poor battery life?

i think my battery is just not lasting me as logn as it should be.
i have an hp zx5000, P4 3.0 HT, 512 ram.

sitting in an office with the wireless on and the brightness up all the way, i get 90 minutes out of a 12 cell battery. watching a movie on an airplane with the brigthness up to just the third level, i still get under two hours (reading the dvd from the built in dvd drive), requiring me to switch to another battery.

both of the batteries last about the same, so it's not the case of having a worn out battery. i bought the laptop in august and use it as a desktop most of the time, however i do run it off the batteries a few times a week.


College Virtual Tours

 

The problem is your power hungry processor. Get a Pentium M and you'd get 2-3x that battery life (with a 12 cell on a P-M, you may approach 7-8 hours). P4 is the most power consuming processor you can put in a notebook.

 

You cannot expect more than that life on a P4. Mine last max 90 minutes too

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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ahh, i was under the impression that i should be getting 2-2.5 hours. guess i was wrong. oh well. still a great desktop replacement

the reason i didnt' get PM is because at the time, in august, i couldn't find one with a good video card. i play a lot of EA Sports games, pretty much all their MVP, Madden, Fifa, Uefa and NBA releases.

College Virtual Tours

 

if there was a PM with a good video card, it must have been out of my budget.
also, i based the battery life off both the ratings they give you (though they are definitely inflated) and i think there was a review of zv5000 somewhere on this website prior to my purchase. the zv is the same thing, but has shared video, rather than dedicated.

but i guess i got off decent. my friend bought a zv5000 and gets 45 mins of battery on his 8 cell. that's just useless in my opinion



College Virtual Tours

 

In August there was the CL 56 w/ 128 MB ATI 9700 and others like it.

They probably told you 2-2.5 hours...i always subtract an hour from the estimates and thats more like what you get. so 4-5 hour life is probably closer 3.5. Very few actually give true battery life, its kind of like the MPG you expect from a car and what you get.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by playtothebeat