Powerplay on T40P

[caffemusse]

I've been reading a bit on underclocking the ATI gpu.

Apparently ATI has supplied its own version. Is this what is called *Powerplay*?

Can someone tell me more about it, and how to activate it correctly. (I can see it's tab but it is not active)
Ie does it require a certain driver or that the TP runs on battery.

[GomJabbar]

Here is a link on PowerPlay.

ATI introduces PowerPlay™ technology to improve battery life of notebook PCs

ATI POWERPLAY™ technology maximizes the life of your notebook battery. When enabled, POWERPLAY™ continually monitors your notebook’s display settings to automatically reduce the power consumption of your graphics adapter.
When you enable POWERPLAY™, battery-saving mode cannot always be activated immediately since POWERPLAY™ becomes active only under certain display conditions. Conditions that prevent activation of POWERPLAY™ include:

Your notebook is plugged in. POWERPLAY™ is only available when your notebook is running on batteries.

You are currently using more than one display device.

One or more of the display settings (resolution, color depth, refresh rate) is set too high to permit activation of POWERPLAY™.

Your notebook has a video overlay running, as in the case of DVD playback.

Note

When POWERPLAY™ is active, battery-saving mode will be deactivated automatically when you place your notebook under any of the above conditions (for example, if you increase the display color depth). As a result, higher performance applications and settings are always achievable.
POWERPLAY™ is only available on specific models of notebook computers.

Tell me how to...

enable/disable POWERPLAY™

Desktop Help for Window XP, © ATI Technologies Inc., Version H6.01

To enable/disable POWERPLAY™

1 Click here to view Display Properties at the Settings tab.
2 Click the Advanced button.
3 Click the POWERPLAY™ tab.
4 Click the Enable POWERPLAY™ button.
A checkmark appears when POWERPLAY™ has been requested.
5 Click OK or Apply to save the changes you have made.
The POWERPLAY™ Status box is updated to indicate the status change. For an overview of POWERPLAY™ operation, click here.

Notes

When POWERPLAY™ is enabled, you have the option to check Allow automatic color depth reduction. With this option selected, POWERPLAY™ will automatically reduce the display color depth to 16 bit and activate battery-saving mode, provided this is the only setting preventing POWERPLAY™ activation.
POWERPLAY™ is only available on specific models of notebook computers.
For assistance in changing display settings such as color depth and screen resolution, refer to the Microsoft online help file, which can be accessed from the Start menu.

If both OVERDRIVE™ and POWERPLAY™ are supported on your system, OVERDRIVE™ will only be enabled when your preferred POWERPLAY™ setting is set to ‘Optimal Performance’.

Desktop Help for Window XP, © ATI Technologies Inc., Version H6.01

This is all I found. I hope it helps.

EDIT: FWIW, I have PowerPlay available on my T42 with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 w/64MB. I am using the latest IBM supplied ATI Display Driver, ATI Control Panel, and ATI HYDRAVISION. I am not really sure if more than the driver is required.

[Bgradid]

I'm pretty sure the radeon 9000 (firegl version) doesn't support it

[EOMtp]

The ATI Mobility FireGL T2 (Thinkpad T41p, T42p) supports ATI POWERPLAY. The settings pertinent to this feature are on a tab under Display Properties/Settings/Advanced.

[Bgradid]

EOMtp, the video card in your T40p does not support it as far as I know

[EOMtp]

My reference was to a T41p or T42p, not a T40p.
To be precise: whether or not the graphics chip behaves according to the settings for that feature I have not bothered to ascertain. I am simply reporting that the standard driver which loads for that graphics chipset does have settings for the feature, and the settings are active and can be modified.

[caffemusse]

Ok, but even though some of you contest that the gpu on my T40p does not support powerplay, I can still see the Powerplay options tab and select/deselect powerplay.
The tab tells me that PP is disabled because of "Conditions that prevent activation of POWERPLAY™"

Will try to meet those conditions and post results...

cheers

[marvel]

I´ve had this irritating problem with my T40p for a long time: the color suddenly drops to 16 bit although settings claim 32 bit. Early drivers work better than later (20050502 or 20050811) and connected to main power reduces the problem (although not entirely), which could point to incompatibilities with the powerplay function.

Now I desperately look for firegl 9000 drivers rev. 2 (I just don´t want to make a new install of windows).

//Michael