Best Power Saving S270

Let me first say that I LOVE my new Sony so far. As a flight attendant I have been lugging around my Dell Inspiron 8000 for four years and can notice a huge difference in a few lbs. in my bag. I have been following this forum for awhile during the research phase and after two months finally decided to plop down the money. So, now that I have this new notebook, What is the best battery saving configuration w/ and w/ out using the dvd drive? I have been using the Vaio Power Management Viewer but I saw that you could customize. Would like to know if there are any tweeks that I could do to save some percentages? I also have the Verizon wireless card, when I use the Vaio Ultimate power setting does this setting affect wireless speed? (By the way I highly recommend the Verizon wireless card, but thats another topic)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I'm afraid I can't help you much with the batter question, but I am hoping you can help me. I too am getting a bit tired of my aging Inspiron 8100's weight, and the Sony s270 is near the top of my list for replacements. The big thing holding me back (aside from cost) is the reports of large fan noise, since I will be using this computer in class. Is the fan really that bad, and can it's noise be controlled at all? If anyone else has information on power settings, could you also add how those settings affect fan operation.

Thanks!

 

Well, all the power management schemes supplied by Sony can be customized by clicking the "advanced" button in the VAIO Power Management Viewer. I recommend you customize a couple built-in ones to your need and then switch between your customized ones rather than picking the ones already set. The options are self-explanatory, just remember to change the right column which corresponds to using battery.

LCD Brightness: the lower the longer battery life, but it may be hard to watch DVD on low brightness. Adjust to the lowest level that you feel comfotable watching to save battery. Avoid "No Change", which will leave the brightness on the previously used power scheme.

Power Saving Mode: This is for the GPU in the graphics card. "On" obviously for battery life. I think you need to keep it on when watching DVD, though.

CPU Control: Choose "Battery Life" which limits the clock below 600 MHz, more than adequate for most office applications and watching DVD. "Adaptive" is default to 600 MHz, but could go up to full speed if the computer needs power.

CPU Fan Control: Level 1 is the quietest and uses least power. Notice that if you choose "Performance" on CPU Control, Level 5 is chosen here and you cannot modify it. Same goes for choosing "Battery Life" on CPU Control and the computer will automatically choose Level 1.

Optical Drive: The DVD drive is either on or off, so once you have customized one scheme with the DVD -- probably using the WinDVD scheme as base --, just customize another one with everything the same but DVD off.

I don't think you can cut off or reduce the power to other ports such as PCMCIA or USB, but I did a clean install so the options may be a little different from the stock choices. Anyway, if you can see an option, then pick it to fit your needs. If you don't see an option, that device will be on all the time.

As for the fan noise, as long as you don't play games or run CPU intensive program during class, you can turn everything to minimum and the fan will barely turn itself on.

 

The fan noise can be loud but what I find a bit annoying right now because I am not used to it is the pitch of the fan. On my Inspiron when the fan starts it is a dull humm even when they both start. But when my Sony starts up it sounds likes a remote control plane. It has a very high pitch. So I am not used to it. The fan will also start up for ten seconds and then stop. Start for a second, stop, Start stay on for 15 seconds, then stop. Its like being in traffic on the 405 in LA. But when I was transfering photos from my camera to my sony it was fast, I mean lightning speed compared to my Inspiron so I guess I will learn to live with the fan noise. Also, the battery does jiggle around. Thats only annoying because after spending $3,500 it should fit better.
Hey Skyshade thanks for the info. Is there a reason why you did a clean install of XP. Is it something that you suggest?

VGN-S270P 2.0, 1gig, 80(5400)HD, 9700 ATI, wireless, bluetooth

 

Oh, I got S170, which came with SP1. Since I am using it to connect to school's network, our IT guys kindly supplied me with a copy of SP2 to save their trouble in network security. At that time, I heard that SP2 is actually more efficient and some computations could actually run faster in SP2, so I took the plunge.

For normal or personal usage, I don't see why you need to do a clean install, especially if you already have SP2. If you really need the performance, then a clean install helps because it gets rid of some unnecessary stuff that's clogging the system. I guess it also helps (to certain degree) in battery life and fan noise, because you have very few things running in the background that use power and generate heat.

Oh, the fan starts and stops problem, that's quite annoying. In fact, I think the whole loud noise issue has more to do with the pitch of the sound than the actual loudness of the fan. It just doesn't sound like a desktop fan or something bigger even though it's not really that loud[ ].

Since I need the performance, I just crank everything up and let the fan running all the time to avoid the start-and-stop. You could try to use "Adaptive" and "Level 2" (or maybe Level 3) in your CPU & CPU Fan. It should force the fan in a low setting but not actually turning off. See if that helps, but it would cost you a little battery life. This method also applies using it in class or other place you don't want to draw attention to your laptop (I personally think the style and VAIO logo is enough to keep turning heads anyway [8D]). If your class is crowded and kind of warm, you might want to try this method and avoid the spool-up and spool-down sound.

Good luck with the tuning and enjoy your laptop.[ ]