Dell notebooks also come equipped with Dell QuickSet software to make managing your settings, including screen brightness, easy. QuickSet will display battery health status by pressing Fn+F3 and will proactively warn you through a pop-up when your battery health reaches 50 percent (or less) of design capacity.

Salinas recommends for best battery life to select the Portable/Notebook or Max Battery power schemes, which save power by turning off devices such as the display and hard drive during periods of inactivity, and adjusting processor power. Portable/Notebook dynamically adjusts processor power and performance based on the demands of the application running on the system. When performance demands are low, the processor is kept in a low power and performance state. When demands are higher, the processor runs at higher power and performance levels up to its maximum capacity.

Don't need it. Don't want it

Turn off unused devices, advises Salinas. Good examples are Wi-Fi devices. If it is not necessary to be connected to the Internet, disable the connection. Certain Wi-Fi devices can consume significant power, usually, because they must maintain a minimum amount of traffic between the computer and nearby wireless access points. Good news, newer wireless devices include power management features making this less of a concern.

Many new notebooks provide a hard-wired Wi-Fi radio On/Off switch for this reason. Salinas points to James Martin, editor for PC World , who suggests in his November 2, 2006, article titled "Mobile Computing: Keep the Power Flowing," to "Always turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular modems when they're not needed. These wireless network technologies can be a significant drain on your notebook battery's charge. Many newer notebooks have buttons to turn wireless connections on and off. You can also go to Start, Connect To, "Show all connections," then select the connection you want to enable or disable."

Salinas also mentions that it is good practice to disconnect external DVD drives, WebCams, or any peripherals you are not using.

Round in circles

Your hard drive is in constant motion while the computer is turned on; spinning to locate previously saved data. Defragmenting your hard drive (optimising the placement of data) will allow the drive to find information more quickly and reduce the speed it is rotating at. If you notice a high degree of hard drive activity, during normal usage, your system may be compensating for your lack of system memory relying on its hard disk for virtual memory. In this case, adding more memory to your notebook can result in additional battery life.

The same holds true if you are running multiple applications. Especially when low on system memory, limit the number of applications you have opened at the same time to save on battery life. Since many applications load into system memory upon boot up, it is good practice to limit the number of start up applications to the ones you use on a regular basis. This can be accomplished by running the "msconfig" command from the "Run" feature in XP and "System Configuration" from the "search" bar in Vista. To do this, click on the Start menu. The respective command will be featured.

Conditioning for performance

For new notebooks, the industry standard suggests you give the battery a full charge. Then, drain the battery completely. Repeat the process at least two or three times. This helps establish a memory line and conditions the battery to hold the maximum charge possible.

To prolong the battery's overall life, it is also appropriate to disconnect the battery from your notebook if it will be plugged in for extended periods of time.

Reconditioning will help increase battery life, though it will never be as good as if the battery were new. Depending on the productivity gains you get from reconditioning and the age of your notebook computer, you may want to consider investing in a new battery or system all together.

Back to business

In summary, to gain additional battery time it is important to lower the display brightness when running on battery power. Enable operating system and device power management capabilities to extend battery life. Finally, disable devices that are not used when running on battery power. Dell continues to work with suppliers, technology partners and industry groups to drive industry initiatives and technologies that can yield power efficiencies in portable products, including extending battery life through improvements in battery technology and power management, as well as minimising the power consumed by system components.

So the next time you are giving a presentation, keep these tips in mind to maximise your computer's battery life.

Last tip from Salinas:

Eventually, charging your battery will have to occur more often. When the battery does not maintain at least an hour's worth of charge, it may be time to get a new battery.