Alienware Area-51 m5550 Technical Reference
Prolonging the Battery’s Life and Usage Cycles
There are things you can do to prolong the use of the battery.
• Use the AC adapter wherever an AC wall outlet is available. This will ensure
uninterrupted computing.
Purchase an additional battery pack.
• Store the battery pack at room temperature. Higher temperature tends to
deplete the battery’s power faster.
• Make good use of the power management function. Save To Disk (Hibernate)
saves the most energy by storing current system contents in a hard disk space
reserved for this function.
• The life expectancy of the battery is approximately 300 recharges.
• See the notices section in the beginning of the user manual on how to care for
the battery pack.
Note: Read the section about protecting your notebook in the beginning of this manual
for tips about how to maintain the battery pack.
Note: To achieve optimal battery performance, you may need to do a battery
calibration at a 3-month interval. To do this:
1. Fully charge the battery.
2. Then discharge the battery by entering the BIOS setup screen. (Press the F2
key as soon as you turn on the computer and let it remain at the setup
screen until the battery runs out.
3. Fully charge the battery again.
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