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    Battery drain question...

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by MinnDasota, Mar 10, 2006.

  1. MinnDasota

    MinnDasota Notebook Guru

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    I know there is a battery drain problem roaming around with USB devices and windows service pack 2, etc. If I'm not mistaken, my built in camera on my sz120 is USB. I wanted to ask anyone who decided not to equip their sz (or fe) without the camera what their battery life is. I just want to see if there is any significant differences. When I tested my battery life on stamina mode, I got maybe 3.5-4 hours max....and that's without running many programs. I would like to think I could use at least some features without decreasing battery life too much! In the mean time, I do hope for an official fix from microsoft asap! ....Please comment!
     
    MinnDasota, Mar 10, 2006
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  2. azntiger1000

    azntiger1000 Notebook Deity

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    Well I'm thinking the tiny little camera won't drain that much from your battery. The main thing you are going to worry about is heat because that will cause your computer to turn on all the fans and stuff. Also playing games can cause your system to drain a lot of power because it pushes the voltage up.
     
    azntiger1000, Mar 10, 2006
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  3. MinnDasota

    MinnDasota Notebook Guru

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    Thanks much for the reply. I agree that it won't be much, but after some research, it looked as if there is evidence that battery drain was pretty much cut in half when connecting any usb2 devices. Either way, it would be nice to get that fix so I can see any true differences.....
     
    MinnDasota, Mar 10, 2006
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  4. azntiger1000

    azntiger1000 Notebook Deity

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    Wow really? Then that sounds pretty severe. I have a lot of USB things plugged in and I barely see any battery drain or differences.
     
    azntiger1000, Mar 10, 2006
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  5. ostack

    ostack Notebook Evangelist

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    the issue of battery drain is not caused so much by power consumption of the usb device itself, but because it prevents the cpu from dropping into a lower power state.
     
    ostack, Mar 11, 2006
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  6. jakepratt

    jakepratt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Also, I believe that the fingerprint recognizer is USB as well so you might leave that out too.

    Do a quick search fo the patch. I am runing it on boh of my SZ's and it makes a big difference. Just remember that before using the computer you need to reboot it to reactivate the patch. Hopefully microsoft will get this thing fixed soon so we can get the full batery life from these units.
     
    jakepratt, Mar 11, 2006
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  7. azntiger1000

    azntiger1000 Notebook Deity

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    What if you go into your hardware manager place and disable the the camera since you are not planning to use it all the time anyway. Or maybe use like NHC that can maximize the battery power.
     
    azntiger1000, Mar 11, 2006
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  8. matt_h1

    matt_h1 Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    Nope apparently that dosent work.
     
    matt_h1, Mar 11, 2006
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  9. ncdave

    ncdave Notebook Enthusiast

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    According to recent reports, it doesn't matter if you disable the devices; this bug affects battery life when any USB2 devices is connected to the system.

    See the anandtech article for all of the details.

    - ncdave
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015
    ncdave, Mar 11, 2006
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  10. azntiger1000

    azntiger1000 Notebook Deity

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    Ouch, I never knew that. So is this because of Service Pack 2?
     
    azntiger1000, Mar 11, 2006
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