Tips on increasing battery life: lenovo T520 9cell

Hello everyone

I Have a T520 w/ a 9cell battery pack. I expected a longer battery life, I get about 7 hours with a full charge

actual capacity of battery is 91.31 Wh and the design capacity is 93.60 Wh
I did one reset, and will not do another to avoid ruining the battery

any tips on optimizing battery life other than the basic power plan changes?

Other t520 9 cell user with similar config feel free to post your battery life times with a full charge

specifications:
RAM: 6gb
HD: 500GB
processor:i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
display:1600 x 900 (32 bit) (50Hz)
graphics: NVIDIA NVS 4200M

maybe i should disable NVIDIA card to get most out of battery?

 

7-8 hours sounds about right for that config.

I have a W520 (should be similar in power draw near idle), and it goes for 7 hours on the 9-cell. 8-9 if I reduce my usage.

If you have Optimus enabled, the NVIDIA card will likely be disabled most of the time. In early driver revisions, certain browsers would trigger the NVIDIA card.

 

For a quad-core CPU machine with switchable discrete graphics and a 15.6" screen, a ~10-15W average power draw isn't too bad under relatively light load. That would translate to 6-9 hours of battery from a 9-cell, which is what you're getting.

You could try dimming your display, disabling Windows Aero, killing extraneous background processes, etc, but that's moving towards the extreme.

 

I get 6 ~ 8 hours on battery on a full charge if I use my W520 like I would on AC. I can get 8 ~ 10 hours in a lecture hall when I'm not doing too much on it. My battery has a full capacity of 104.46 Wh (1 reset, design capacity is 93.24 Wh). May I ask what you need more than 8 hours of battery life for?

 

Yes, you can get more battery life. See how at http://forum.notebookreview.com/8030189-post145.html .

 

@kirayamato26 my actual capacity is lower than design capacity; i'm jealous

Just trying to increase battery life so that for instance I wouldn't need to carry charger around when I hit the uni and also because it allows me to waste less energy

I disable all windows aero and my battery life is extending, + tweaking the power settings is helpful

I remember my old asus x59sr, wouldn't get more than 1:30 h battery life and any sort of tweaks wouldn't really make a difference; POS

 

I have a similar system only w/the i5 and I'm getting 6-7 hrs on a 9-cell @ 90-something %. Granted, I do use chrome, but it's a bit on the low side. I did see a few 8-9s, though.

 

On an average week I have class from 8:30 to 5:20 3 days a week, with 1 day from 12:30 to 4:20 and another from 8:30 to 4:20 (of course, there is a 1 hour lunch on the 8:30 days). I've carried my W520 to class twice. There really isn't much of a need for a laptop, and some professors won't even let you leave a laptop on your desk (ironically, I'm in computer engineering). I never carry around a charger when I carry around a laptop, I think that it defeats the purpose of a laptop if you need to drag along the charger.

So, from my personal experience, you don't need more than like 4 ~ 5 hours for university, but it is nice to know that your laptop won't run out of juice on you even if you leave it on all day when you go somewhere.