internal wifi power drain

I have a HP 8510p with the OEM internal wifi card. At present, with the newest drivers installed and all settings on max power savings, it still sucks up about 5-7W. While this isnt a whole lot of power, when I'm just typing and trying to conserve battery my total power usage with wifi off is only 15W. comparatively it's increasing my battery usage by 50% Is there any way to reduce this further? or is there any wifi cards that are known to use less power? I dont need a very powerful card because im usually relatively close to a router.

 

Umm, 5-7mWh? You know, on the usual laptop you have atleast a battery holding 48000mWh, so 5-7mW is not even a 1% drain of that, it's more like 0.1%... So you shouldn't be able to tell a difference.

 

oops, my mistake, I ment Wh XD. working with too many different numbers and I guess I got confused haha. (has be corrected now)

btw: I have a 70Wh battery, but since power usage of my laptop is so low without wifi on I can get 4:40 but with it on I'm looking at around 3:00-3:30...That's over a whole hr's worth of power...

 

Do you need to run WiFi? There is probably a full off mode you can use either from a swtich or an Fn-key combo that will disable the card and thus prevent any real power drain. Also if you are always very close to your router, you could try getting an ethernet cord and staying plugged in. You'll get a faster connection, lower ping, and I would guess less power usage too since sending signals over wire is generally easier then sending and recieving waves through the air.

 

What is your wireless card? You probably could replace it with an Intel 5100 or 5300, which in general are more power-efficient.

 

yes, i want to usewifi. I dont have access to an ethernet jack as I'm on campus and they dont provide many. The few that are available are usually taken.

I have an Intel 4965AG. Thanks for the tip! XD will give it a try!