Thinkpads Forum

One of the advanced wireless settings when setting up a location profile using AC (or Windows even) is the option to configure the wireless for Low (best performance), Medium, or High (best power savings). My questions go to the "High" (best power savings) mode. How does the the machine save battery power when this setting is in effect? Does it "poll" the modem (not sure what that even means) less or at longer intervals? And how will performance be impeded if I select it? Will the machine lose connection or fail to connect when resuming from standby? I've always had it set for maximum performance, but I'm trying to keep my hard disk spun down for longer intervals. I'm wondering if the lower power setting will help, but I'm not sure if it even has anything to do with it. Thanks in advance.

Tony

Tõnis wrote:How does the the machine save battery power when this setting is in effect?

Its aggressive in the transmit-power management for the modem.

Tõnis wrote:And how will performance be impeded if I select it?

In general, if you aren't very close to a WiFi access point, you may not be able to establish a session, and will usually get a lof of WiFi dropouts/session disconnections if you do establish a session.

Tõnis wrote:I'm wondering if the lower power setting will help

It will help your battery duration at the expense of much more problematic WiFi connectivity. It has nothing directly to do with the power usage of your hard disk.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Thanks, Bill. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of value in the wireless card's power saving setting. I'll keep it on maximum performance.

Tony