problem with asus w3v battery

I'm not sure if this the notebook problem or incorrect setting. I've been reading reviews on w3v's getting 4hours something on battery. Based on my battery meter I am only getting 2:30 on battery. This seems pretty accurate because after roughly 2:30 I'm down to 10%. This is on battery saving mode, wifi on, bluetooth off, and casually surfing the net the entire time. I don't game or do anything cpu intensive.

I'm just wondering if this is solely my problem because it is kind of depressing seeing my notebook can't even get 3 hours on battery.

 

Did you turn on SpeedStep? What about Power4Gear? What about LCD brightness?

[l]ikwid.[f]uzion

 

LCD is at 50%. I assume PowerGear is on but how do you check? I'm not sure about SpeedStep.

 

1. What power consumption does mobilemeter http://ftp.riken.go.jp/pub/pc/forest/m/mobilemeter/mm0310.zip show when you are running on batteries? On light load you should be below 20W.

2. There is a battery calibration option in the BIOS. What is does is not clear, but it is worth a try.

John

 

Not a chance you're going to get 4 hours on that battery if you're working on the system..

I get 3 hours consistantly after at least a month of use. A lot depends on your screen brightness and cpu speed as well. When I'm using the system normally, I am usually in my car and need a higher brightness....... and since I know I have enough battery to last the period of my trip, I don't really care about cpu speed because the excess heat and lower battery life don't bother me in that partiuclar situation.

My guess is your brightness is rather high..... if you drop that, your life with go up. You can get some programs to really control your cpu ....... but I have a hard time believing that under the standard pre-configured spec... in battery saving mode ---- which "standard" would lower the cpu to what.. 600mhz I think... and the screen brightness to I think 10%...... that you'd only get 2 hours and 30 minutes..... with 10% left that's really a little more like 2 hours and 45 minutes.....

Just curious how you have everything else set up.... but I don't know if you're seen this forum at all, but I've said for months and months that with a system with the specs of the W3..... like the V6, W1, M6..... etc... which all have 8 cell batteries and 64mb dedicated graphics...... 3 hours is a good average time, although the battery is rated in those systems for a maximum of 5 hours..... although good luck seeing that, even though it's physically possible.

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

 

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

 

Mine gets just over 3 hours while surfing the net on wifi. Actually on my first charge I got 3:03 while surfing the net, using AIM, and installing updates.

On W3V - sweet

 

No, I'm actually not a "tweeker" so everything I have is persumbly by default.

Thank John for the software. Based on mobilemeter; frequency at 1.86 (dropping to 1.5 once in a while, temperature around 57º, discharge rate steadily around 24W (jumping to as high as 28W). Hmmm...I'm under the impression Speedstep is enable by default, now it doesn't seem so. Although indicating I'm on Battery Saving mode, clearly it ain't working since based on configuration cpu level should be around 25%.

By the way, all I've been doing is typing this. I'm usually surfing the net, listening to internet radio, or watching some movie clips. I dont need the power so I much perfer battery life. Any advice?

 

You need to get into BIOS and turn on SpeedStep. It was OFF by default on my W3V so I'm assuming for everyone else as well.

To get into BIOS, push the power on the W3V and press F2. It should bring you the BIOS setup. In one of the menus, it allows you to turn SpeedStep to Automatic. The Automatic setting adjusts the CPU multiplier on the fly depending on your use. When not doing anything intensive, my CPU will be running 800 MHz instead of 1.86 GHz. With it on, I usually get over 3 hours with normal websurfing and stuff.

[l]ikwid.[f]uzion

 

Alright thanks. Is there a way to choke up more life from the battery?

 

yes there is. as long as you dont plan to game under battery, go to the ati control panel and change the battery setting under powerplay to max battery instead of balanced. this should help improvve time alot. i can now get 4 hours, and when i plug the laptop in to game it goes back to performance.

 

That powerplay feature is pretty neat.

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

 

any luck wtfman?

 

underclocked, about 60% brightness, and light office work (ms office + internet) i've gotten really close to 5hrs once or twice.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by w3v_brian

 

double post, sorry

 

hey guy i havent messed around with powergear much but have been using centrino hardware control and i've had good a experience with it as long as you don't mind having another windows startup program. the gui is clean and straighforward, check it out.

http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by w3v_brian
Sorry for the double post -- having issues. Anyway,

I'm wondering if I can get some help with my battery life. I tried watching a dvd on the Power4 Gear DVD setting last night and only got about an hour and forty minutes through before the system shut down. That seems pretty sad to me.
I also noticed that my speedstep is turned off in the bios, but I was wondering if that was because Power4 Gear also adjusts cpu speed and they disabled it in bios to avoid conflict. Does anyone know if turning speedstep on in the bios will help with battery life and also if it will be compatible with Power4 Gear?

Any help is appreciated.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>I would recommend enabling SpeedStep. It has no problems coexisting with PowerGear - I have both enabled.

John