Managing Battery Power Conserving Battery Power Conserving Battery Power The OmniBook uses Advanced Power Management (APM) to conserve battery power. You can take steps to optimize your battery operating time. This section describes how to ♦ Optimize battery life. ♦ Set time-outs. ♦ Handle and store the battery safely. ♦ Get the most from your battery. To optimize battery life Follow these suggestions to optimize your battery life (operating time). • Plug in the ac adapter, especially while using the floppy disk drive, the CD-ROM drive, or any external connections. • Put the OmniBook in Suspend mode whenever you are not using it for a short time.
Press the blue power button for approximately 1 second, or (from Windows 95), select Start menu, Suspend. • Put the OmniBook in Hibernate mode whenever you want to save your current session, but will not be using the computer for several hours or more (Fn+F12). • Turn the OmniBook off whenever you will not be using it for several hours or more: press the blue and hold the blue power button until the display shuts down or select Start menu, Shut Down. The current session is not saved. • Turn the brightness of the display down to lowest comfortable level. This reduces backlight power , which can increase operating time by as much as 15%.
• Set the automatic time-out settings to emphasize saving power (page 3-10). • If you have an I/O PC Card—that is, a PC Card having an external connection, such as a modem or network card—remove it when you are not using it. Some I/O cards use significant power, even while they’re inactive. • If you work with an application that uses the serial port or a PC Card, exit the application when you are done using it. • Install a secondary battery in the plug-in module bay to double the operating time. 3-9