Charging Battery

Question submitted by kathleen on Monday, October 27, 2008 at 02:28:43
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question: When charging how do I know when it is fully charged.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer: Well kathleen that is the mystery of this decade. There is usually an indicator that tells you if you are fully charged but they usually lie. On Windows PCs the indicator is down in the right hand corner next to the time. It usually looks like a little battery when you unplug your laptop from the power cord and if you move your mouse onto the icon it will tell you if you're fully charged or just partially charged. MacBooks and other Mac laptops have an indicator up on the top of the main desktop on the upper right.

If you don't see an indicator then you have to delve into the Control Panel on a PC laptop. One of the options in the Control Panel is Power Options. In this control panel you can check out your battery charge and an "estimate" of how long it will last. Usually, it's a guesstimate that isn't very accurate. I've had the meter tell me I'm at 30% of the battery and then suddenly shutdown because it decided the battery was drained. On a Mac you can look in the System Preferences for the Power controls.

With newer PCs and MacBooks they are coming out with longer lasting batteries that claim 6 hour battery life. The best I've been able to get out of my older laptops is about 2 hours (if I'm lucky).

I hope that points you in the right direction.

Ed Smit

Questions@JustAskEd.net

For more answers to your Computer Questions check out JustAskEd.blogspot.com