Graphics in Stamina Mode, and Battery Life (SZ120)

So, I've had my SZ 120 for a little less than two weeks now, and after some initial hesitations, I'm pretty happy with it. I've adjusted to the keyboard (I think my main problem with it was not the construction, but how *large* the keys felt compared to anything I've ever used before) and cleaned up most of the **** they foist on you. I've been pleasantly surprised by how pleased I am with the biometric sensor, and the ability it gives you to quickly swap between two users on the same machine. The camera is ****py, but I knew that going in, and I never really cared whether I had one to begin with -- If I had configured a 140, I probably wouldn't have bothered to have it installed.

What I'm less than thrilled with though, is battery life. I'm getting about 2 hours, tops, 2 1/2 if I'm lucky. I'm using it in speed mode, and with the wireless, but so far, I haven't done anything that would particularly hog the resources -- web browsing, writing, chat, etc.

I figured, "well, hey, it's because you're in speed mode, but don't really need it" and switched to stamina mode. I find the screen in stamina mode absolutely unviewable. I knew from the reports that the screen on the 160 was better than the 120, but I have no problem with the quality of the 120s speed-mode screen for the work I'm doing. The stamina-screen though -- is there something I can do to adjust this? It's just unusable, even for just working in Word. It's dark, and adjusting the brightness just results in a white-out, rather than usability.

I'd be happy to always use it in speed mode, if I could just get a little more battery life out of it -- another hour would be fantastic. (I dream about the 5-6 hours listed in the specs, but I'm being realistic). Any suggestions on either resetting the graphics in stamina mode, or work-arounds for extending the battery life in speed mode? Are the registry changes for the usb-leak safe, or are there any other possibilities people could suggest?

Thanks!

 

What battery life do you get with Stamina Mode? Thats odd though, the SZ I tried out on the store remained the same even after hotswitching the cards and restarting the notebook.


Did you try checking the Video Card options in Control Panel?

 

What battery life do you get with Stamina Mode?

You know, it's hard to say, because I find it so dreadful I switch back to speed mode pretty quickly, but I believe it's adding about 20-30 minutes of time back into the equation.

I tried out on the store remained the same even after hotswitching the cards and restarting the notebook

The screen still looked the same? God, I wish stamina was even *close* to the appearance of speed.

I've right mouse clicked on the desktop itself, chosen Graphics Properties, and adjusted from there -- but it doesn't help much. White-out blare, or even darker than it already is, is generally the result.

 

Did you uninstall programs or reboot windows on your notebook?

 

While I did not completely reformat and reinstall XP the way many here did, I cleaned up. Got rid of stuff I didn't want like trendmicro, the billion ad-pay programs they had installed, made sure that only those programs I actually wanted are running in the background. Wireless is a necessity, Zone Alarm and AVG. I did not touch software that seemed essential to certain features of the laptop, like the Protector Suite.

I'm not sure I understand the second half of the question -- yes, I rebooted, because it's necessary to reboot when switching modes.

 

When I said reboot, I meant reinstall Windows...you already answered that .
It shouldnt look 'ugly', after all the Intel Video Card is still ok for business users if not gamers. Try to reinstall the Intel Video drivers, from the Sony Website?

Thats all I can suggest for now...

Btw the programs you uninstalled seem fine...so not sure where the problem stands.

 

You can go into your power settings and change the screen brightness to max in stamina mode BUT running like this in stamina mode is really no better than staying in speed mode. Basically the battery time just stinks and their claims of 5+ hours must be based on un-usable settings.

I though that there were 2 video cards on the 160 and switching from speed to stamina switched video cards thereby saving power? Seemingly not though, speed should mean speed not brightness!

Overall I am very pleased with my SZ 160 but the battery life is not even close to my expectations!

 

You serious? even the 160 Premium edition has battery false claims...**** sony ... We really have to do something about this...

 

Where are you guys seeing the battery life claims that are so high? I was just looking at the specs for the 120p, and it says 2.5-5 hrs with the standard battery.

I was going to contact their support department about this, and when I looked up the spec so I would have it to quote from, the specs turned out to be fairly reasonable.

Whats the dealio?

 

The changed them. About a month ago it was up to 6 hours for the 140 and 7 for the premium. I would LOVE to know where they came up with those initial estimates.

 

So were the previous specs not given as a range, or it just said up to 6 hrs?

 

I saw that too ... **** Sony and its lies

 

I don't know what's up with your machine, but my 160 looks fantastic in stamina mode. There really is no difference in terms of rendition, brightness, or color--once you adjust the brightness setting (which defaults to fairly dark to save power). You can set it up with many different/new "defaults" to open to after the switch is set.

-Mark

 

I notice absolutely no difference in terms of the Windows desktop between the two as well. Colors are identical.

 

Colors are the same for me three.... just like the previous 2 posts... Not sure what is going on with a few of the units out there, but i am getting close to 4 hours in stamina and 3 in speed with the battery (everything on for speed)...

Don

 

for the brightness: adjust it with Fn+F6. If you do it in the control panel it doesn't really work.
Battery Life: 1. there is the ever popular usb bug(camera is usb)
2. Brightness AND Contrast AND Digital Vibrance make a difference
3. The max on the sony webpage is probably in stanima mode with wlan off brightness down and an extra large battery

 

Just in case anyone reading this isn't aware - there is a bug in Windows XP (it's not specific to the Core Duo processor by any means) which will result in reduced battery life on Centrino based laptops when a USB 2.0 device is connected.

Unfortunately, the motion-eye camera in the SZ series is actually a permanently connected USB 2.0 device. The bug prevents Windows from putting the processor into its lowest power states and will result in a ~15% battery life (around half an hour) decrease.

For a detailed write up and testing of this issue see: http://anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2693

In summary, the (less than perfect) 'fix' is as follows:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate, and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\USB

Note: If the USB subkey does not exist, create it. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Select the Services key. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
b. Type USB in the New Key #1 box to name the new key "USB."

3. Right-click USB, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. In the New Value #1 box that appears, type EnIdleEndpointSupport, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click EnIdleEndpointSupport, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, leave the Hexadecimal option selected, and then click OK.
7. Quit Registry Editor.

Chris.

 

Neither me....

 

It worries me to see so many people replying that they see no difference in the screens for stamina and speed mode -- I'd hate to return the machine after having finally gotten it organized, and feeling comfortable with it. The main problem I'm seeing is that stamina is so much *darker* than speed mode. Does everyone really have the same level of brightness/clarity in both modes?

I'll try the Fn+F6 solution when I get home -- I had been trying the Graphics Properties option before now, and it really wasn't helping, in that the adjustments were either too dark, or to whited-out. I haven't found a way to apply things like digital brilliance in stamina mode, however, only in speed. Am I missing something?

Also, I had spotted the anandtech.com fix, but wondered at the 'less than perfect' part of it -- has anyone tried it, and how is it working out for them?

Thanks!

 

I believe the less-than-perfect part is that the fix only lasts until you first put the PC into standby or hibernation. After it comes out of this mode, you're back to wasting power, and the only fix THEN is to reboot... and never to enter hibernation or standby!

 

Unfortunately, the fix didn't work on mine.
sZ160.

So, I just deleted it.

 

The screen on my sz110b looks the same in either mode. As for battery life..the "fix" did help some. I am up to about 4.5 hrs in Stamina mode with no wireless. I love this notebook!

 

Thats better then most of us here. What brightness is your SZ set too?

 

None of these comments make sence. The difference between stamina and speed mode has little to do with how your display looks. Its it how it eats power.

In stamina mode the system uses the pathetic built-in Intel graphics cards. While in speed mode the gfx card is swapped over to an nvidia card. The difference being the ability to perform screen updates and take advantage of DirectX 10 and other high-end graphics features.
The actual screens ought to look the same, but the performance improved when playing a FPS game. (In my tests the Intel built-in gfx card simply won't play them - 25 FPS at the most. I haven't had the luxury to test the nVidea card, but looking at the specifications then it ought to be very good).

Brightness settings, regardless of graphics card used, will always affect the power usage. Brightness is independant on gfx cards.

Awaiting my SZ160 soon...

Rgds, Z.

 

Good point. Even other notebooks with the Intel cards look good, its just the gaming and rendering aspect that changes. Logically nothing should change, and most people here and saying that there is no difference, so I would get the notebook checked or replaced for a faulty card, or perhaps try to alter the drivers.

 

The FnF6 key is definitely an improvement over the Graphics Property option. At around 80-90% brightness, the screen is hugely improved. I would say it's still not quite as nice as the speed mode, (it lacks some of the clarity/vibrance) but I'm assuming that's normal, given the different graphics cards? Thanks for the tip about the Function Keys -- I would not have assumed there was a difference between using them, and the other controls.

In speed mode, I only have brightness set to 50%, and the screen is still superior (although by a much smaller margin, now) to stamina mode.

 

To get mine to go over 4 hours I have to turn the brightness down to 2 bars and have the wifi turned off in stamina mode. This is with the "fix" mentioned above. Once the system goes into standby or hibernate this "fix" seems to be eliminated and my time goes down. To clarify, this is just the time that I am reading on the battery monitor. I rarely am unplugged for more than a couple of hours so I have not tested in real time.

I agree that the issues with the screen looking different does not make any sense. Could it be that he re-installed windows?

 

+1.Well said.

 

I don't think Sony posts specs with the extended battery without explicitely mentioning it. IMHO they are required to mention whether or not it's with the extended battery. Interestingly enough on the German Sony Homepage, the battery life of the SZ1XP (~SZ160) is quoted with 335min. making it around 5 and a half hours, with the standard sized battery.

I remember Sony claimed 3 hours battery life for the S Series which actually wasn't so unrealistic. The only explanation for the low battery life I can think of is the USB2 Bug.

 

In stamina mode, brightness turned down to level 5, with the normal size battery I'm getting roughly 4 hours and 15 minutes. The usb bug fix and installing Sony VAIO Power Management made a huge difference. I have my vaio power mgmt set to reduce brightness to 5 and disable unnecessary peripherals, such as the modem, bluetooth, etc.

 

Who has a link to the usb bug fix. I want to try this on an sz160 and see if it works.

 

I tried a somewhat "real world" test - ultimate battery mode watching a full-screen h264 movie, since I'll be doing a lot of that when travelling. CPU load is around 20% in that situation (divx/xvid would be a bit lighter).

After leaving it to settle down for ten minutes or so - the numbers were crazy to start with - it looks like I'll get around three and a half hours without the usb patch.

 

I get 3.19 hours battery in both modes and my game plays at the same FPS in both modes, which is a little strange with the same power magaement settings, which are pretty much set to always on everything & brightness at full.

 

do you get the same level of fan noise in both modes? how would you describe the fan. I'm trying to figure out if i have a bum 160

 

I get only errors in Stamina mode.... looks like some dll's are not loaded....

Does the Stamina mode load less drivers? almost nothing is working in this mode.


Concerning USB fix .... I do not have USB under services I have usbccp, usbehci and so on....


Any ideas?
regards
Paul