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03-27-2008, 10:49 PM
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#1 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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Need to Save Battery Life
So I'm going on tour with my school band tomorrow and I'm bring my laptop for music. The battery life is pretty bad, so I need to save as much juice as possible. I will only be using this for music (using foobar2000) and nothing else. I have the screen as dark possible and the power option set to Power Saver. I will try to keep the lid closed so the screen isn't on most of the time. Is there anything else I can do make the battery last as long as possible?
Thanks!
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03-28-2008, 11:37 AM
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#2 |
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Forum Administrator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 36,460
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Hibernate it when you aren't actually using it.
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03-28-2008, 09:36 PM
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#3 |
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Certified Audio Nut
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Washington State
Posts: 7,202
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Keep the lid closed as much as possible. As GLC said, hibernate whenever it's not being used.
It may be a good idea to invest in an MP3 player.
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"I'm not lying. I'm writing fiction with my mouth." - Homer Simpson My Miscelaneous Gallery ASUS P7P55D PRO / Intel Core i7 860 / 8GB Mushkin DDR3 1600 RAM / OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD / Seagate 1TB 7200.12 / Asus Radeon 5870 1GB / LG Super-Multi 22x SATA DVD-RW / Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit / Cable Modem / HT Omega Striker 7.1 Sound Card / FSP 700W PSU / Logitech MX1000 Wireless Laser Mouse / Asus 24" 16:9 LCD w/Webcam / Axiom Audiobyte 2.1 Speakers |
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03-28-2008, 10:27 PM
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#4 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 662
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If it is an AMD then try to enable Cool'n Quiet if it is not, though I think only a few model of CPU support that especially for Laptop.
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03-28-2008, 10:43 PM
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#5 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Iowa
Posts: 1,652
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I think you pretty much know every way to save power. Like Hi Ho said, the LCD takes a lot of power so try to limit that usage. I don't think there is much else you can do other than what has been said.
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03-29-2008, 12:36 AM
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#6 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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I can play music with the lid closed, so that's all good. Is hibernating or shutting down better?
I had an iPod, but it died and I need something. |
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03-29-2008, 01:13 AM
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#7 |
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Certified Audio Nut
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Washington State
Posts: 7,202
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If you hibernate or shut it down the music will stop.
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03-29-2008, 08:45 AM
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#8 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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Right, but which is better when I'm not listen to music?
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03-29-2008, 08:48 AM
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#9 |
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I am, in reality, a moose
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: RTP, NC
Posts: 2,439
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shut down all non-essentials: wireless cards, network interfaces and the like. use headphones instead of the speakers and spool down all drives that you are not using.
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03-29-2008, 10:05 AM
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#10 |
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Forum Administrator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 36,460
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No difference in power usage hibernated or shut down - but hibernate will start back up a bit quicker.
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04-02-2008, 05:07 PM
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#11 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Confluence of the Mississippi and Misouri Rivers
Posts: 1,242
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Might be nice if you had one of those solar chargers.
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04-02-2008, 10:12 PM
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#12 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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Well I made it through the trip and I never ran out of battery life. Keeping the lid closed while playing music helped a lot. Hibernating actual keeps the laptop on so it used battery life. I found shutting down was best for battery life. Thanks for the help!
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04-02-2008, 10:15 PM
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#13 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Iowa
Posts: 1,652
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Remember there is a difference between hibernate and stand-by. Hibernating will shut down the computer completely, saving contents of RAM to the hard drive. Stand-by just keeps the RAM powered to retain it's contents. Are you sure you were using hibernate?
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04-02-2008, 10:36 PM
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#14 |
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Member (13 bit)
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 6,789
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I know it's pricy, but if you will be traveling more often and require more battery power, this might be worth considering:
http://www.batterygeek.net/130Wh_Por...atterygeek.htm Once I get a chance to do some more overseas traveling again, I definitely plan on getting one of these. Nothing quite like being able to use your laptop and watch your choice of movies for an entire 12hr+ flight. |
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04-03-2008, 05:36 PM
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#15 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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I took a trip to Atlanta last year and we had some car batteries that we hooked up to inverters for our laptops. That worked pretty well except those batteries aren't too easy to transport.
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04-03-2008, 06:50 PM
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#16 |
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Premium Member
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 9,231
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If your laptop has a way to use it's media player (usually through a scaled down linux OS w/media player functions) .. you would save a WHOLE lot of power by not booting into the OS.
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04-03-2008, 10:04 PM
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#17 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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I don't think I have that option, unfortunately.
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04-04-2008, 06:56 AM
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#18 |
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Folding at home.
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Posts: 2,126
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You could also use Intel TAT (if its an Intel CPU) to underclock the CPU down to say 500MHz, that should save some power.
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04-04-2008, 08:34 AM
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#19 |
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Ride 'em Cowboy
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Dallas, Tx
Posts: 9,018
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Getting a second battery comes to mind
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Stand Up 2 Cancer - SU2C |
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04-04-2008, 04:11 PM
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#20 |
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Chop Chop
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 1,035
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Yes, but that involves money.
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04-08-2008, 06:41 AM
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#21 |
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Member (2 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 3
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yeah, getting one more battery would be my option in this situation. actually, i did that myself in due time...
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04-08-2008, 01:39 PM
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#22 |
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Techphile.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Francisco Bay
Posts: 5,746
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If you are traveling with a band then have them play the music for you. Do they know Freebird or Stairway or even Welcome to the Jungle? ...I'm showing my age.
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Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | Intel 2600K @ 4.7 GHz | Win 7 Pro 64 |8 gigs Corsair 1600 | Two Diamond 6990's in Crossfire| Corsair AX1200 | Thermalright Silver Arrow | Western Digital Black 2TB 64 meg cache | Lian-Li PC-A71B | Logitec Z-5500 | Three Asus 26" VW266H monitors running under Eyefinity | Last edited by David M; 04-08-2008 at 01:43 PM. |
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