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    Battery saving on NC8430

    Discussion in 'HP' started by brain_stew, Sep 12, 2006.

  1. brain_stew

    brain_stew Notebook Consultant

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    Just got my NC8430 and I have to say I'm very impressed, build is rock solid and the little extras like the fingerprint scanner, pointing stick and HDD data protection are very nice.

    I'm finding battery life to be very good but I want to know of the best ways to maximise it when not doing intensive tasks. I've heard of people "proramming" batteries before but wasn't sure if this was necessary and if it is where a good guide was. Also, "Speedstep" which the Core Duo processors use to downclock the CPU when its not in use, is this done at the hardware level or do I have to do something in Windows to set it up? I've never noticed any power maximising software on the laptop so do I need some or will it just sort itself out? Any other tips would be appreciated as well.
     
    brain_stew, Sep 12, 2006
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  2. Luar

    Luar Notebook Evangelist

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    Turn off WiFi and BlueTooth if you don't need it.
     
    Luar, Sep 12, 2006
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  3. mobo

    mobo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Turn off WiFi and BlueTooth if you don't need it - yeah this is the easiest way but it won't give you a big boost.

    If you are more advanced Windows user, you can set an aditional hardware profile and disable modem, wi-fi, ethernet and bluetooth in it. This way you won't be able to use them while working on this profile but your battery performance will adjust significantly. I tested it in my company. I set second hw profile on the notebooks of the employees traveling a lot with their lappies. They say, battery lasts longer for 20% of the time. That's because some of the notebook hardware is not powered on.

    Check it yourself.
    Cheers
     
    mobo, Sep 12, 2006
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  4. LFC

    LFC Ex-NBR

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    Check out the GPU forum section, and setup 2 profiles for the X1600 - office and gaming

    Remember not to clock the X1600 too low for office otherwise your laptop will crash
     
    LFC, Sep 12, 2006
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  5. brain_stew

    brain_stew Notebook Consultant

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    Doesn't Powerplay sort this out already? The Powerplay setting that gives the most battery life really downclocks the GPU as gaming performance takes a huge nosedive on battery power unless you set Powerplay to "balanced" or better.
     
    brain_stew, Sep 12, 2006
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  6. MGS2392

    MGS2392 NAND Cat!

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    Lower the screen brightness. For the nx9420, which I would suppose is the same as the nc8430, press fn+F9.
     
    MGS2392, Sep 12, 2006
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  7. Luar

    Luar Notebook Evangelist

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    The GPU is by default underclocked.
     
    Luar, Sep 13, 2006
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