6130 Battery Life

I've had my 6130HS (3.0 Ghz, HT, etc) from Sam's for a few weeks now. I love this machine, but am concerned that my battery life is two short. I rarely use it without a power cord, since it was my desktop replacement, but I do occasionally.

For a quick test, I charged it fully, then let it play MP3s directly off my hard drive until the battery day....which was just under an 45 minutes.

If I do anything else, watch movie, surf the net, etc...I can't get more than 20 minutes on a full charge.

I know it's a powerful computer and all....but I can't even get a whole movie or entire CD listened too on one charge.

For example, in the time I took me to log into this sight and type this message (with MP3's playing) the power meter dropped 13%...and that is no joke.

Just wanted to see if anyone else's is similar, or if something might be wrong.

Thanks!

 

Yes, something is very wrong. You need to call support...hopefully it's just a bad battery.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Frontier4x4,

I haven't used my 6130 away from the AC very many times, so I can't be conclusive on this, but the battery life is fairly poor. I think it would be somewhat optimistic to think you can watch a full-length DVD on the battery alone. It's just not going to happen on the 6130.

Remember, the 6130 uses a normal desktop, full-power Pentium 4 with HT technology. It's not a Pentium M. As Brian mentioned, it could just be a bad battery, and in that case Averatec should replace it with a new one. But even with a new battery - properly charged - I don't think you can expect to get over 90 minutes of battery time. This time had been reported consistently on this site by other users.

Out of curiosity, I think I'll pull the plug this morning and see just how long my 6130 lasts on the battery. I'll be using a word processor, email, and net access only. I'll report back my findings.

redjr...

 

Frontier4x4,

After my last post, I pulled the plug on my 6130 just to see how long it would last. It ran for 1 hr and 20 minutes, down to 10% of battery power showing left on the power meter. I was only doing some simple word processing, email and internet activity. This was about what I expected. It's not great at all, but then there's a 3.0 gHz Pentium under the hood too! No DVD activity at all during the test.

There are three primary components that affect battery life. Not only on our beloved Averatecs, but laptops in general. (1) the LCD screen, (2) the CPU, and (3) hard drive activity. Burning a DVD would suck its share of power as well. (Note, I would never try and burn a DVD without the AC on the 6130.) With the defaults battery settings out of the box, the 6130HS will reduce LCD brightness by about 50% when using the battery. I noticed this right away after unplugging the puter. In my test however, I immediately increased the brightness back up to 100%. I like a bright screen. So that factor alone, influenced my dismal battery life. If you were watching a DVD, I think most users would want a bright screen.

My HD activity was also limited. I did a few saves of the small document I was working on. Another factor affecting battery life are the USB devices you have plugged in - especially is they are power hungry and not powered by an external adapter. Last week I bought a small travel USB 2.0 hub that uses two ports. The second port is used to supply extra power when needed to the devices you are using. For this test I was using three devices. A PDA, a 512meg memory stick, and an Epson R200 Inkjet printer. So, between the hub itself and 2 of the devices - the puter was supplying all the power. The PDA was using it own adapter.

You can adjust the power parameters when using the battery with the Power Options Properties applet in the Control Panel. This lets you decide how the puter reacts when it senses a low-power situation.

Having run these tests - unscientific as they were - I would have to say you have a bad battery. I would contact Averatec support.

Good luck,
redjr..