Laptop Battery and Adaptor Information

Your Sony AC Adaptor maybe compatible with various other Sony Vaio models. When purchasing your adaptor you must ensure the specifications of your previous adaptor are known.

This is very important as the incorrect voltage could damage your laptop. Take a look at your current adaptor or your laptop manual to determine the correct voltage of your adaptor. The amount of amps your ac adaptor outputs is also important, as this will determine if your adaptor has enough power to turn your laptop on. If you intend to use your laptop around the world, look for adaptors that take 100 to 240 volts

Laptops have different connectors, so you must ensure you have the correct shape and size connector. Don't try to force your adaptor in if its too big, you will only damage your laptop. Your manual should contain all the information about your adaptor.

There are two main type of cables used to connect your adaptor to your laptop. Figure of eight and clover leaf cables are used with most adaptors, if you are buy a as adaptor without a mains cable ensure you have the correct cable to connect it to your adaptors.

When purchasing a battery there are several thing you should consider, and rules to follow. These rules will prolong the life of your battery.

As you probably know batteries come in all shapes and sizes, and have different chemicals inside them. NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) these are the oldest type of battery and are on the verge of being phased out by most battery manufacturers. Nicad batteries are very toxic to the environment and hard to dispose of due to the heavy metals they contain within them. These batteries are also prone to the memory effect. This is when your battery fails to hold its charge and last as long as it should. Its caused when batteries are constantly over charged.

All batteries will eventually stop working and it will be time to purchase a new one. On average they last around two years and will loose there storage capacity from

the time of manufacture. For a complete description of the memory effect click here

NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries have a different type of chemistry which makes them lighter and produce more power from smaller batteries.

Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries are the new age of batteries, and are being produced by all the major battery manufacturers. These batteries are lighter which makes them perfect for portable devices. Li-Ion batteries don't suffer from the memory effect. Your laptop will be designed to work with on of the three types of batteries, so its important you don't change battery type before reading the manufactures manual.

Laptop batteries are sold in a discharged stated, a full charge would be needed before use. Once fully charged your should switch on your computer and run your battery down until it is fully discharged, i.e then your computer turn itself off.

Some new batteries will show a fully charged state, u need to remove the battery and then re insert it until is shows a discharged state. On occasions your laptop will not recognize your new battery. This can be solved by running a calibration program found in your control panel, if you need more help consult your manual.

You should discharge your battery 3 or 4 time a year, this will prolong the life of it. If your are nor using your laptop for a long time, remove the battery in a discharged state and store it in a cool dry place away from sources of heat and light.

Battery run time will depend on various things. The first is the amount of applications you have running at one time. If you have 15 applications running then your battery run time will be shorter than expected than if you had three running.

It will also depend on the amount of USB device attached to your model. Devices such as external drives will require more power that a mouse.

Laptop batteries last for 1 to 3 years when used in normal conditions. But the more the battery is used, you will notice a reduction in its charging life. Your batteries cycle is usually about 500 to 1000 charges. Battery cycle is the amount of times it can be charged and discharged.

Before you purchase a new hard drive you need to determine which one you need. Their are two main types called IDE and SATA. They look the same and are about the same size. You need to read the numbers and letters on the drive to determine which one you need.Look for a group of pins amongst the connectors at the back. IDE drives have 50 pins in the back of the drive. SATA drives don't have very few pins or might not have any at all.

Identify the connection on the board. An IDE drive contains many pins spread over 2 inches, and the cable used to connect these pins is called a IDE cable and looks like a ribbon cable.

when purchasing a new laptop keyboard you need to consider a few things. The 1st is the size of your keyboard. With modern laptops the keyboard is usually the length of the the screen and contain 10 key pads. The medium sized laptops contain fairly standard sized keyboard minus the 10 key. The thin and light keyboards usually have even smaller keyboards.

Full sized Keyboards- are similar in spacing when compared to desktop computers, which can make it easier for you to start typing. They also include a 10 key which makes it easier for you if your work in the accountancy profession.

Medium Size- These are found on many laptops usually on the 15.4 and 14.1 sized laptops and some older 17inch models

Compact Size- You need to pay attention when you move into the thin & light or ultra portable class notebook. These contain condensed keyboards which make many people feel cramped and frustrated. If u have large hands then I suggest you go for a medium sized keyboard. If your looking at ultra compact laptops on websites, u should take a look at them in your local store to ensure they are ergonomic.

When upgrading your memory you must first decide what type of memory you need and how much you need. There are various types of memory and your laptop will be designed to work with specific types. The newest models will be using DDR2 memory. DDR is short for Double Data Rate, which is faster than old versions of memory. DDR3 is also in use on the latest models of laptops.

In addition to the type of memory installed in the notebook, the speed of the memory can also make a difference in the performance. When comparing notebook computer systems, be sure to check both of these pieces of information to determine how they may impact performance.

There are two ways that the memory speeds can be designated. The first is by the memory type and its clock rating, like DDR2 400. The other method is by listing the type along with the bandwidth. In the case the same DDR2 memory would be listed as PC2-3200 memory. Below is a listing in order of lowest to fastest memory types in both formats:

DDR2 400 / PC2-3200
DDR2 533 / PC2-4200
DDR2 667 / PC2-5300 or PC2-5400
DDR2 800 / PC2-6400
DDR3 800 / PC3-6400
DDR3 1066 / PC3-8500
DDR3 1333 / PC3-10600

Restrictions on your Memory

Notebook computers generally have two slots available for memory modules compared to four or more in desktop systems. This means that they are more limited in the amount of memory that have available. With current memory module technologies, this restriction generally comes to four gigabytes of RAM in a notebook system based on 2GB modules. Some ultra portable systems are even fixed with one size of memory that cannot be changed at all. So what is important to know when you look at a notebook?

First, find out what the maximum amount of memory is. This is generally listed by most of the manufacturers. This will let you know what upgrade potential the system has. Next, determine how the memory configuration is when you buy the system. For example, a notebook that has 1GB of memory can be configured as either a single 1GB module or two 512MB modules. The single memory module allows for better upgrade potential because by adding another module you are gaining more memory without sacrificing any current memory. Upgrading the two module situation with a 1GB upgrade would result in the loss of one 512MB module and a resulting memory total of 1536MB.

Intel tend to be more reliable and are on average a bit more cheaper. You get a longer battery life with Intel and less freeze when using your laptop. Any core duo2 processor will do with 2 gigahertz is fine. If you have to choose AMD, then go for one of the top of the range models like the Turion 64 X2 mobile processor. Avoid Celeron or Sempron as they are the bottom end of processors.

The memory. Your laptop should have at least 2 GB of memory. However, 512 MB will work with Windows XP.

Size. You should choose a smaller screen if you carry your laptop a lot. Typically a 14.1 inch screen is considered small. A 17 inch screen is considered big. A 17 inch screen is heavier and use up more battery life. You can get a 15 inch or a 15.4 inch.

Optical Drives such as DVD +/- are fine to play most disc. However, if you want to play High Definition disc like blue ray then you will need to invest a bit more money.

You should also consider your graphics card, most of them in laptops are built into the system and use system memory to operate. They are fine for everyday use, but if you need to play your games then ATI or NVIDIA will do the trick. These cards are designed for games.

A ATI HD 2xxxx or NVIDIA Geforce 7xxx or 6xxx series is suitable with least 128-megabytes of memory for Vista.

If your wanting to do video editing then try a Geforce 8800 or ATI's HD 3600 series with 512 of dedicated memory.