Newsletter Archives

• How to preserve your battery charge on a Windows 11 laptop

  Posted on April 15, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.16 • 2024-04-15

  Look for our BONUS issue on Monday, April 22!

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Frustrated because your Windows laptop runs out of juice at the worst possible times? There are ways to better sustain your battery charge.

  One of the best laptops I ever owned was a Lenovo ThinkPad T460 back in 2016. One major reason why I liked this machine was its dual-battery setup. Packed with both an internal battery and an external swappable battery, this unit easily delivered a solid 12 hours of life on a single charge.

  Sadly, those days are gone. With Lenovo and most other laptop makers obsessed with making machines as thin and light as possible, battery life has suffered dramatically. With my current laptop, I’m lucky to get five hours of life on a single charge. That’s fine if I’m at home or in a place where I can plug the computer into AC. But if I’m in one spot for hours, with no handy electrical outlet, then my battery charge can easily run out.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.16.0, 2024-04-15).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 Battery charging, Battery life, Battery management, Control Panel, Newsletters, Power, Windows 11

• Randy’s remedies: Juice, heat, glass, social, grid, and malware

  Posted on September 19, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Randy McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  SUPPORT

  

  By Randy McElveen

  Let’s finish up that list of remedies from Randy’s top 10 customer-support issues: Identified!

  In this article, we’ll tackle #6 all the way up to #1. If you remember, we’re going to get you some free malware-removal tools for #1, so find that flash drive!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).

  Support Internet connectivity, malware, Newsletters, Overheating, Power, Support

• Do external hard drives make sense in the cloud-storage era?

  Posted on March 7, 2022 at 02:44 CST by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  With effectively infinite storage available online, is there any point to storing files and backups locally, on external hard drives? A subscriber’s question prompts today’s first item.

  The second item looks at a PC electrical glitch. A subscriber has a battery-backed uninterruptible power supply and an emergency generator. Trouble is, they won’t work with each other! Here’s what’s probably going on, and how to correct it.

  Last, you’ll see ways to connect to an unknown, potentially compromised, public USB charging port — without risking your device’s data!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.10.0 (2022-03-07).

  LangaList LangaList, Newsletters, Power, storage, USB Charging

• Locked out of his own PC’s Desktop!

  Posted on June 28, 2021 at 02:42 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  There’s no such thing as a small permissions problem in Windows! When things go wrong, they can go very, very wrong, as today’s first reader-submitted question illustrates.

  In this issue’s second question, a reader wonders whether he should try updating his PC’s firmware (i.e., BIOS/UEFI and similar low-level hardware) via Windows’ Device Manager.

  And in the third, a reader seeks help when his device fails to restart after a power outage.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.24.0 (2021-06-28).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, BIOS, LangaList, permissions, Power

• Batteries so powerful they do everything but fly

  Posted on February 15, 2021 at 01:10 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Batteries so powerful they do everything but fly

  By Brian Livingston

  There are times when I’m power-mad — I just want the biggest battery available to power my laptop, my phone, and heck, maybe a cup warmer for my coffee, too.

  I’m not going to drag around a cart with a propane generator just so I can compute. Fortunately, power banks that can double or triple the life of a laptop are now affordable and light enough to carry around in a shoulder bag or backpack.

  But what about airplanes?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.6.0 (2021-02-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Batteries, Power, Public Defender, Travel