Battery life...

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 8:39 pm

So Ken was telling me a couple of ways to try to extend the life of my laptop's battery (at the moment I get about 2 hours) but he referred to a bit of software I could download to adjust the power being used to it's minimum but I don't recall what it was called. Anyone have any thoughts/information about how to make this thing last longer?

T-Shirt · Post by **T-Shirt** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:29 am

depnding on the brand, the Manufacter probably provideed some utilities to do that, and of coarse through the control panel under power options.
screen saver set to none (screen should go off) also reduce the brightness 10-20% if conditions allow, and minimizing the number of devices plugged in to the usb, card, and media slots all help
turning off the wireless radio when not needed helps a lot

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:49 am

Thanks - I've actually done all of those. This was something Ken suggested while we were at work, but I forgot what he said the program is. It's something like what I've seen the OCers using to fiddle with voltages, but for laptops/mobile pc's. With all the things you mentioned done I squeeze about 02:15 out of the battery, but if I'm running my chess engines/databases it dies pretty quick. Ken seemed to think I might stretch it to ~3hrs with his method...

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:45 am

Hey Tristan!

What your looking for is Notebook Hardware Control

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:26 am

Sweet, thanks. I'm crap at remembering things at work...

DaIceMan · Post by **DaIceMan** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:26 am

My daughters' laptop had an "Acer Power Management" program running when we bought it. It didn't really help to extend the battery life and made it horrible to use. Even on wall power the program held brightness and processor speeds at low end to reserve battery. I ended up uninstalling the program and have yet to find anything that will work better.

I'll check into the program Ken listed.

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:42 am

Well... if you figure out how to use it, let me know. I've downloaded and installed, Vista crashed. Got past that and then i got told I have no admin rights. Got past that and now its looking for a file that apparently didn't install or was never there in the first place.

Darkstar · Post by **Darkstar** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 12:23 pm

Do you have 2.0 Net installed? are you running 32 bit version of Vista? What file is the program try ing to find?

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:08 pm

Vista Home Premium 32-bit. .Net 2.0 is installed as part of the OS. C:\Windows\ATK0100\Hcontrol.exe <- The file its looking for which doesn't exist (at least when I use the search I get no results, and the folder doesn't seem to be there either - unless its a hidden folder.)

Edit - I found a hidden file NHC_HControl, would that be what it's looking for?

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:42 pm

If all else fails....get an IBM Thinkpad. There power management stuff pwns all. IBM thinkpads FTW!!!! Their battery maximizer program does anything and everything you would want in a power program. on top of which....its an IBM.

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:51 pm

Unfortunately the fundage does not alllow for indiscriminate electronics purchasing. This stupid â‚¬700 laptop means I have to budget hard for the rest of the month...

I guess its really not critical, I was just annoyed when I found out that I would be tied to a power point whilst geeking on my chess games instead of being able to wander the apt. freely...

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:14 am

Tristan, try "RM Clock Utility" instead. It's a little harder to use, but it can still change the cpu vcore (voltage) and multiplier (speed)

You can get it here http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

Ken

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:11 am

Thanks again, I'll check that out.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:44 am

TristanM wrote:Unfortunately the fundage does not alllow for indiscriminate electronics purchasing. This stupid â‚¬700 laptop means I have to budget hard for the rest of the month...

LOL very well put, i was only pulling your leg though. LOL You can always go linux...:shifty eyes:

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:27 am

Ah... Hope I don't look like too much of a moron for not getting the joke. And thanks for noticing my clever turn of phrase

TristanM · Post by **TristanM** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:33 pm

kenc51 wrote:Tristan, try "RM Clock Utility" instead. It's a little harder to use, but it can still change the cpu vcore (voltage) and multiplier (speed)

You can get it here http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

Ken

Well... That one runs anyway - the problem now is figuring out how to use it. The documentation is a bit "thin" for a n00b to learn how to use it properly...