Tips on increasing Battery Life on the New Envy Lineup

I ordered an Envy 17 3D earlier today with these specs:

Envy 17 3D
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
• 1GB Discrete Graphics AMD Radeon(TM) [HDMI, DP]
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 830GB Dual Drive (80GB mSATA SSD + 750GB 7200 rpm HDD) With HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
• 17.3-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD 3D Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support
• Full-size Radiance backlit keyboard
• Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9
• 2 year limited warranty included


I am interested in getting the best battery life possible, since the hardware is already plenty powerful. I got the msata drive hoping that it would help battery life. I also heard that the i7 sandy bridges can't be undervolted, which is unfortunately if true, since that would be a great way to increase battery life. Any other things I could do to increase battery life (outside of dimming the screen and other common knowledge practices for saving battery life)? Is it true the i7 sandy bridges can't be undervolted? Like can the Radeon GPU be undervolted?

 

Setting Windows to turn off the harddrive after a shorter period.
Limiting CPU max (debatable)
Clearing bloatware/crapware

No undervolting of SB afaik

 

I still just find it hard to believe that there isn't some program even if it runs over Windows, like RightMark (that I currently use with Intel Core 2 Duo), or some way to undervolt Core i7. Maybe I don't understand the technical architecture issues for it, can anyone state the problems with undervolting on a Core i7 mobile?

 

I'm by no means a CpE, but I've had a few EE courses, and the way I want to explain it is that if you drop the voltage, the processor would require more current, and therefore more heat. Potentially causing an issue. I could be totally off-base, though.

 

I would argue not. I used to have to lower my voltage to keep my heat down on my last laptop.

 

I believe you guys are right from what I remember from a physics class in high school where we spent time on voltage, resistance, and current.

But I know I have undervolted my current laptop and 30-45 mins more battery life. Complex electronics may act a little different (I really don't know), or maybe the savings in heat caused the fan to use less power to cool the laptop, but that can't account for 30-45 mins more battery by itself.

 

Undervolting does not cause your CPU to draw more current. Undervolting simply reduces the peaks and valleys in the analog signal that ultimately determines what a binary "1" and binary "0" are to a computer's logic. Undervolting will actually lower the heat generation of your CPU. However, not all CPU's can operate at lower voltages before they become unstable so you would have to find the best voltage for your particular laptop. Undervolting is completely safe in that it won't harm your processor; however, if you lower the CPU too much then you might need to reboot to regain control of your system. See this guide for some more information on it...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/235824-undervolting-guide.html

 

This would require an unlocked bios, and I have no idea if it could ever be stable with turbo boost. You might undervolt and be fine at the base frequency but crash when it tries to boost.

Plus, these are already getting long battery life, is an extra 30 minutes on a 6 hour battery really worth risking a crash at any moment?

 

I would have to use software undervolting for the CPU to do it and it would have to be able to account for the turbo boost as it happens. With custom bioses out there, some can control gpu speed and voltage on HP laptops (See HP dv6z AMD Llano thread, that was the laptop I was considering before this one, the Llano overclocks like a beast in those laptops with k10stat software that includes turbo boost capabilities in controlling voltage and with custom bios they can make their dedicated gpu 6750m run faster than a 6770m with less power usage and cooler)

For me, when it comes to laptops, I am all about taking performance parts and making them more efficient. Imagine the Envy 3D with 6-7 hrs of battery life after undervolting the CPU and GPU, and when the 9 cell battery becomes available (there is room for it internally in the Envy 17, I have seen the internal layout on a PDF on HP's site) 9-12 hrs on a quad core i7 with good graphics and 120hz 3D screen. All day battery life on a high end machine that doesn't need a battery that sticks out of the bottom, so the Envy can keep its design integrity.

 

The Envy 3D should get 6+ hours by just decreasing the brightness, the 3D screen is twice as bright, so when they tested battery life at the standard brightness they would be using twice as much juice as the regular 17. I would expect with the 9 cell 9 hours would not be hard to hit.

I understand what your saying, and if good tools, custom bios, etc came out that could do this really well then I would probably make use of it. Normally however, this kind of tweaking just leads to instability, and 9 hours of battery life doesn't mean anything if your computer crashes in the middle of something important.

 

Very true, none of those things matter if it is unstable. I thought, correct me if I am wrong, but when HP states 5.25 hrs of battery life for the Envy 17 3D, that they get that number by testing with the screen at its dimmest , WiFi off, and basically at idle for activity, so that is the absolute max you can get from it.

 

No, they actually use MobileMark 2007 benchmarking software to test battery life. It simulates use to get a more accurate number. They also use some standard brightness, but it won't just be minimum brightness.

You should expect to get pretty close or even higher than their rated life depending on what you are doing.

 

Well that is nice to know

I remember back when claimed battery life was a complete dream to achieve and you were lucky to get near to 50% of it most of the time when actually doing anything. I hope that 9 cell battery comes soon.

Side note: Just read a rumor that the Macbook Pro 17 sometime next year will have an option of a 2880x1800 screen, why is Apple is the only one to have the balls to improve resolution in screens for laptops. I have been saying that 1080p/1200p has been the highest resolution stagnation for laptops for years (look at Samsung showing off 2560x1600 on a 10 inch tablet screen and Toshiba with 2560x1440 on a 6 inch tablet screen). We know that resolution on laptops could be a lot better (and I would use the extra resolution). If PC makers want to compete with Apple and other PC makers, they need to challenge the status quo (HP did it for once with the Radiance Displays and how bright they can go, to be honest this is the biggest change I have seen in years to laptops because everything else has just been hardware improvements and gimmicks).

 

Personally I am really looking forward to higher resolution tablets, but not so much laptops. Honestly, I find 1080P to be plenty, especially when you consider that the higher the resolution the more GPU you need to power it. Modern thin-performance GPUs can hardly handle 1080P at high settings, let alone even higher resolutions.

 

I know what you are saying, but I am more of a designer and photography than a gamer, so all the workspace I can get is better. I would still game at 1080p/1200p, but I would love all the extra room in adobe applications and being able to better see how my image would print out with my photos. For my work, the graphics would be good enough. When gaming, you don't have to use the max resolution possible or even the resolution f your screen