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Editors Note: Backstage Technicians are here to help and in this ongoing series, they’ll offer me their favorite tips and provide answers to some of the most common service related questions they hear at both the call center and in Sony Style Stores.

Battery life is important, especially for those long flights or extended study sessions at the library. Even though battery technology and OS power management have come a long way, you always seem to need just a little more when the battery finally decides its had enough and powers down.  Because of that, I reached out to Backstage Technicians to get their top 5 tips for squeezing every ounce out of that battery.  Here are the most popular responses:

1. Adjust Your VAIO Power Plan

This is the first and easiest step. You can choose 1 of the 3 preset power options or customize your own to quickly adjust a broad range of power settings with one click.

1. Left-click on the power icon in the bottom right of your screen
2. Select Power Saver

2. Put Your VAIO to Sleep

Even if you’ll only be away for a moment, putting your VAIO to sleep can save precious battery life. Your LCD and hard drive are two of the biggest consumers of power and when you step away they continue to draw power to keep the LCD lit and hard drive spinning.

1. Click the Start button
2. Select the power icon in the lower right corner

3. Adjust Your LCD Brightness

While the VAIO Power Plan can automatically adjust your LCD brightness, you can make further adjustments with this easy keyboard shortcut to save even more power.

1. Press and hold the Fn key on the bottom left of your keyboard while selecting the F5 key simultaneously
2. Repeat step A until you reach the desired dimness – the dimmer, the more power you’ll save

4. Turn Off Unused Ports

Even when not in use, your USB, iLINK, Ethernet, Optical Drive and other inputs consume power to maintain a standby state – ready to automatically detect a device as soon as it’s inserted. However, if you’re on a long flight just watching movies and know you’re not going to be using any of these ports, turn them off! Here’s how:

1. From the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound
2. Click Power Options
3. Click Choose When to Turn Off the Display in the left hand margin
4. Click Change Advanced Power Settings
5. In the “Running On Batteries” row set the i.LINK, built-in CD/DVD or any other input you’d like to Disable or Off.

*Don’t forget to turn these back on should you need them later.

5. Switch from External to Internal Graphics*

An external graphics card consumes a lot more power than internal integrated graphics. If you’re just browsing the internet, hammering through e-mails or taking notes in class, you don’t need the graphics performance of an external, dedicated graphics card. Sound intimidating though? Switching between the two graphic performance options is as easy as flipping a switch and here’s how:

1. Flip the hardware switch from Speed to Stamina

*Available on select models only

Buy a Large Capacity Battery

Still need more or just don’t feel like tinkering with these settings? Pick up a Large Capacity Battery from any SonyStyle store or online. On average, you’ll increase your battery life by approximately 1.5x when compared to a Standard Capacity Battery.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the ice berg. I want to hear your battery tips as well. Share them with the rest of the community and post your tips in the comment section below.

Tags: Backstage, VAIO, VAIO Quick Tips