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    Battery Life issues M17xR3 (GTX580)

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by MegaSquishyMan, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. MegaSquishyMan

    MegaSquishyMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey I was just wondering if anyone else has some battery life issues with their m17xr3. I literally just got one three days ago (note: it does have a gtx 580 and ive tested it with both the "intel turbo boost" feature enabled in disabled in the bios). The battery on the lowest power settings i can set (100% charge) is about 2 hours. I don't get how people claim an idle of five hours and an actual hour count of 3. Is my windows reading my battery life wrong or am I working with a defective machine?
     
    MegaSquishyMan, Aug 14, 2011
    #1
  2. jwolf7722

    jwolf7722 Notebook Deity

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    If you have the 3D option you cant switch graphics to Intel. Your always running the 580 which eats your battery up. Only way to get 4-5 hours is the ability to switch and turn off the graphics card. I could be wrong but from what I have read with 3d screen option you cant switch.

    If your running the 580 with no way to switch graphics then your battery life seems right. This is why I will only work with AMD cards.
     
    jwolf7722, Aug 15, 2011
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  3. Jas71

    Jas71 Notebook Evangelist

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    Yes, you can't switch graphics if you have the 3D screen. If you don't have a 3D screen and have an nVidia card, Optimus does the switching for you automatically. The people who are getting around 5 hours are people with AMD cards like myself and we have to manually switch to our integrated graphics.
     
    Jas71, Aug 15, 2011
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  4. hteng

    hteng Notebook Consultant

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    4 hours of youtube and browsing with some settings lowered, very good. manual switching is probably a better option.
     
    hteng, Aug 15, 2011
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  5. MegaSquishyMan

    MegaSquishyMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah i don't have the 3d screen. I was wondering if there is any way to force optimus to switch cards or to manually disable the 580? i think its ridiculous that with optimius "optimizing" my batter i get less than half what some people get when they have the option to switch off their dedicated card
     
    MegaSquishyMan, Sep 5, 2011
    #5
  6. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

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    Brightness down, lights off, everything on lowest setting for the GPU/CPU in CC.
     
    Brabostaan, Sep 5, 2011
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  7. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    hmm idk what the problem is with yours. I can get 4 hours with the lights off in powersaver mode with minimal screen brightness. Might be a bug or something?
     
    bigtonyman, Sep 6, 2011
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  8. yashasvi08

    yashasvi08 Notebook Consultant

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    set your powerplan to powersaver and reduce the brightness........i have a 580 + 3d and i usually get around 3hr15min of battery life in powersaver mode......
     
    yashasvi08, Sep 6, 2011
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  9. MegaSquishyMan

    MegaSquishyMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    i figured it out. itunes was glitching with the killer wireless manager. there was some glitch with the two. the new drivers fixed it.

    the thing that was killing my battery life was bonjour wasting my cpu performance trying to connect or something like that. really lame
     
    MegaSquishyMan, Feb 11, 2012
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  10. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    glad to see you got it fixed. :)
     
    bigtonyman, Feb 11, 2012
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