How to cool down your laptop for longer battery life

Heat is one of the worst enemies of laptops. Laptop batteries age more quickly when they’re hot for a long period of time, and overheating can destroy other hardware parts, causing system freezing and worse problems. Whether or not you’re experiencing the warning signs and dangers of your laptop overheating, take the simple and inexpensive protective measures below to keep your laptop cool and make it work more reliably.

Easy Tips for Making a Hot Laptop Cooler

1. Use a laptop cooling pad that has a fan or two. Laptop pads that have vents but no fans can also increase the airflow around your laptop and they’re very portable, but for stronger cooling needs, a fan is the best way to go.

2. Use dust remover spray to clean out of the laptop’s vents. Dust can accumulate in and block the laptop’s fan vents — a problem easily solved with a can of compressed gas. Turn off your laptop and spray the vent to remove the dust.

3. Keep your working environment or computer room as comfortably cool as possible. Laptop computers, like most people, work much better in air conditioned environments. Most server rooms or data logger centers operate at 70 degrees or below, according to Server Fault, and that seems like an ideal temperature recommendation for home offices as well.

4. Adjust your power settings from “high performance” to a more “balanced” or “power saver” plan. This will tell the system to only use the Dell latitude e6400 battery power required to run your applications, rather than always using the maximum processor speed; if you need to play games or other intensive work, you can switch back to the high performance plan as necessary.

5. Shut down your laptop computer when not in use, and especially when you are not at home. The last thing you need when you get home is to find out your laptop was a fire hazard.