Upgrade Your Life: Revive a dying laptop battery

Having problem with your laptop battery? Here's a tip for revive your dying laptop battery...

Laptop battery wearing down? In this week's episode of Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley shows us how to help batteries last longer ... and what to do when they run out!

First, the basics

Most laptops use batteries that can last for 3-5 years, or about 1000 charges. (A premium laptop's battery might last longer.) Every time you charge your battery, the total capacity of the battery is diminished. Originally it may have had a run time of 3.5 hours, but after a year it'll run out of juice at 3 hours, even on a full charge.

If your battery capacity has diminished, there are a few things you can do about it. First, you have to correctly gauge how much capacity has been lost. There are free downloads to do this job, like Battery Bar (for Windows PCs) or Coconut Battery (for Macs). These will compare your battery's current maximum capacity to how long it lasted when it was new.

(UPDATE- we originally recommended Battery Eater and while the program works great, their download site has been compromised and we are recommending an alternate program, Battery Bar downloadable from CNET.)

Calibrating your Battery

You can't miraculously reconstitute your battery's capacity. It loses power over time due to chemical reactions taking place in the battery, as it chugs along powering your laptop. You can't undo those changes, but there is one common battery issue you can fix: In many laptops, the operating system's battery meter gets out of sync with how much juice the battery actually has.

Imagine if the gas gauge on your car dashboard was misreading how much gas you actually had in the tank. You'd either run out of gas when you thought you had a quarter of a tank left, or you'd be filling up too frequently. In your laptop, this can mean your laptop shuts down abruptly when the meter says you have 30 minutes left. Or else the meter might warn that you only have 2 minutes of battery life left and shut your laptop down, when it really has another 20 minutes remaining.

Recalibrating gets the battery meter to correctly read the current state of the battery, so you and the operating system know where you stand with existing battery life.

How to recalibrate

First, charge your laptop's battery to full, and leave it that way for at least two hours. Then unplug your laptop, and set its power management settings to never turn off or lower the monitor brightness. (HP has instructions for how do to this on Windows 7 and Vista, as well as Windows XP, while Apple has instructions for Mac laptops on their site.)

You want to drain the battery completely, then let your laptop sit for at least five hours this way -- like, say, overnight. (Just be careful and mute the volume, since some laptops make a warning sound when they're about to run out.) Afterwards, charge it up again, and you should notice a more accurate portrayal of your battery capacity. In some cases, you may even get more life out of it.

Best practices to maintain battery life

You'd think that the best way to keep your laptop's battery from wearing out is to not use it. Right?

As it turns out, batteries are like muscles; they need to be worked out regularly to stay healthy. Ideally, you'd use your laptop unplugged at least once a day, like on a train or bus commute or on the couch in front of the TV. If you're not going to use it, constantly charging your battery is a bad idea; that if you're going to leave your laptop plugged in or put up in storage for more than two weeks, you should take the battery out of your laptop.

Past the expiration date

So when is it time to throw out that old battery? The answer, surprisingly, is "never." Laptop batteries contain lots of toxic chemicals, and should never end up in landfills. Fortunately, e-stewards.org has a list of environmentally responsible recyclers that will take your old battery with no fuss.

When is it time to replace your battery, then? Use the free utility apps Becky mentioned, and when they say that your battery can only hold around 25% of its original capacity it's probably time for a new one. You can buy a replacement battery from the original laptop manufacturer, and there are plenty of places online that sell discounted PC laptop batteries, like Laptops for Less and Batteries.com. Owners of newer Mac laptops can get their laptop's non-removable battery swapped out at any Apple store, with a scheduled appointment.

How to perform a calibration (full discharge)?


The most adequate method to do a full discharge (100% to a minimum of 3%) consists of the following procedure:

i. Fully charge the battery to its maximum capacity (100%);

ii. Let the battery "rest" fully charged for 2 hours or more in order to cool down from the
charging process. You may use the computer normally withinn this period;

iii. Unplug the power cord and set the computer to hibernate automatically at the minimum
percentage possible as described by the image sequence below (click images to enlarge);

iv. Leave the computer discharging, non-stop, until it hibernates itself. You may use the

computer normally within this period;

v. When the computer shuts down completely, let it stay in the hibernation
state for 5 hours or even more;

vi. Plug the computer to the A/C power to perform a full charge non-stop until its maximum
capacity (100%). You may use the computer normally within this period.


Article Source : Yahoo News

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Warga Singapura bersatu demi kari

Kari pun boleh mencetuskan isu...


SINGAPURA: Banyak yang perlu dilakukan bagi menggerakkan kempen massa di Singapura tetapi rupa-rupanya penawar kesukaran itu terletak pada makanan.

Setakat ini, kira-kira 57,000 pengguna Facebook di Singapura berkata, mereka bersetuju untuk memasak atau memakan kari setiap Ahad bagi menunjukkan protes terhadap aduan satu keluarga dari China yang kurang senang dengan bau kari dari jirannya berketurunan India.

Kempen itu juga bagi menunjukkan sokongan kepada penduduk keturunan India di Singapura.

Isu itu menjadi perhatian ramai apabila aduan keluarga dari China itu memaksa pihak berkuasa tempatan campur tangan bagi mencari jalan tengah.

Satu halaman dikhaskan untuk isu itu kemudian dibuka dalam Facebook selepas pertikaian mengenainya dilaporkan media tempatan.

Akauntan yang membantu halaman khas itu, Stanley Wong, 37, berkata disebabkan mereka tinggal di Singapura yang mempunyai kepadatan tinggi, jiran sepatutnya bersikap saling memahami.

Wong bersama berpuluh-puluh rakan dan keluarganya ditemui ketika berkumpul dalam sebuah rumah pangsa kerajaan untuk menikmati hidangan kari.

Kebanyakan tetamu adalah keturunan Cina.

Mereka berpendapat, masakan kari diterima sebagai sebahagian daripada hidangan Singapura dan semua pihak - termasuk dari China - perlu menerima hakikat itu.

Seorang daripada penganjur majlis berkenaan, Florence Leow, berkata isu itu boleh mencetuskan masalah intergrasi di kalangan warga asing.

“Melalui pertemuan ini, kami berharap semua pihak dapat memasak dan berkongsi hidangan kari serta menghargai budaya Singapura,” katanya. - Reuters

Sumber artikel dan gambar : Metro online

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Ziarah Ramadhan....

Hari ke 14 berpuasa...alhamdulillah...walaupun berbuka dan bersahur dengan cara yang paling sederhana tahun ini ( adakalanya cuma dengan 2 biji kurma, jus, air suam sahaja)...aku dapat berpuasa tanpa rasa letih dan lapar.

Mungkin ada yang pelik dengan cara aku...tapi entah kenapa tahun ni, itulah cara aku berbuka dan bersahur. Perut pun rasa selesa bila tak makan terlalu banyak. Bila makan terlebih sikit selepas bersahur, perut terasa semacam je...tekak pulak terasa mual...Tapi sesekali bila berbuka puasa diluar, aku makan juga makanan berat. Cuma tak terlalu banyak.



Semalam (Sabtu, 13 Ogos) menziarahi Tn Haji Zain (KPP BTPN Kedah) di Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah di Alor Setar. Aku pergi bertiga...kalau difikirkan agak giler jugalah....pergi balik Alor Setar dalam jangkamasa 1 hari je...bertolak pukul 7 lebih...sampai rumah pukul 12.30 malam. Tapi sebab bergilir-gilir 'drive'...boleh jugalah.

Perjalanan pergi agak cepat sebab cuaca ok (5 jam). Kawan aku (Junaidi) kata giler...Sebenarnya dah lama tak 'drive' macam tu...Perjalanan balik agak lambat sebab hujan. Hah...aku kene 'drive' slow skit...:D

Sempat singgah di Pekan Rabu dan Stadium Darul Aman Alor Setar. Tak rancang pun nak pegi ke dua-dua tempat tu.




Apa pun aku puashati dapat ziarah Tn Hj Zain. Walaupun tak selalu jumpa beliau, tapi air mukanya yang sentiasa 'cool' buat aku teringat kepada dua orang ustaz (Utz Mahmud (allahyarham) & Utz Ibrahim - dah lama tak dengar khabar beliau) semasa mengajar di Felda Maokil. Kedua-duanya GPK 1 dan GPK HEM sekolah lama aku tu. Sesekali ada peluang ke sana, aku pergi ziarah kedua-duanya. Cuma sebelum allahyarham Utz Mahmud meninggal, aku ada teringat kat beliau...tapi waktu tu aku bertangguh-tangguh nak telefon dan tanya khabar. Selang 2 hari berikutnya, kawan aku beritau, ustaz dah meninggal kerana diabetes. Sedihnya aku waktu tu...

Mudah-mudahan Tn Hj Zain cepat sembuh dan dapat bertugas seperti sedia kala. Insyaallah...

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Winter The Insipiring Dolphin

Winter is a tail-less dolphin that lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Fla. In 2005, she lost her tail after getting caught in the buoy line of a crab trap and was forced to rely on her human rescuers to survive. That changed in 2007 when scientists fitted her with a remarkably designed artificial tail.

Today, her infectious enthusiasm and good spirits are an inspiration to countless human amputees who come to visit her every year. The aquarium has established a program that allows amputees to visit for free.

Winter survived, but she lost her tail and was left with just a stump. Winter had to learn how to swim without a tail, which no dolphin has ever in captivity.

Winter tried to master the art – but couldn't swish up and down like a normal dolphin, and could only waggle from side to side. Vets were worried this unusual swimming might alter the long-term health of her spine. So, they decided to make an artificial tail for Winter. Kevin Carroll, one of the world's leading prosthetists, offered his services.Casts were used to monitor Winter's growth and body shape and to provide the mould for her new tail. Finally, in August last year, Winter was fitted with her new silicone and plastic tail, which is 2 1/2 feet long. Now she is swimming and splashing about in normal dolphin-style.

Article Source :www.telegraph.co.uk
Image Source :www.mnn.com

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