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General discussion

More power, for power hunger laptop

by fightinsurfgrl Jan 30, 2009 3:45PM PST

Basically I'm looking for a fair cheap way to use my laptop without having to have it plugged in all the time. Isn't that the point of a laptop? To be wireless? I'm currently running on a Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop. It's almost a year old. When I'm surfing the net and it is unplugged from the power source I have basically an hour tops. Which I think is pretty pathetic. I've done some research on buying an external power source to boost the power while it is unplugged and the basically run $100-150, but the reviews are basically hit and miss from amazon to other sites. So I'm just wondering if anyone has had some really good good luck with an external battery that could boost the laptop power to last more than just an hour unplugged. If anyone has any suggestions I would be more than happy to hear them.

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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How long is long enough to surf the web?
by Steven Haninger Feb 1, 2009 7:13AM PST

You didn't mention the capacity of your current battery. Perhaps it's weak or worn out. Why not just buy two or more "extended size" batteries and an external charger? It does appear that this laptop runs on 11.1 volts which could allow you to make your own power source from, perhaps, UPS batteries but that would take some creativity and have some risks. As well, bigger power sources would make the laptop less portable.

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Only an hour?
by Coryphaeus Feb 1, 2009 9:16PM PST

Even the most power hungry laptops last at least two hours. How old is the battery? They do start to loose power and must be replaced after a while. Especially if they are the older Ni-Cad.

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battery
by fightinsurfgrl Feb 3, 2009 2:59AM PST

It's only a year old.

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Battery life
by Phil Crase Feb 2, 2009 10:36PM PST

If you are not running your DVD/CDRW your battery should last over 2hrs, actually closer to 3, depending on screen size, brightness settings and processor. Intel processors are more battery forgiving than are AMD but an hour of battery, something is awry.

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too many programs?
by fightinsurfgrl Feb 3, 2009 2:58AM PST

The battery is less than a year old and I do dim down the screen as much as possible, and I think that part of my problem is I'm running too many programs at the same time, messengers plus Firefox. I think the combination of the two drains it pretty fast but I did notice when I only had one messenger going that gave me about 2 hours roughly. It runs on an Intel processor. Maybe I just have too many programs going?

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Too many programs?
by fightinsurfgrl Feb 3, 2009 3:00AM PST

I'm not running the DVD/CDRW and I dim the screen down as much as possible and the screen size is 15.4 inches. Any suggestions? I do think as I've said I'm trying to run too many programs.

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