Squeeze a little more out.

I'm travelling at the moment so finding myself on very long bus journeys. I'm currently getting around 3.10hours when watching SD video with my screen as dim as it goes 133mhz with turbo off using throttle stop (Lapy top running at around 750mhz) and intel graphics only with battery performace taking precedence over video quality. One thing i'm noticing is on a dark bus the screen could actually be darker still and i'd manage fine. I can't find how to lower it further than the Alienware or Windows will let me. Is there any software out there?
I'm using windows media player as it uses DX to off load onto the intel gpu is this the best method to get max battery?

Thanks for the help.
(also my vertex 2 died and I have to wait until I get home to RMA it)

 

you could turn off your wifi and bluetooth (if you have it) as well.

 

also disable the alienFX (the lighted keyboard and such) by holding down the function key (labeled 'FN' on your keyboard) and pressing the 'PRT SCRN' key (also labeled 'ALIEN FX')

You can easily re-enable the lights when you want by pressing the same key combo.

 

oh yes, and while I am thinking about it, you could pick up another battery. Although replacing it on the road would be a pain, as you would need to unscrew the back plate and such..

New batteries are not too expensive though. This one for example is only just over 60$ Dell Alienware M11x R3 battery and Dell Alienware M11x R3 charger parts for laptops. That is less than half of what Dell charges for exactly the same item.

 

Found a little program that lowers it further still. Managed 3.30hours solid watching videos. Is this pretty good or is my battery knackered?

Everything alienware wifi and bluetooth related is turned off.

 

Hmm... I only have experiance with the r1, but I get a little over 10 hours on the intel chip with mine.

Lights off, wifi off, OC off, well pretty much everything off but the monitor.

Download a battery tester and see what your battery is doing.

 

3.3 does seem a bit short. This review said they got around 4.4 hours battery life during video playback Alienware M11x R3 (Core i5 2467M Processor 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM) Review - Notebooks - CNET Asia

Of course that was with an R3. and they do say the R2 tended to drain the battery a bit faster. I am going to guess you are using the R2 from your signature. Might need to do a bit of googling for some R2 reviews to see how yours stacks up against its more immediate siblings.

 

Cheers guys.
Does seem a little short to me. I'll get a battery tester.