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    Terrible Battery Life- E420s

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by gunther6456, Jun 16, 2011.

  1. gunther6456

    gunther6456 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but even after configuring a custom battery profile with fairly low brightness and low CPU usage, I'm not even getting 5 hours with just playing music and Internet browsing. What's going on? Any suggestions on how to improve in general?
     
    gunther6456, Jun 16, 2011
    #1
  2. tech9

    tech9 Notebook Enthusiast

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    What size battery are you using?

    I sold a E420 and it was getting really good life, not 5 hours, but still not bad for a pretty decent laptop.
     
    tech9, Jun 17, 2011
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  3. sugarkang

    sugarkang Notebook Evangelist

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    I think that's right. You should ask in the 420s forum, but even with the extra bay battery, life was like 6 hrs.
     
    sugarkang, Jun 18, 2011
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  4. gunther6456

    gunther6456 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, the trruth is, it's working fine now. I'm getting a decent 5 hours more consistently, and while I'd like 6, it's not such a big deal in the long run.
     
    gunther6456, Jun 19, 2011
    #4
  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Any Flash on web pages can use power. I use Firefox with Flashblock and AdBlock Plus to minimise unwanted content. Anything connected to USB prevents the USB system from sleeping. A mouse may use only 0.1W but causes an extra 1W of power drain. Also, set the critical battery threshold quite low (I use 3%) since 1% of capacity represents about 3 minutes of run time.

    However, the E420s has only a 48.8Whr battery so 5 hours run time already represents a power drain of around 9W. You might be able to get another half hour if you are lucky.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jun 19, 2011
    #5
  6. Colonel O'Neill

    Colonel O'Neill Notebook Deity

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    Run powercfg -energy from the command line while your commonly used programs are running. This identifies power wasters (note any that reduce the platform timer resolution like Chrome or Skype) and indicates where settings can be changed.
     
    Colonel O'Neill, Jun 19, 2011
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  7. gunther6456

    gunther6456 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you both. I'll try both of those things.
     
    gunther6456, Jun 20, 2011
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  8. flameboy

    flameboy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is the battery still new?

    It usually takes a few full discharge and full recharge cycles for the battery to come up to full capacity. At least, that's what I've noticed with my past laptops.
     
    flameboy, Jun 25, 2011
    #8