Battery life on HP Laptop

Hey guys

I planning to buy an HP laptop this weekend but I would like hear from everyone on the Battery life of there laptop. I know that a 6-cell battery will get you somewhere 1.5-3 hour and a 12cell will get you double but what I want to know is what you guys do to your laptop to get the longest run off your battery.

Basiclly what settings do you change or what features on your laptop to configure or remove and what best pratices you do to get the most out of your battery.

Please share your stories with the specs of your laptop, how much battery life you get when you first got it, what life you get after making changes. And rate the battery preformace on all types(6,8,12 cell)

I will post my result when I get mine this weekend.

Thanks

 

my lappy (on my sig) get 1.5-2 hrs with wifi on while doing some web surfing and some chatting while typing documents on word

 

I have an NX9420 and added the 12-cell to it. I get a consistent 7+ hrs with both batteries installed. I once got a bit over 10hrs but that was w/o wifi and I dimmed the display to about 60% (well four clicks down whatever that really is... )

I love the extra power I have with the 2nd battery in this system. i can work all day w/o a real worry about power. I move around a lot during the day and it was sort of problematic for me. And actually the ability to accept a 2nd battery was a big factor in my choosing this laptop.

Oh, I get about 2.5hrs from the primary 8-cell the rest comes from the larger battery.

To get more power I disable, in CMOS, any and all components I know I won't use. I even disable the PC-Card and smartcard slots. I made a custom power setting based on XP's MAx Battery power profile.

Oh, you can also add a few minutes here and there by setting your WiFi card to use minimal power (transmit as well as any other power setting your wifi card give you access to.) I think you also wanna be sure you do not degrade the signal quality by setting the transmit power too low as I think it could possibly increase power drain by having more re-transmits. Just so long as you get a connection the setting should be fine.

Other then that I dunno what else you might do...oh, check for any stuff running that is always trying to look for updates and background tasks you might not need running when you are working. For example background continuous defrag can really drain the power. Basically try and get everything to the bare essentials.

Of course dimming the display is the biggest thing you can do...set it to a level that is "good enough". I am weak here...I keep mine kinda bright most of the time.

Sooooo, which system are you looking at getting?

 

First of all HP is a good choice for a budget laptop. I have DV2000t with core 2 duo processor and 6-cell battery which runs about 3 to 3 and half hours with running web browser, Microsoft word and listening music. When ever it runs on a battery i use the Max. Battery power scheme and set the brightness on 2 or second lowest. Also avoid using any external mouse devices, or any other devices that uses notebook power.

Specs:

Intel Core2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz
1GB RAM
128 Intel 950GMA
60GB hard drive
Windows XP home
Intel Wireless card
DVD RW-DL

had this laptop for 2 months and working like a charm

 

I'm assuming that your getting a new system, and since that will include Vista, some of the advice people can offer that worked great on XP won't necessarily apply.

Under Vista, the most basic setting you can alter is changing the overall system power setting. Changing it from balanced to power saver mode will tend to keep your processor in a lower power mode more often, and it will turn off the aero interface, but it will extend your battery by 15-20% or so. Alsom you can use the HP Wireless Assistant to turn off your wireless and/or bluetooth devices if you're not using them. That will help a fair bit too.

The biggest battery-drainer, though, is the screen. As grumpy3b said, turning the screen brightness down can add a lot to your battery life.

Hope that helps.

 

I have a modified "HP Recommended" setting for Vista on my dv9000t that I use for whenever I'm on battery. When I'm in class and taking notes periodically, I'd estimate that I get over three hours battery life. When I'm not in class and just using wifi or typing up stuff, I get roughly 2.5 hours.

Of course, if I had it on max performance, I'd be sitting at an hour tops.

 

I have a HP DV1000 (18 months old) and I can get up to 3.5 hours using multiple office apps and listening to music.

There may be some chance involved with getting a decent battery though. Before I purchased the HP, I had the Compaq equivalent that wouldn't last 45 min. I know that HP and Compaq computers should have been manufactured using the same battery. Also, I conditioned both batteries the same.

 

Thanks for all you post, they have been most helpful.

I am planning to get the dv9220us this sunday. Here are the specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5200, 1.6GHz
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive
Nvida 7600
17-inch WXGA+ TFT Display
8X DVD+/RW Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium
8-Cell Battery

Does any one have this Lappy and how much life you get with this battary!

 

I just got my computer and I haven't really put its battery to the test. I did order an 8 cell High Capacity Battery. Does anyone know how much more battery life you get out of the High Capacity Battery vs. the regular 8 cell battery?

 

I have the dv9230us, which is almost like yours except I have a T5500 processor and two 100GB harddrives. I'm not sure how much more battery life those take up, but I've already said how much battery life I get.

Even though it doesn't look like a lot, 2-3 hours of battery life is pretty good for a desktop replacement where battery life is often overlooked. Heck, the reason I opted for this one instead of the dv6275us is because this one is supposed to actually get *better* battery life than the smaller one (probably because of the larger, 8-cell battery).

There are some times that I regret getting a 17", like when I'm in class trying to take notes (plus the fact that I had to get a new bag because it couldn't fit in my old backpack), but when I boot up my games, all those regrets disappear

Only thing I'd watch out for is the latch. It doesn't want to latch right on mine; but like I said, I keep mine in a new targus bag that it straps in, so it's not a big worry to me. In fact, I wouldn't mind it being latchless like the dv6000 series.

EDIT: Oh, and Starfleet, I'd like to know as well. If it's a significant difference, I imght consider ordering one of those high-capacity batteries for mine since (AFAIK) they don't stick out like the 12-cell batteries.

 

UPDATE! sorry if I get off topic.
I am looking into the circuler for CC for this weekend and they have listed the DV9230US for 1299.99 after 150 instant and 50 Mail in rebated. Plus no interest till 7/2008! This is by far the BEST deal I have seen so far. Can't wait to get this and test out the battary of course.

 

I have DV9030US w/standard 8 cell battery. I run NHC to control voltage to reduce processor when on Batteries. I get around 2 to 2 1/4 hours. A little less if I play videos and what not.

HP doesn't sell an extended battery for this model. Maybe they do now as I haven't looked lately. Finding an alternative battery source for this model proved troublesome as this particular model needs are steep. I stumbled upon something from BatteryGeek.com that works great. I bought the BG19-24-130 model for 169.00 as it was on sale. It gives me 3+ hours of simulated AC power before it gets exhausted and then I have my 2 hours of battery to fall back on. That will cover any flight and airport sitting(not counting the 8+ hour ordeal in the Northeast I heard about) that I could stomach through.

Advise: If you do you NHC to lower processor want to watch videos, then I wouldn't advise using quick play as it would bypass NHC. Just a comment

Hopefully this will give you some ideas with whatever notebook solution that you may pursue.

--Mickey

 

Thats another point right there, how long does the battery last when you use quick play?

 

On my freshly fixed (because of fan problem, or so they say) DV6000Z using Quickplay Direct, I get roughly 1.45hrs. Haven't conditioned the battery so that is a factor, but I've never had more than 2hrs sans AC. Just finished "Escape from New York"("We were buddies Harold. You, me and Fresno Bob. You know what they did to Bob, Huh?!") for the umpteenth time trying to figure out why the battery life is crappy. No answers, but am dam sick of EFNY.

 

Escape from NY...one of the all time FUN flicks!! And how can ya ever forget Fresno Bob...HAHAHAHA...if you have ever been to Fresno, California you really get the joke there...I lived there for about 8 years...

 

Adrienne BarbBoom-Ba-Ba-Boom-Ba-Ba-Boom-Boom-Boom! 5'3" of bootylicious heaven!:tongue:

 

oh boy adrienne and her Barbeau's!!!

OK..I beeter stop befire I get in more trouble around here...

 

Can anyone test/guess how much the Geforce7200 would lower battery life on a 6-cell dv2000t, compared to the gma950?

 

Hard to tell since battery life is contingent on a number of factors, graphics being just one, along with chipset, processor and fan cycles. My guess is not much since the 7200 is hardly a screamer itself.

 

I would agree with spatialanomaly(this name is way too hard to type)...I only got around 1:45 too using the NATIVE QP...which sucked when you are on a plane watching a 2 hour movie. My bat wasn't conditioned at the time but I doubt it would be much better.

This was the main reason why I went looking for another battery source.

I still gotta think with NHC and running at MAX BATTERY settings you would probably do better since you would be save battery life by limiting processor speed. I just don't know how much. I may have to try one day and see.

--Mick

 

This might be a weird addition to the question, but how long does it last in standby?
Im an impatient person and I like to leave my laptop in standby. My thinkpad would last overnight before draining the battery while the last vaio I used only lasted about 2 hours in standby.

 

Dam, you are impatient. Can't be much more than a minute or two difference between the two. Good question nonetheless. I'll have to try it out on my 6000Z and see what I get. In theory only the processor and memory are supplied power so it should be longer than a straight drain.