battery life (again)

I'm still not sure whether there's something wrong with my power settings.

I have an M5, and I was using it with the small (3 cell) battery today, and it only lasted 30 minutes. I was using a CD the whole time, but it's an educational game sort of CD, not heavy gaming!, so it only needs to access files every now and then, not constantly like a movie or audio disk or anything.

Would this really be enough to drain the battery that quickly? It was fully charged when I started. I have it set on the 'walking man' (max power savings) setting of the Power4Gear thing, and I haven't changed any of the settings from the default: it says CPU performance 75%, and screen brightness 20%, along with various options for standby and hard drive time-out, which aren't really applicaable as I was using it constantly.

The medium (6-cell) battery does about 90 minutes with this sort of CD programme, which also seems pretty short.

I've been trying to find the larger battery, but haven't yet found a UK supplier. And I'm wondering whether I really should need that anyway, or if there's something more I can do to my settings to make these ones last longer.

 

(by the way, I do have the very loud fan noise problem; might this be contributing to the short battery life?)

..and off topic, how can I edit my original post to add some extra information like this? I'm sure there's a way, but nowhere can I find an 'edit' button!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Robyn

 

nope, no icons like that. There are two other icons, but not that one!

 

Still no ideas from anyone? This battery life sounds normal, or are there settings I should change?
Anyone seen the larger battery in the UK?

(or at least, any ideas why I don't have the edit icon available - do you have to have posted a certain number of times first??)

 

Robyn are you by chance using FireFox for your browser? I notice when I use it that I only have the 2 icons you mention and no "edit" one...though switing to IE (shudder)I get all the icons like I should...

I have never run my M5np with a CD in it for that long....not sure what power saver setting you have it on. I don't even bother with the 3 cell, I have the 9 cell in and that's all I use. Combine that with Speedfan and I'm untethered for an easy 5+ hrs.

And can I recommend--for everyone--software from these guys: http://www.dachshundsoftware.com/index.html

Seems to help in increasing battery life for my laptop as well as other neat features...

--dan

 

You know what.... I've been playing around a lot with my M5 in the last day just to bring back some memories....... If you put a piece of wax paper between the cpu and the heat sink and turn the system on.... you get full blast fan, always on, all the time..... The reason being, the cpu is getting hotter, and the system realizes this and kicks the fan up to cool the heatsink.

This isn't exactly a conspiracy theory... but if by chance the piece of paper that covers the thermal tape from the factory is not removed (and it's really not that hard to miss it), then that computer might read extra hot and the fan might seem extra loud. So, I'd be curious what temps your cpu is running at.

Also, if you don't install all of the drivers, and make sure speedstep is installed (powergear as well but this is more to personalize the lcd brightness and the cpu to your exact levels)..... the cpu won't clock down and if it stays at full blast, the fan will go like crazy all the time and the battery life will be extremely poor.

Just a couple things to look at.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Well, if you have XP installed, speed step is included in xp.... so you don't have to worry about that.

Powergear wouldn't actually work if speed step wasnt' installed.

Ok... so your fan doesn't run at full speed all the time....... it may be on in some function all the time, but not full blast...

That's all I was trying to see... things look normal to me as far as that goes.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

(yes, I am using Firefox, so that explains that issue at least! thanks)

I checked with Asus probe, and currently it says the CPU temperature is 45, and the fan is on and loud.

I don't think I have SpeedStep installed - what is it, and where do I get it? I thought that the Power4Gear software was supposed to do all the switching that I needed?

As far as I know, all the drivers are installed - which drivers in particular did you mean, and how can I check? Everything came pre-installed - WindowsXP and all the Asus utilities and stuff.

I have kept the Power4Gear settings as the came: on the lowest setting, the walking man, (which is what is being used running on battery), it says the CPU performance should be 75%, and the screen brightness should be 20%. I assumed those were reasonable settings for using it on battery power, as that's wht it came with. Do these seem like they need adjusting?

The fan speed is currently 2300RPM, temp 44, running on battery power; computer has been on for about 10 minutes. Fan speed now at 1700RPM, but cycles back and forth between the two. CPU performance is listed at 100%, according to asus probe, which does seem a little strange given that the Power4Gear thing says it should be at 75% on this setting.

I don't know how to tell about the paper covering the thermal tape. I don't want to open the case because of warranty issues, and I don't suppose there's any other way to tell.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Robyn

 

what about the fact that the probe says the cpu performance is 100%, but Power4Gear says that on battery power, it should be at 75%? Or are those not the same measurements?

The fan sounds is quite loud, whether it's at 1700 or 2300, so I think the sound may be loud independent of the speed! The temp isn't that high (although the bottom does get quite hot when it's been on for a while), so if there is ever a way of setting the fan to shut off, then maybe that will help the battery problem.

otherwise, I don't know what else I can do, other than keep looking for the bigger battery. And possibly order one from the states to be delivered to a friend I'll see in the summer...

 

Have you checked Task Manager to see what processes are heavily loading the CPU? Normally the CPU utilisation should be running at less than 10% (mine is currently at 3%). If you are seeing 100% utilisation then something is not well. This needs to be identifed and fixed. I am happily using Firefox V1.0.3 without any problems.

Then, two other bits of software that will help you improve the performance are (i) Mobilemeter from http://ring.riken.jp/archives/pc/forest/m/mobilemeter/mm0310.zip and (ii) the rightMark CPU Clock Utility see http://www.notebookreveiw.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15492.

Hope this helps,

John

 

I think there's a difference between CPU performance and CPU usage??

Task manager says I'm currently at 10%, with only firefox open.

So it's not usage that's the problem.

It's the other figure, CPU performance, that I was wondering about. Asus probe says that CPU performance is 100% (even now, when CPU usage is low). That's fine when I'm connected to the mains. But Power4Gear says that on battery power, CPU performance should be only 75%, yet Asus probe still lists it as 100%.

That sounds like a totally different measurement than CPU usage.

Whatever this CPU performance measure is, it seems like there is some discrepancy between what Power4Gear says it should be, and what Asus probe says it actually is, on battery power.


When I'm running the CD on battery power, the CPU usage might be much higher than 10%, which could be an additional factor. I can't check while I'm running it, though - it doesn't let me have any other programmes open (the game takes up the full screen). It also seems to block other system messages - for example, it doesn't beep when there's 10% battery left, like it normally does. It just gets down to the point where it suddenly hibernates on me. Anyway, because of this, I can't actually check the task manager while I'm running the game programme.

 

right.... your cpu shouldn't running near 100% even if you were dvd..... even then it should be probably around 90-95%...


Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

OK. Something is not thrashing your CPU.

Use one of the software in my previous posts to confirm the CPU speed. This should be 600?MHz (whatever is the minimum CPU speed) when the computer is lightly loaded, whether you are on mains or battery. Mobilemeter displays power consumption when running on battery, so you can see the effect of, for example, using the optical drive.

Speedswitch XP from http://www.diefer.de/indexe.html is another utility that helps to fine-tune the CPU operation.

John

 

OK, I downloaded the mobile meter software, but how do you tell what the CPU speed is?

There is a measurement of 'frequency', which is 1.2GHz; that makes sense because that is 75% of the normal 1.6GHz, right?

But how do you tell the actual CPU speed from that?

I had a look at that other thread about the rightmark CPU utility, but to be honest I didn't really understand it, or what I was meant to do, or whether there was some risk by doing it or anything.

Is speedswitch different from speedstep? Do I need it as well as Power4Gear, or do I replace the Power4Gear?

cheers.

 

1. Mobilemeter frequency = CPU speed. If you are getting 1200 when the computer is idle then this is too fast. It should be 600 or 800.

2. Get to the power properties (one way is to pull out the main plug, right click on the battery icon and and selection Adjust power properties). What power profile is selected? - it should be PowerGear.

3. Right click on the PowerGear icon and select Configuration. Then click on Battery Saving in the left column and check what is displayed in the right column. My CPU performance level is set at 25%.

Speedswitch XP is an alternative to PowerGear for managing the CPU speed. It has the advantage of displaying CPU speed and load but will not adjust the display brightness.

The RightMark utility will enable you to reduce the CPU voltage and therefore the heat generated. This is separate from getting the power profiles working correctly.

John

 

Thanks
I have now changed the CPU performance to 25% on battery power, and mobile meter is showing that as 600Mhz, so hopefully that will make a difference! The screen brightness is at 20% - is that reasonable? Or is that a huge power drain still?

Do I need the Speedswitch now that I've changed the CPU performance to 25%? Are there any other advantages?

Would I need to use the right mark utility? From the sounds of it, the fan is never going to switch off even if the temperature is lower, and presumably the fan is the bigger drain on power that I have. Would reducing the temp by a few degrees make a difference to battery life as well? Are there any risks to doing that? Or any disadvantages?

 

So it seems that your PowerGear battery profile was set too high.

1. Lower display brightness = less power consumed, but what is usable depends on ambient lighting. You can use Mobilemeter to show the effect of changing the brightness. If you are running on battery then it shows the power drain in Watts. If you divide the battery capacity (right click on the Mobilemeter window, select options then battery information) by the power in watts you can work out your theoretical running time for different power levels.

2. It's your choice whether you want to try SpeedSwitch XP. At the moment I am using it instead of PowerGear. SpeedSwitch XP uses some different algorithms to decide when to speed up / slow down the CPU.

3. The RightMark CPU utility gives you the ability to reduce power and heat without sacrificing performance. It seems, from the posted results, that almost all Pentium Ms will run at 0.7V at minimum speed and below 1.1V at maximum speed. Some people report no fan operation when running on batteries, but this probably depends on specific situations.

John

 

OK, perhaps I should give th RightMark thing a try too then, as it does get quite hot after I've been using it for a bit. I doubt the fan will ever stop, though (I'm using an M5, with the fan that NEVER turns off no matter how cold it gets!), but maybe just having it run a degree or two colder will make some difference to battery life. I'll have to have a good read through that other thread and see if I can understand it; I'm worried about doing something that might have consequences I'm not aware of! Or doing something irreversible. Or that might invalidate the warranty, or whatever.

thanks.

 

My W3A has quite a wide spread between the fan trigger points: The fan comes on at 40°C at 1200RPM (which is very quiet) and steps up to 1500RPM at 60°C. However, once at 1500RPM it does not step back to 1200RPM until the temperature drops below 50°C. I haven't been able to test the trigger for switching the fan off, but it could well be 30°C.

The RightMark CPU utility will delay the time until the fan comes on / speeds up and might, on battery with low CPU utilisation, mean that the fan doesn't come on at all. It's worth a try, but proceed cautiously following the recommended procedure using Prime 95 to load the CPU. Currently, my HDD is the hottest component.

John