Envy 14 Battery Life Log

yeah, the i7 non sandybridge has really bad battery life.

 

Ok, so I just ran an actual test and timed it. As usually I am highly disappointed by the result.

Battery Time without Battery Slice

Start Time: 6:44
BatteryBar Estimated Time: 2:24
Power Saver
No Bluetooth
No Backlit keyboard
50-70% Brightness
Wi-fi On
Word processing and Internet browsing
Set to hibernate at 5%

Reported 1:53 left after 30 minutes
Reported 1:21 left after 1 hour
Reported 0:06 left after 2 hours
At EXACTLY 2 hours, it gave 7% to plug in AC adapter.
6% one minute later.
End time :8:46
Laptop ran for 2:02:27.86 from a 100% charge until hibernation at 5%.

Booted back up with 4% and 1:49 to charge.

So, now it seems that when (if) I get a job, the first $200 will HAVE to go to the battery slice. Then, maybe I can get hopefully 4 hours, which is still depressing.
____________________________________________________________________________
HP Envy 14 | Core i7-720M | 4GB DDR3 | 1GB 5650 | 500GB 7200RPM | Brightview Screen |

 

Did you install SP1?

 

yeah. I have sp1 installed too.

 

Does SP1 on windows 7 x64 improve battery life?

 

I haven't noticed a difference.


I have a brand new battery if anyone is interested. May give you some extra juice. PM me!

 

Does the radiance screen or seagate momentus xt affect battery life in any way?

 

I got 3 hours with an i7-720 with a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate install...I set max processor state to 25% and critical battery to 2% and I'm getting ~3:30

 

Notice my Envy 14 specs in my signature below.

I just ran an informal (real world) battery test on my machine with the battery slice (AKA, lithium lunch tray or LLT, for short ).

Short Summary: The laptop lasted from 6:30a - 3p plus another 20 minutes in standby to be left with the following battery numbers:

Main battery = 17%
Slice/LLT = 7%​

Test Details:
The machine started out in standby at 100% charge when I unplugged the machine at 6a. At 6:30a I took it out of standby and began using it, to update Word documents and browse the web. During the entire test, I maintained connection to my Verizon 4G MiFi device, so the laptop wireless radio was in constant use during the entire test. I used the computer as I usually do, updating Word and Excel files throughout the day and periodically downloading the Norton LiveUpdate files. I also performed an additional 120MB download during this test. At 3p, I closed the laptop to put it back in standby and drove home, a 20 minute drive. When I opened the laptop the batteries reported the above percentages with a claim of just over an hour of battery life remaining (between the 2 batteries). Oh, and Coolsense was running during the entire test in Auto mode. Brightness was set at about 3/4 of full brightness, and the power scheme was set to HP Recommended (versus power saving).

Considering this is an i7 processor, I consider this to be a good result. It is possible, at least with my normal levels of usage to operate normally all day without even going into survival mode (power saving options such as the "power saving" power scheme, reduced brightness and only turning on the WiFi when I really need it). This probably means that in Survival mode I'm pretty sure I could get it to last for a 14-16 hour day.

 

hacks...

 

I forgot to mention: I was running with the Intel integrated GPU (versus the AMD Radeon GPU).

 

Has no one bought an envy 14 1xxx or 2xxx series since October last year???

I just bought one last week. i7, in power saver mode, backlit keyboard off, light browsing, bluetooth off, and screen is at the lowest setting, mp3 with wmp, volume set at 20% through internal speakers.

I've been using it since last week for a few days in a row, and....

avg. battery life: approx. 4 hrs more or less.

 

A good method for testing is to install BatteryBar and let it calculate the discharge rate. On my Envy 1xxx its about 12.000 mWh on a light use, and 8.000 mWh left alone (Wifi on, integrated graphics).
A shame HP's batteries did not have any way to calculate discharge rate. My humble eeePC can do that

There is also a MS tool called Joulmeter ( http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/joulemeter/default.aspx), but I didn't manage to complete any test using it.