needs tips on how to maximize battery life on g1s!

as the topic says id like some tips on how some of you maximize the battery on your g1s

thanks in advance!

 

Well here's what I do:

First set the power mode to Battery Saving (obviously). Then open up the configuration for that mode, and set the display to 7% backlight (I find it's good enough for portable use).

Next, go into the personalization menu (right click on the desktop and you'll find the link). And go to Colour and Appearance, then the Classic menu for it. And set the mode to Windows Vista Basic, rather then Aero. It gets rid of all the special effects that utilize DX9, and you'll save on battery life because of it.

I also shut down Direct Console so it's no longer powering the OLED display. With all these steps you should get around 2 and 1/2 hours with Wireless turned on (not bluetooth).

You might want to consider installing Windows XP for portable use. It has less services/programs working in the background which should save you some additional battery life. Personally I'll be using mine for school. Hopefully 2 and 1/2 hours will be enough. If not, you can buy an 8-cell battery for the G1S for around $100, which would double the battery life (you would have to shut down the laptop to swap batteries of course).

 

You can also undervolt which will net you a bit more battery time, but thats getting a bit more advanced. There is a little writeup in the g1s resource thread here about it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146088

 

You can turn down the clock speeds on the graphics card using RivaTuner, you shouldn't need maximum speeds when using the battery. I think RivaTuner also has an automatic 2d settings.

 

In addition to the previous suggestions, you could turn off hard drive indexing. If indexing is on, Windows will more or less constantly index your drive which results in the HD spinning even when it doesn't really need to be.

To turn indexing off, go to My Computer, right click your hard drive, go to properties, and uncheck "index this drive for faster searching." You will have to do this for each partition (if you have multiple partitions).

Disclaimer: Turning off indexing means that if you run a drive search it will take a bit longer. Also, I have not rigorously tested to determine whether or not this actually saves battery life. However, it seems like the less the HD is spinning, the longer your battery will last.

 

http://www.codeplex.com/vistabattery

BAM... The solution to most of the battery issues. It'll automatically handle turning off Aero, and the Sidebar, and everything else.