6625WD battery life

I've got one question to those who already own a 6625WD:

What is the remaining battery life that Vista reports when the battery is fully loaded and the screen is set to min brightness, WLan and BT off and CPU set to "energy saving" in Vista?

It seems a bit strange to me that Dell could sqeeze out more than 4h on their Inspiron 1520 and Zepto only says it's 2 3/4 hours.

 

It is using a 9 cell battery as standard, the 6625WD uses a 6 cell

 

No I'm talking about the Dell with 6 Cell

I had a short time testing the 6625WD and got 2h 45min out of it with dark screen and wifi off.

People report up to 4h on the Inspiron. At least Vista reported 6h 30min with the 9 Cell battery so this would be more than 4h with 6 Cell.

EDIT, BTW: I was very impressed by the 6625WD. If you like, you can read my detailed 6625WD review but it's written in german.

 

We only have a 6 or 12 cell for the 6625WD, the 12cell batteries are due in mid september now.There was a delay on them.

Battery times are as follows:
Battery times are for guidance only and can vary per configuration. The tested configuration contains an Intel® Core™ Duo 1,66 GHz, 1x1024 MB Ram, wireless network, no TV-Tuner.

With minimum use:
12 Cell battery: 4 hours and 30 minutes
6 Cell battery: 2 hours and 45 minutes

With max use (3D and CPU):
12 Cell battery: 2 hours and 10 minutes
6 Cell battery: 1 hour and 25 minutes

 

I know. As I said, I already had the 6625WD. I got the same result: 2h 45min on minimal use, but with 2GHz and 2GB of Ram.

The strange thing is that Dell managed to get up to 4h. So I wondered if anyone could reach more than the 2h 45min.

Well, obviously about 3h is the absolute maximum.

Could you tell me whether the C4 Powerstate, which causes trouble on Dell and Apple notebooks, is activated on the 6625WD?

 

You are doing better than I'm getting with my 6024W - a maximum of 2.5 hours.

You can check the CPU power states with Performance Monitor: Start > run > perfmon. Then select Performance Monitor from the list on the left and right click on the graph and select Add new counter. Expand processors and select %C2 and %C3 (there's no C4) and Add to the graph (then change to properties to different line colours). My 6024W never gets into the C3 state on either mains or battery. I attach what it looked like on my Samsung Q35.

John

 

Did you hear anything from Zepto about your battery life issue, John?

 

It's in the pipeline to be looked at once someone gets back from holiday. They had previously tested a 6024W at 3.5 hours. I had my display on a usable 3/8 brightness and not the minimum, but it won't make that sort of difference.

There could well be a BIOS option which affects this issue. I've never seen a BIOS with so many options, but the ones relating to power management appear to be all enabled.

John

 

Hmm, well I'm expecting my 6024W to be shipped to me next week. So I'll let you know how long it lasts when I get it.

 

I can tell you, you never will get the 2 hours and 45 minutes!
I have had a 6214W and now I have a 6224W, and you can get 2 hours!

When you are going to play a game you can get at least 1 hour battery-time!

And this is with the little brother of the 6625WD (so with a smaller screen)

 

I already tested the 6625WD. Got 2h 45min as absolute maximum. That means: no wifi, no bt, screen at min brightness etc.

I just like to know why it's just 2h 45min, while Dell managed to reach more than 4h with exactly the same hardware.

There must be one significant difference.... but what?!

 

This is from the 1520 review from this site:

Tested was a Dell 1520 with a 9cell battery. So with a 6 cell you need to subtract 1/3 of the run time which means pretty much equal runtime to the 6625WD. 2 hours with normal use and a bit under 3 with minimal use.

 

1. Did you check whether the performance monitor is showing that your CPU is going into the C3 low power state (see my post further up this thread).

2. 6 cell batteries are not all the same. The battery for my 6024W says 10.8V 4.8AHr which means 51.84WHr. This is lower capacity than most (11.1V, 14.4V and 5.2AHr ratings come to mind). However, I also understand that the higher capacity cells tend to lose capacity faster so maybe after a year I won't see the 30% wear typical, in my experience, of the higher capacity batteries.

3. The actual capacities (see the attached) of the two batteries I got is less than the rated capacity on the label. The actual capacities are 91% and 96% respectively. Zepto have a little explaining to do.

John

 

@wave
You made a mistake. He talked about "fairly heavy usage". That means half of the maximum battery life. He got 3h, so maximum is about 6h. That means if you have the 6cell, maximum is about 4h.
It's a fact, so lets stop discussing this and look at the WHY.

@John
Unfortunately i don't have the possibility to check this out. I don't have the Zepto anymore. I only know that you can reach 2h 45min with the Zepto and 4h with the Dell. And i like to know why it's like that.

The battery life difference between them is about 30%. The capacity difference is far less than this, if there is any. So this can't be the reason.

 

I think the problem is partly the battery capacity, partly the CPU not getting into a low power state and maybe some components not getting powered down.

My 6024W doesn't drop below about 17W power drain. My old Samsung Q35 used to get down to 10W. The bigger display will need an extra 1W. At the moment I think that the fix for the C3 power state needs to be given priority and I am guessing that the BIOSes for the different Zepto models share many features.

John

 

So you know if the Zepto CPU goes to C3 or C4?

Is there a bug that can be repaired? Do you see a possibility to reach more than 3.5h on the Zepto?

The Dells have a "high pitch noise" bug that is because of C4 power state. The Zepto does not. Perhaps this is the point.
If C4 was deactivated by Zepto this would explain why there is no high-pitched noise and it would explain the lower battery life....

 

My 6024W stays in the C2 power state. I would like to be able to use the C3 state. I am sure it would help stretch the battery life when under light load (and give slightly cooler operation when on mains power). After all, that is what it is for. My old Q35 would spend about 90% of its time in the C3 state when under light load.

I am also aware that the changing of power states is a cause of the CPU "whine". Samsung managed to avoid the whine and provide the C3 power state. I hope Zepto can be as clever.

Zepto say they tested the 6024W at 3.5hrs. Maybe if they had the 56WHr battery of the Dell they could get close to 4 hours. The 6625W will be worse because of the dedicated GPU and a larger display.

John

 

Do you think conditioning the battery by running it completely flat then charging it again fully a couple of times would have any effect?

 

It may help. I ran it right down yesterday. It ran for several minutes on 0% charge. I'll try again later.

John

 

He didn't say that... He said with light use he gets about an hour or so more which makes it just under 4 hours. 4hours minus 1/3 due to it being a 9 cell and you get about 2h40min. Dell might say that you get up to 6 hours but that is a bs marketing number.

 

Dell said nothing.
4h are based on user tests. And it's true. So just believe it.

I'm not talking about "light" usage, i'm talking about "no" usage at all. The absolute maximum lifetime, which is 2h 45min with Zepto and 4h with Dell.

 

Where did you get those values? The only battery reports I saw of a Dell 1520 that exceed 3 hours with a 6cell where with the 8400M and not the 8600M GT.

 

I don't know if you speak german but here it is, 6,5-7h with the 9cell battery:
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showthread.php?p=6655766&highlight=vista#post6655766

And there is a poll in this forum where most people who own the 6cell battery get 3-4h under usage. That means about 4h with no usage.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=1867

The battery reports you saw speak about battery life in office use e.g. What i'm talking about is the battery life when you don't use the laptop at all.

 

Another battery life measurement for my 6024W: Just under 2 1/4 hours with wireless on and the display brightness on 4/8 doing web browsing and working on some documents. This was on XP where it is possible to disable the automatic shutdown on low battery. One interesting observation is that the computer ran for 5 minutes on 0% remaining so there seems to be a conservative estimation of the capacity. The minimum display brightness is too dim to be usable and I get some flickering.

I must check the BIOS for a battery calibration option.

John

 

I get the same thing on my 6224W, but just on the very lowest brightness option. Anyways i can't see anything because that setting is too dark.

 

This review of the Dell Vostro 1400 (T5470 + 8400M GS) is reporting an actual 6.5 hours with the 85WHr battery (Dell claims over 8 hours). Scaling that to a 50WHr battery would give a target of 3.8 hours for the 6024W.

John

 

But the 6024 has a weaker graphics card, right?
Where did you get Dell's claim from? I never saw any estimation made by Dell.

 

1. To quote from the Vostro 1400 review:

My 6024W has the Intel X3100 so it should give a longer battery running time than the notebooks with a dedicated GPU. This is reflected in Zepto's datasheets. However, I am not seeing the battery time which they indicate (from their own tests).

John

 

It's confusing...
Why doesn't Zepto reach the same battery life as others with exactly the same hardware?

I wonder if any BIOS or software tweaks could help, or if it's the hardware itself...

 

Maybe because there is a big difference in different batteries?
You can't expect the same battery life if it's not the same machine/battery you are testing with.

 

Watt-hours are watt-hours whatever the battery. We have tried to allow for that in the foregoing discussion.

The root problem is that something in the Zepto hardware is not cutting back on power consumption as well as it could. The starting place should be making sure that the CPU gets every chance to sleep. The next step would be to get optimum power management of the GPU.

John

 

sorry to hijack the thread but will a 12 cell extended battery for a 6214 fit a 6224

 

Some people say yes but the Zepto Sales people say no so I guess it doesnt work. I have no seen anybody who has tried and and confirmed that it works. So no you need to wait for the offical 12 cell for the 6224W to come out.

 

It will not work, you would need to wait for the 12 cell that will be made available mid september

 

The reason why the 12 cell batteries from the 6x14/6x15 will not work on the 6x24/6x25 is because the new machines draw more power from the machines and this causes the short circuit protection in the batteries to kick in turning off the machine. So it might work if you have a low specced 6x24 or 6x25, but there are no guarantees that it will work.

 

Thanks for a technical explanation: Higher power drain might trigger overload protection. I can understand that concern (and presume that the problem happened). It is much better to have an explanation than no information or some excuse.

John