Laptop battery - life expectancy

[DX grunt]

What make and model is it Roscoe?

I just bought some new Dell batteries for a 1520 out of Hong kong for $28 delivered. If it is an older Toshy Sat Pro and you take the battery out you can run it off 12 volts BUT don't let the voltage drop down to much. I got away with that for years.

The best way for camping IMHO is a voltage converter (12 volts input and 13.5 15 17 etc selectable output) that plugs straight into any lappy and run off the Camping Power... Next best (but very inefficient) is to run an inverter and the 240 volt adapter into the Lappy.

Or... you can spend some bucks and get top of the wozza extended batteries for some makes but BIG bucks relatively speaking.

Running a DVD is pretty much the most power hungry application you can have so you will need either good lappy batteries or use the Camp 12 Volts/Genny or whatever

It's an 'old' Optima Centoris - ex WA guvvie job. The missus got it about 5 years ago to study with.

My next question is.... how do I set it up to run off 12v? I've got a genny, but I'd prefer not to use it. I was peace and quiet!

[HippoNZ]

One thing that kills a laptop battery is running the laptop on the mains with a full battery. If your running your laptop with the mains and your battery is full, take the battery out. It will preserve its life. Newer batteries last a lot longer but that is also because laptop hardware is now a lot more energy efficient than say 2-4 years ago. Most laptops run lithium 6 cell batteries. depending on your laptop sometimes you can upgrade to a 8 cell which will have a lot more life. Movies are hardware and resource intensive which uses up a lot more power than say browsing the web so you will burn up the battery power quicker. As for prices they vary all over the place. Don't always go for the cheapest battery, these can have major effects to the laptop with over heating and unreliable power so either go for an original or something recommended and guaranteed for your laptop make/model.

cheers
Brett

[the evil twin]

It's an 'old' Optima Centoris - ex WA guvvie job. The missus got it about 5 years ago to study with.

My next question is.... how do I set it up to run off 12v? I've got a genny, but I'd prefer not to use it. I was peace and quiet!

Ok... not all that familiar with them but no bigee as no matter the brand for what you want to do just google " Laptop Car Adapter". These will plug into any ciggy plug and power the lappy thru the same jack as the 240 Volt adapter.

They come either selectable with various DC outputs or if you look on your 240 Volt adapter it will state what Voltage it supplies. You can then buy a Car Adapter that has the same DC voltage.

Here is just one link at random... http://www.top-battery.com.au/Auto-Adapters/

Dick Smith, Ebay, any larger Car Audio Outlet, any Computer supplier like Austins or Storm will all have them