Last question I promise!!!! Easy one too....

Alright I am trying to configure my computer so that it gets longer battery life at the expense of some performance. So my questions are:



What do you suggest changing?


So far I have:
Reduced screen brightness to 50% on battery
Turned off bluetooth
And changed search and indexing to power saver (WHAT DOES THIS DO)??



And finnally, is it ok to reduce the processor power when on battery? I changed it to 85% but it was really slow. 2.5 ghz 6mb cache

Also what is processor state and how does it apply to power consumption?

 

you could consider undervolting your cpu. there is a guide in the hardware forum.

 

Your processor should downclock itself when not in full use. You could also kill wifi if you aren't using it.

 

Power saver does a bunch of stuff, the biggest thing as you saw was the CPU throttling. It will keep the cpu at the lowest SpeedStep voltage possible, which as you saw slows it down but does save a lot on power and heat.

Indexing is the background service that lets you type anything into the start menu and instantly find files with a few key words. This requires the computer to look at every single file on the computer (well, certain locations anyway), read it, and then add it to a small data file to use whenever you search for something. Indexing only happens when files are changed.
This came out a little more confusing than it really is, but hopefully you'll understand me :/

Another power saving thing would be to turn the screen (not the computer) off after a few minutes. You can play with that in the screen saver dialog.

Hope this helps!

 

Hey, relax, feel free to ask as many questions as you want. Thats what were here for, to help each other out and talk about our problems, etc. Or just have fun. XD

Its best to disable the search/indexing altogether. Basically to ensure that search results are pulled up fast, your computer is always keeping track of the file locations on your computer through the process called caching. Its an ongoing process, so yeah, it could save you some memory if you disable it. I highly recommend this guide:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

It is very useful and has helped me a lot in increasing performance and saving battery life.

It is ok to reduce the processor power when on battery if your referring to Power Saver, High Performance, Balanced. The reason why your computer was very slow is because your on Power Saver mode. Change it to Balanced or Higher Performance for much faster performance.

Undervolting does help reduce power consumption. If you are undervolting your processor, follow the undervolting guide. You should be able to get around 1.0125 volts slightly higher or lower based on your processor.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks! I disabled the search and indexing feature, but I don't feel comfortable undervolting just yet. I don't have much experience with tweaking system features, just putting the hardware together.



So thanks for all your help guys! I might try undervolting in the future.

 

Yeah I dont undervolt mine either just because the way that its detailed is basically lower the voltage, if you encounter BSOD, you lowered it too low. Lower it again, but above where you last had the BSOD, if you encounter another BSOD, then its still too low. Keep repeating the process until you stop encountering BSODs.

Though the OP said its "safe, BSODs won't do anything bad", etc...
The fact that the computer is still improperly shutting down and BSODs will definitely occur is not appealing to me. Sure the value has been tested already to work for that processor, based on user experiences... though it obviously varies from computer to computer and could be higher or lower. You never know unless you get a BSOD to know where that bottom point is. Not attractive at all.

As for the guide, follow everything that you feel comfortable with. I didn't follow everything the guide said not because it was risky or anything, but I knew it was not going to be all good for my computer.

Off the top of my head I recall doing the Disabling Indexing, disabling the TPM service, and a few others, though I don't remember off the top of my head.