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    T400 - Max battery settings?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Potstickr, Sep 10, 2008.

  1. Potstickr

    Potstickr Notebook Guru

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    Hi Everyone,

    I'm currently getting 4-4.5 hours of battery life from my new T400 (P8400, 2gb, LED backlight, 6-cell w/int gfx, 5400rpm hdd) while surfing the net (bluetooth off, Power Manager Max Battery defaults, 60% brightness). I'm determined to eke out more time away from the outlet.

    What else can be done besides power management settings and dimming the LCD? I haven't tried it yet, but am considering disabling bluetooth, ethernet port, and modem in the bios. Will this have any significant effect on battery life? If there comes a time when I need to use bluetooth, do I have to restart the laptop and enable it from the bios or can i activate it through the device manager? Will try for myself after work today.

    I have XP-SP3 installed, which includes a hotfix for Penryn processors to reach the deepest sleep state, but how do I know the processor is really throttling? Power Manager seems to fix the CPU speed at either 792, 1.5, or 2.26, depending on the profile setting. I thought the processor is supposed to be able to adapt to system load, but the Device Manager properties tab always displays a fixed frequency, depending on the power management profile. I don't have a way to measure power consumption between different settings, but Kevin's review indicated ~9-11 watts and a possible 6 hours from the 6 cell. Thanks in advance.
     
    Potstickr, Sep 10, 2008
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  2. vengance_01

    vengance_01 Notebook Deity

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    Vista might be more efficient as far as power use. NBR's review was done using Vista and not XP.
     
    vengance_01, Sep 10, 2008
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  3. Potstickr

    Potstickr Notebook Guru

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    That's a very good point about the review setup, Vengance...for now, I'd rather stick to XP and see what steps I can take to maximize battery life without moving to Vista... i could dual-boot, but know it would be a waste of space as I'd never bother booting to Vista while XP is on the machine...
     
    Potstickr, Sep 10, 2008
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  4. vengance_01

    vengance_01 Notebook Deity

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    Also remember surfing the net now will use more power due to most sites having flash ads, ect. What does your battery say when just typing in word and streaming music via the internet.
     
    vengance_01, Sep 10, 2008
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  5. Potstickr

    Potstickr Notebook Guru

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    Oh, interesting, Vengance...hadn't thought about that...with wireless off and working on Word, I get 5hr 15min...
     
    Potstickr, Sep 10, 2008
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  6. vengance_01

    vengance_01 Notebook Deity

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    A bit better, but still not close to the 6 hour mark.
     
    vengance_01, Sep 10, 2008
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  7. shinew

    shinew Notebook Geek

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    keep in mind that new batteries take few cycles to reach their full capacities.
     
    shinew, Sep 10, 2008
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