Save my Netbook!!

[TriBlox6432]

So my netbook. Dell Mini 10v. Bought it late last year, October or November. Battery sucks. I'm lucky to get two hours of work on it (3 cell battery) so I was hoping someone could offer me some suggestions to cheaply fix that. How to optimize it, what new (6 cell) battery I should buy, etc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!

(Also, considering an SSD, good idea or non?)

[user1397]

So my netbook. Dell Mini 10v. Bought it late last year, October or November. Battery sucks. I'm lucky to get two hours of work on it (3 cell battery) so I was hoping someone could offer me some suggestions to cheaply fix that. How to optimize it, what new (6 cell) battery I should buy, etc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!

(Also, considering an SSD, good idea or non?)

I bought one last spring with
1gb ram
16gb ssd
1.6Ghz atom
and a 3 cell battery and i can only get 2-2.5 hrs at a time...I too would like to know what options I have for battery replacements.

Btw, I love the ssd. It is faster, produces less heat, consumes less power, and doesn't have moving parts. Plus I have an external hard drive for storage so I don't have to worry about the fact that it is only 16gb.

[TriBlox6432]

Daaang SSDs are expensive. I thought they would be similar to 16GB Flash Drive. $155 for 16GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161376&cm_re=16GB_SSD-_-20-161-376-_-Product) is ridiculous.

[TriBlox6432]

I just installed 10.10 and loving it so far. The ambiance theme doesn't suck as bad as it did in 10.04 so I've kept it this time, with a new wallpaper though. Anyway, what are some things I can do to make it faster and more battery efficient?

[earthpigg]

So my netbook. Dell Mini 10v. Bought it late last year, October or November. Battery sucks. I'm lucky to get two hours of work on it (3 cell battery) so I was hoping someone could offer me some suggestions to cheaply fix that.

charge it all the way and let it drain all the way. do this three or four times in a row.

avoid leaving it plugged in while using it unless it actually needs to be charged.

unused battery capacity, like muscles, atrophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_atrophy).

[TriBlox6432]

charge it all the way and let it drain all the way. do this three or four times in a row.

avoid leaving it plugged in while using it unless it actually needs to be charged.

unused battery capacity, like muscles, atrophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_atrophy).

Thank you. Will try this. Just unplugged it and it is judging to have 1:55 left.

[earthpigg]

Thank you. Will try this. Just unplugged it and it is judging to have 1:55 left.

let us know.

i'm no electrician, and i wont pretend to understand the details of why this works, but i believe it does.

my brother and i have identical cheapo cell phones purchased a month apart. i follow my philosophy towards batteries, he keeps his plugged in whenever he is at home. fast forward a year and a half, and i need to charge mine every 3 days or so (when i go away for a weekend, i don't bring the charger). he needs to charge his about every 12 hours. be probably texts and talks on his more than me, but not that much more.

[TriBlox6432]

Interesting. I charge my phone every night, because if I don't the battery dies the second day. But I used to always plug it in at night anyway . . . Wonder if that had anything to do with it.

And will doing this help improve the battery life, or just keep it from getting worse?

[earthpigg]

And will doing this help improve the battery life, or just keep it from getting worse?

I honestly don't know, hence why I asked you to report back. :P

I don't have any battery-powered devices that date from before someone gave me the advice I gave you regarding not plugging it in until it's dead or close to dead.

I know from my own experience that it works as preventative medicine, but my advice to let it drain all the way several times to undo the damage done is just me repeating what I've heard others say.

[TriBlox6432]

Alright, thanks. I've got 1:25 left as of now, which is how long I'll be awake. Should I plug it in all night (6-7 hours) or should I wait until I can be home for a couple hours and only charge it until it's full?

[johntaylor1887]

Daaang SSDs are expensive. I thought they would be similar to 16GB Flash Drive. $155 for 16GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161376&cm_re=16GB_SSD-_-20-161-376-_-Product) is ridiculous.

I just saw an OCZ 64gb SSD for $119 at Newegg. I expect some serious price wars pretty soon, and it will become practical to use SSD's in most situations. But large storage solutions will continue to be handled by mechanical drives for some time to come.

Anyway, yeah a 6 cell battery would be nice for you, as I get about 5 1/2 to 6 hours from mine. Also, an SSD would help a bit too as far as battery life. How much? I'm not sure. But it definitely won't hurt, plus they generate no heat.

To handle 720/1080p on my aspire one, I just ordered a Broadcom Crystal HD PCI express Mini Card AVC/VC-1/H.264 Enhanced Hardware Decoder/Accelerator (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816321016&cm_re=crystal_hd-_-16-321-016-_-Product). Now I will be able to watch 1080p in full screen without any lag. It even accelerates high res flash videos if you are using the latest flash.

[TriBlox6432]

Ohhh thanks for the info. I'm gonna wait a few months before ordering an SSD, hopefully the prices will come down a bit. And as for the battery, going on my XMas list. ^___^

And also, I might order that video card when I get paid. Looks pretty freakin' awesome. Are the drivers automatically installed and is it recognized by Ubuntu all nice and everything?

[johntaylor1887]

I honestly don't know, hence why I asked you to report back. :P

I don't have any battery-powered devices that date from before someone gave me the advice I gave you regarding not plugging it in until it's dead or close to dead.

I know from my own experience that it works as preventative medicine, but my advice to let it drain all the way several times to undo the damage done is just me repeating what I've heard others say.

DO NOT drain lithium ion batteries completely, as it will kill them even faster. Try to leave 20% charge if you can before recharging. Ni cads can be completely drained and recharged though. I've done a bit of research on the matter, and if you don't believe me, google it, or go ahead and ruin your battery. Just trying to help.

[johntaylor1887]

Ohhh thanks for the info. I'm gonna wait a few months before ordering an SSD, hopefully the prices will come down a bit. And as for the battery, going on my XMas list. ^___^

And also, I might order that video card when I get paid. Looks pretty freakin' awesome. Are the drivers automatically installed and is it recognized by Ubuntu all nice and everything?

It's not a video card per se, but more of a "helper" that takes the load off the cpu and adds HD specific support. The drivers are in the latest ubuntu kernel (10.10) as Broadcom was nice enough to open source them. Or you can get the latest kernel in 10.04 via PPA.

[TriBlox6432]

Alright, thanks!! I'm really excited about this.

So I will be purchasing the following items: 6 Cell Battery, decoder/accelerator, New LCD, and 2GB RAM Upgrade. Possibly an SSD if the prices come down. :)

Is there anything software related that can help? I don't need much. I just want a good graphic interface that uses Shiki-Brave theme and has my applications. Any ideas?

[andrewabc]

That ssd you picked out is overpriced like crazy, and I never heard of that one before. The reason so expensive is because of SLC. Which you won't be able to afford and don't need.

Prices should drop a lot in 6 months.

I have 2 of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394
Work great.

Or try this as it is newer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227610

Your netbook/laptop would be limited to SATAI speeds. But it still makes it twice as fast as HDD. Are you sure you can have easy access to replace hdd?



So I will be purchasing the following items: 6 Cell Battery, decoder/accelerator, New LCD, and 2GB RAM Upgrade. Possibly an SSD if the prices come down.
You say you have dell mini 10v, which has intel atom n270?
I would not suggest spending $$$ to upgrade it now (maybe battery). I'm not sure on battery/lcd prices/2gb ram etc. At that point you could buy a new netbook.

If looking for better battery life, any atom n450 6 cell intel atom would work better. Also newly introduced is dual core atom n550.

I'd keep what you have for a couple more months and see what prices are like for new netbook. Spending same amount/more than what a new dual core atom costs would not be smart. :)

[TriBlox6432]

Alright, thanks. Good idea.

[johntaylor1887]

If looking for better battery life, any atom n450 6 cell intel atom would work better.

I think you should wait until before christmas when you should see some n450 6 cell netbooks for around $199. Spending all that money to upgrade an older netbook doesn't make sense.

[grahammechanical]

I do not know if this information is still relevant to modern re-chargeable batteries but it used to be that re-chargeable batteries seemed to have a kind of memory of how discharged they were. If it was down to half charge at the time of re-charging and this happened often enough then it would only re-charge to to half way. Chargers should completely discharge the batteries before re-charging to prevent this from happening. Does the vendor of these machines give any advice about re-charging the batteries?

Regards.

[andrewabc]

I think you should wait until before christmas when you should see some n450 6 cell netbooks for around $199. Spending all that money to upgrade an older netbook doesn't make sense.

I agree. No point in buying new netbook now. Use what he has until it stops working. 6 months from now should see new products and lower prices of current products.