wilkes

I was afraid to put it in hibernation mode because my brother-in-law put his PC into hibernation once and almost didn't get it to come on again--why do you think this happened to his computer?

I would put the laptop into hibernation mode, not sleep mode as sleep mode puts your open programs and docs into memory and still uses power. Putting it into hibernation mode stores your open programs and docs onto the hard drive and then turns off the computer.

I have been recharging the battery when the little message pops up telling me to plug in or change the battery--only around 11% power left. So the battery is not drained to the extent that I can't continue to use the laptop when I recharge it. When I use the laptop again it is usually charged to 98% or 99% capacity. Always before I would put the laptop into sleep mode and close the lid. This last time I left the top up, thinking that maybe closing it created some kind of wear and that might cause it to be slow turning on--after all, there has to be some kind of electronic connection between the screen and the keyboard. Seemed to come up faster this time.

The more graphics you view, and extensive cpu & gpu usage that you do as well will cause the battery to run down more quickly. Also when you refer to recharging it more than once a day, are you referring to it actually going all the way dead, or just getting low and making you worry, so you recharge it? Reason I'm asking that is because the more you charge the laptop up without it being completely drained will cause it to store a memory of the battery being charged at whatever % it is at when you charge it. Eventually the laptop battery will stay at the constant % even though it should be full.

Bottom line is that if you push the laptop hard with intense cpu & gpu stuff then it will cause the battery to drain more. Also if the laptop is not powerful enough it will cause it to run harder trying to keep up with what you're trying to do, and also make the battery drain down more.

I have been using my PC multiple times a day and usually have to recharge it 2 or 3 times during a day--only had the laptop 4 - 5 months, I guess. I've also been on http://www.houzz a lot creating several ideabooks--pictures of remodeling, outdoor spaces, etc that I like and which are collected in ideabooks on their website--could this be slowing my laptop down? I didn't think the pics were downloaded on my hard drive.