W3V Vista Battery Life

Hey,

I just installed Vista and boy is it a battery hog! You can see my W3V specs in the sig, but I've undervolted my W3V to 1.1V at max load 1.86ghz, not using Aero or the Sidebar, and I'm getting 1 hr 45 mins of battery life!! I believe I used to be able to get ~3hrs!! what are your experiences with Vista?

I'm guessing (completely guessing) it may be because of Vista's preference for newer CPUs? Anyways, I'm considering buying a 2nd Bay battery and was wondering, do I just need the battery and the tray that came with my laptop, or do I need a special tray?

I found the battery here:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=222250668&vpn=90-NCB1B1000&manufacture=ASUS%20TeK

I think that's the right one. I just wonder how much battery life I'll get or if I should just revert back to XP! Either way, I think I'll get the extra battery because I never use my CD drive.


PS: as a side note, anyone use that Logitech VX Nano mouse? I still have the Logitech mouse that came with my W3V... but that vx nano is so tempting!!

 

I have a W3j, and I know there are some differences, but you should probably be getting more than 1.75 hours. Have you checked your battery wear? Do you have a good guess of what you were getting in XP before you switched? The battery looks fine from that site. The second battery added 2 hours to the 3 that I was getting. I don't have the Vx Nano, but I have had the VX revolution for about a year now, and I love it.

 

Good call Schmerge (btw I like saying that)

I just installed NHC again (back from RMClock) and it says my battery wear is at 35% ! It says my capacity is 43601mWh, I wonder what it is supposed to be at brand new...

I've had the laptop for about a year, but I'm wondering, I usually use it plugged in and fully charged, so... does my battery wear out greatly if I use it plugged in with the battery still in the back of it? I think I'll start taking it out..

I'm gonna get that second battery... hopefully I don't need a new main battery aswell!


PS: for NHC, what is Hard-Drive standby time? Should I put it on for AC mode?

 

I am going to guess that you W3V battery is 2 years old, or more. 35% wear for 2 years is about on par, since the battery starts to wear as soon as is manufactured. You could choose to replace it, but that is up to you. Leaving it plugged in all the time should matter, and I don't recommend removing it unless you know it will be months before you use it, and keep in mind the battery is a good safeguard against power outages.

The hard drive Standby Time is how long from no activity to spin down. On AC you should set it, but to a longer time, probably 15-30 min. On Battery mine is 3 or 5 min.

 

I got my laptop 1 year ago... so I guess it's been wearing quite fast even though I use it most often on AC power!

Are you using NHC with Vista Caleb? If you are, is your Dynamic Switching working? Mine isn't and I can't find a fix for it :/

 

Well, what you need to keep in mind is that despite you getting the computer a year ago, the battery might have been produced a very long time ago, 2 years ago or more.

I don't use NHC, I don't like it much, so I don't use it. By the way, does your screen brightness adjust automatically when you switch from battery to AC or vice versa? I can't get mine working.

 

Ah yes I see, it was probably made that long ago I guess the next battery I should buy should be a W3J battery because they're produced more recently. Do you know if they fit the W3V? Also, for your 2nd bay battery, did you just use the empty tray that came with your W3j?

Yes, my screen automatically adjusts for brightness, I didn't really change any settings, it just worked right away.

BTW, if you don't use NHC, do you use anything? Do you undervolt? Is it possible to undervolt using just Vista Power plans?

Thanks for the help so far

Best,

b

 

A small question that went unanswered: you don't need a special tray for the battery it comes as a tray that slides in the empty bay.

If you don't want to use NHC, there is RMClock for undervolting. Better compatibility with Vista than NHC, anyway.

I would also guess it's normal wear on the battery. If you have C max charge left and the wear level is W% you can obtain the designed max charge by the formula:

DMC = C * 100 / W

 

Your brightness adjusts? Did you install the ATK drivers, and if so which version?

 

Thanks, that's good to know

Yep, I installed the ATK drivers that came out awhile ago in that Vista drivers thread. The file names are:

ATK_Hotkey_vista_070117
ATKDrv_Vista32bit_070126
ATKMedia_Vista32bit_070125
ATKOSD2_Vista32bit_070125

Hope that helps, I'll try and find the thread and maybe some updated ones

 

EDIT: nevermind found the answer, the 2nd bay battery of the W3J fits the W3V

 

Really? My brightness does not adjust when switching power sources. I do not think I have installed ATKMedia_Vista32bit_070125; perhaps it is the culprit.

Edit: Nope; I have it installed. How did you get yours to automatically adjust?

 

I want to know too. Check in the uninstall programs, does the ATK driver show up there?

 

It's not there on mine.

Also, battlecat, which P4G do you have installed?

 

I only got mine to show up when I installed the XP version from the CD. I wonder if there are just installation errors of some sort.

 

What other drivers did you install? For example, are you using ATI's display drivers or Asus'?

Does your brightness now adjust after switching power sources?

 

No, the XP driver made no difference for me. I also tried the newer driver from things like the F3s, and they don't work properly, I get random blue screens, but when I switched back from those I no longer get that.

 

Okay sorry guys I may been confused, but I thought Schmerge was talking about NHC adjusting the brightness since he mentioned it in the same paragraph. ATK doesn't adjust it for me, it's the setting in NHC that adjusts it!

So, has your brightness ever adjusted by itself w/out NHC?

 

Ah, I see. Interesting to hear that NHC can adjust the brightness. I tried it on Vista, but went back to P4G because ... um, I think ... NHC for Vista does not throttle the CPU [yet].

On Vista, my brightness has never automatically adjusted with ATK/P4G alone.

 

Does P4G let you undervolt? I use RMClock right now, but I was talking to manni (who does NHC) and he said the next release of NHC will include Dynamic Throttling, so I'll switch to that when it comes... hopefully soon

 

I am not sure about undervolting, but it does throttle the CPU.
I am also awaiting the next release of NHC or the U6S.

 

i saw in What laptop reviews over the period where vista was being installed on laptops that do not have the new chipset and processor and all of them took a massive dive in battery life, its only after the new 965 chipset and processor have been released have battery times seem to have come back to normal.

Just an observation but one reason im not installing vista on my W3J

 

I'm pretty sure I'm in the same boat as those with a "massive dive in battery life"... I just don't really want to switch back to XP! I'm used to Vista now!

 

I have Vista on my W3j, and I get the same battery life as all the people that reviewed it for the site here. I don't think there is a problem, plus all the tests I have seen show that Vista has been fine on battery life.