CF-31 Battery Life

Back in the USA! Used the TB extensively, but never got more than about 5 hours out of the new battery. I noted that Rob had started a thread on his experiences, but I didn't see a conclusion.

I've tried the battery recalibration but no joy. Effectively tried all that was in the earlier thread from Rob with the same results.

Any ideas on how to get the advertised 11 hours of juice. It would have come in handy a few times...

 

What do you do?

I get about 4 - 5 hours watching hulu over WiFi on a res of 1600 by 1200 over hdmi

I routinely get 8 - 9 hours working, browsing internet, compiling documents.

and I have a bad bat...

EDIT: What attachments do you have on the computer? I assume if you are using GPS and GOBI for example the operating time goes down.

 

The battery life on mine is simply dismal. Panasonic replaced the original battery and to no avail!

At this point I've simply accepted the fact that Panasonic is outright LYING about that 11 hour claim!

I do have GPS - 2 GPS receivers actually (One built in and one on the GOBI card)... and a GOBI card with Sprint. I have no clue how to disable the GPS when not in use other than rebooting and disabling in BIOS (NOT PRACTICAL!)

However I am willing to try one thing: I will disable the GPS today and get back with results.

Thanks

 

The 11 hour battery life is measured by Mobile Mark which has some pretty strict rules on how to measure battery life to make it consistent across all brands and models.

Some of the ones that afflict Panasonic are the stipulation that the brightness must be set to some very low level (which means that when you use the screen with higher brightness it diminishes the battery life), and does not include any WWAN/WLAN functionality. Those aspects are the biggest killers on the 11 hour battery life I'd think.

(I'd doubt the GPS would make much impact on the battery life as it is effectively a receive only interface. The WWAN and screen brightness will drain the battery far more)

 

Of course you are right on the screen brightness. However, at 500 nits (aka, 1 notch down from full blast) on my CF-30 I'd get 6 hours EASY... With that SAME SETTING on my CF-31 I get 4 hours TOPS!, sometimes 3.5 hours.

P.S, The last few months I owned my CF-30 I had an OEM GPS installed in it and it didn't affect battery life at ALL.

Thanks

 

I've noticed the notch "levels" of screen brightness don't tend to be an even scale. One notch low down in brightness doesn't equate to one notch high up in brightness. The final notch to put it to max brightness often seems to markedly increase brightness more then the other notches.

I think the ATI discreet graphics takes up more battery juice as well. I'd imagine only 30-60 mins though. Not sure where the rest of your battery is going!

 

Guys don't forget that this is the first time that we have seen a cpu that is not ultra low voltage.

 

where were you when the s___ hit the fan, yeah, it does have a fan for the cf-31 and a bit more potent cpu. still would love to have one though........Driller

 

And so I disabled the internal GPS (has no bearing on the GOBI GPS module). And I'm happy to say that the battery life is FINALLY GOOD!

By NO MEANS 11 hours, but I got about 7 hours now!

Pic included! w00t! Could we have possibly solved this mystery?!?! MAYBE!??

w00t!

 

Excellent. What setting did you change?

 

Set "GPS" in the BIOS to "disabled"

 

Been running on battery for just shy of 3 hours now and still have 2 more hours left.... Still not the best but WAY better than before!

 

Thanks Rob

 

If you have a brand new battery as it specify/suggested on the manual. It must be charged and dischaged totally for atleast six times before it will be on full capacity.


ohlip

 

Wouldn't disabling the GPS in the DEVICE MANAGER have the same effect?

 

I don't know and don't care because if I need to use the GPS on the whim, I'd use the my GOBI cards GPS. Since I have 2 GPS receivers I can simply disable the battery sucking one and use the other one

 

OK. I pulled the thing out of the van and fired it up. It reported 2:44 left with 65% battery. Yummy. I let it run for a while, loaded some updates, etc. Now, an hour later, I have 56% battery and 5:29 remaining. If I open the power setting windowlet by clicking on the battery icon in the tray it will force a re-evaluation of power consumption. I found the difference between full screen brightness and minimum screen brightness, with 50% battery remaining, is 1:15. If I run a virus scan the remaining battery life drops by 2:00. End of scan, re-valuate, got most of my 2:00 back.

GPS: I have made no changes to the settings in bios. Right now I have Garmin PC running. Battery life fluctuates by as much as 1:30 up and down depending on what the program is doing.

The meter might be ok at giving an estimate of remaining capacity. The time estimate is a snapshot. Maybe it has a use in providing clues as to what activities drain the battery.

 

Thanks to all the contributors to this subject. I'm about to head off for 2 weeks and will try all the suggestions to see how my mileage varies.

I don't always need the GPS on, so that will be my first device to disable. I'll also include the WWAN and bring the screen brightness to as low a setting as I can tolerate.

Stay tuned.

 

Apparently the real drain is usage that taxes the processor and other physical components like fans and speakers. Maybe some day I'll see what disabling various components or running the optional graphics "appear" to do to bat life. I don't really trust that meter though. It has an aura of wonkyness. I don't think I've ever seen one that behaved consistently.

Edit:

With a full charge, system at idle, it reports 10:45. If I run a virus scan it drops to 3:45, still with a full charge.

 

Up for a bit of air. Here's what I did prior to the long plane ride over...
Disabled DVD / Switched off all radios - WWAN, WLAN, BT / Toggled screen brightness down to a "usable" level / Turned off backlit keyboard

I could not find a GPS setting in the BIOS so that was passively on and I did not use Streets & Trips, so hopefully no activation of the receiver took place.

Best time is now 6-7 hours up from 3-4. Clearly, nowhere near the published 11 hours.

I'm keen to try turning off the GPS and will try again this weekend to see what kind of improvement I get.

 

what where you doing with it?

as said, office productivity gives me solid 8 hours, that is with wifi on