the "sleep" feature of the laptop (or hibernation) and allow the battery to be discharged completely. Once the laptop has completely powered down, and you will know this as the display will die, plug the laptop into the AC but do not power up. Leave the laptop like this for up to 24 hours depending upon the manufacturers instructions. You should perform this for NiCad batteries once a month and for NiMH batteries every three months.

These two tips will help you prolong battery life and utility, however you should carefully read the manufacturers instructions to ensure you treat your laptop in accordance with their recommendations. Laptop batteries are expensive to replace and there is also the frustration when sitting on a long flight of suddenly seeing your laptop die and work vanish due to the battery. Caring for your laptop batteries will enhance your laptop utility and your productivity when you are away from home or office.