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    Does changing AlienFX consume more power?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by ragingazn628, Feb 24, 2011.

  1. ragingazn628

    ragingazn628 Notebook Consultant

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    Right now I have my theme set to change from green fades into white and fades back into green and rinse and repeat. Will this use more power or process?
     
  2. PapaAlfrego

    PapaAlfrego Notebook Consultant

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    i got it going from Red to black, then from the black to blue, and then to black, back to red :)

    damn thats a tongue twister
     
  3. ragingazn628

    ragingazn628 Notebook Consultant

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    Back on topic...
     
  4. PapaAlfrego

    PapaAlfrego Notebook Consultant

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    haha yeah i left out the part where i too wanted to know if it sucks up more power
     
  5. tears

    tears Notebook Evangelist

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    Flipping colors? Yeah, it does.
     
  6. MasivB

    MasivB Guest

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  7. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    I have done steady-state AlienFX lighting, and I have done variable lighting. I have not seen a significant change in battery life either way.

    I wasn't doing anything really scientific or controlled to measure it. All I saw was that my battery life stayed about the same. Unless there was a 30-minute swing in battery life, I wouldn't have noticed it anyway.

    I *can* definitively say.... the fact that you have AlienFX on at all in battery mode has a much bigger impact on battery life than whether or not they change color.
     
  8. MasivB

    MasivB Guest

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    Exactly kent has the right idea. The program itself causes more power consumption than the LEDs themselves...
     
  9. PC Solutions

    PC Solutions Notebook Consultant

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    So is there a way to run just the backight keyboard on battery without running AlienFX? I am curious because I use my R1 alot while in bed and dont want to have the charger cord running across my lap. I want to use the backlight keyboard so that I can see what I am typing.

    Is this at all possible?
     
  10. aKaBetty

    aKaBetty Notebook Guru

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    I don't have an issue doing that. I configure my theme first then apply it. After that I disable AlienFX and all other relate Alienware program besides the OSD. It works just fine.
     
  11. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    If you don't have AlienFX running, then your laptop will default to whatever lighting scheme you were running last.

    I think you may have misinterpreted MasivB's post. It is the backlighting being on at all that consumes battery life... not the actual AlienFX.exe program executable.