[jgr789]

I purchased my mini 9 netbook last Christmas (refurbished), but never got a chance to really use it much. Of course the hardware warranty is up. My first problem is that the battery doesn't even last for two hours on a full charge. I haven't used it enough to say it's worn out, I'm thinking it may have been faulty when I got the mini. (It was refurbished). Is there anything I can do besides buying a new battery to get more life from the computer? And can I buy the same Dell battery from other than Dell since they cost half the price that Dell is charging.

My second question is that in reading everything I could about the battery problem, I found that there were 26 downloads available for me to update my mini most of them are recommended. I've had problems in the past downloading all the so called updates for other things and I wonder if someone could advise which I should really download that would really help improve the performance of my mini 9.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[holmes4]

I doubt that any of the downloads will affect battery life or performance. They will help with security and reliability. I assume you are running XP.

[jgr789]

I guess I was thinking one of them might change the BIOS from 04 to 05 and yes I have Win XP

[joshmini]

One thing you can do it dim the brightness of the display as much as you comfortably can.

How close to two hours is it lasting? What programs are used while it's running on battery? Do you have anything plugged into USB during this time? My mini battery will barely get me through a 2.5 hour movie while using speakers without needing to be plugged in immediately after.

[jgr789]

It lasts just a little over an hour and a half. Just surfing the web and reading e-mail, nothing plugged into USB port. How do I go about dimming the brightness of the display?

[joshmini]

i should put my foot in my mouth sometimes, as i haven't figured out how to dim my brightness yet. what operating system are you using? If you are using the same as me (mac osx) then i will try to figure it out and repost here. If you are using windows try the combination of the Fn key with the 9 key. maybe this will work with ubuntu too. anyways only my volume function is working with OSX. GL

[grassle]

Brightness: Fn+9 and Fn+0. Brightness settings switch automatically for battery and external power.
On my keyboard the Function key functions are printed in blue. I guess these are hardwired = OS independent.

[rrfranczak3]

the function keys are controlled by a program and drivers that are loaded, if you dont wanna use them for the purposes that they are set up for you can disable them, at least thats the way it is on the Mini 10, its probably the same program for the Mini 9 also....

[ade099]

Originally Posted by jgr789

It lasts just a little over an hour and a half. Just surfing the web and reading e-mail, nothing plugged into USB port. How do I go about dimming the brightness of the display?

i'm not sure which kybd you have (i got the us-intl one) but i believe the general layout would be fn-9 to dim and fn-0 to brighten. if you wanna set the levels of brightness to switch automatically when go from AC to battery power, you can set that in the power options section of the control panel (assuming you're running some version of windows). and btw, when you say you're "surfing the web," spending 2hrs youtubing or streaming video is different from spending 2hrs writing an email i think any kind of media (video probably moreso than audio) will drain the battery quite quickly.