Thinkpad battery life issues?

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MD1032 · #1 Post by **MD1032** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:22 pm

My T60 doesn't seem to be getting very good battery life. It's the 14.1" model as specified here (mine has the X1400, though), and it has the 6-cell battery. I have the processor turned down to low, the screen set to 5, and the fan set to balance parameters. Right now I've been surfing the internet on and off (the screen/hard drive turn off after 3 minutes and standby is after 10 minutes) for about 3 hours and the battery's at 13% whereas it started at 95% (I have the battery set to charge when below 75% and stop at 95% while the AC is plugged in).

So, what am I doing wrong? Is it possible my battery is partially defective, or am I just not optimizing the computer settings properly?

darrenf · #2 Post by **darrenf** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:47 am

3 hours might be right for the 6-cell with the x1400 -- it's a bit of a power pig. Still, make sure that PowerPlay is turned on in the Catalyst Control Center and set to "maximize battery" whenever the laptop is off AC.

It could be worse. I have the V5200 and it only gets ~4 to 4.5 hours from a 9-cell with otherwise well-managed power consumption -- and that's on a 14" non-IPS screen!!

Also, despite all the patches from Microsoft and BIOS updates from Lenovo, power usage on my laptop is better upon first boot than following a resume from standby (to the tune of 3-4watts!). That could be a contributor if you have placed the laptop in standby since your last full reboot.

-darren

ramian · #3 Post by **ramian** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:12 am

darrenf wrote:Still, make sure that PowerPlay is turned on in the Catalyst Control Center and set to "maximize battery" whenever the laptop is off AC.

It would be good if PowerPlay actually worked. I'm using Omega drivers and I can't get PowerPlay to work as advertised.

FlexOink · #4 Post by **FlexOink** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:22 am

I have a T60p with the fireGL. I had Omega drivers installed, and now I had the standard IBM Catalyst drivers. My battery life increased with an hour or more.

I have the 9cell + the 6cell ultrabay, I get around 5:30 hours of batterylife while watching Divx movies. Lowering the screen brightness a bit to say the 4th, my 15" 1600x1200 eats alot of juice.

darrenf · #5 Post by **darrenf** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:20 am

ramian wrote:It would be good if PowerPlay actually worked. I'm using Omega drivers and I can't get PowerPlay to work as advertised.

The Omega drivers don't provide a way to configure PowerPlay, do they? That wouldn't be a problem is one of the overclocking utilities worked then the speed could be changed by hand, but none seem to work reliably on the V5200. I've heard of better results with the x1400.

-darren

dawarner · #6 Post by **dawarner** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:38 am

darrenf wrote:Also, despite all the patches from Microsoft and BIOS updates from Lenovo, power usage on my laptop is better upon first boot than following a resume from standby (to the tune of 3-4watts!). That could be a contributor if you have placed the laptop in standby since your last full reboot.

-darren

I'm having the same problem. On a clean boot, I the system stabilizes when idle at about 11 watts. Same condition after standby idles at about 14 watts. Anyone know what may cause this?

SSK · #7 Post by **SSK** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:43 am

I solved this problem by selecting the same powermanager profile again by myself...
i didn´t notice this, until i looked to the temperature,
which increased much faster when i took my tp out of stand by

Maybe this ist a power manager issue or it caused by a bug in the power management driver

kulivontot · #8 Post by **kulivontot** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:17 am

3 hours with a 6-cell on discrete graphics sounds pretty consistent with what I have read and experienced. I don't think there's anything wrong with your battery. If anything it's more likely that ATI just sucks at power management.

dawarner · #9 Post by **dawarner** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:44 am

SSK wrote:I solved this problem by selecting the same powermanager profile again by myself...
i didn´t notice this, until i looked to the temperature,
which increased much faster when i took my tp out of stand by
Maybe this ist a power manager issue or it caused by a bug in the power management driver

On a side note, reselecting the power profile will also bring the fan down (or turn it off) after running at high RPM. (assuming the processor has cooled)

EDIT: A little more on this. I was able to replicate the power consumption decreasing after standby by reselectingthe power profile, but only when the wireless radios are on. With the radios off, I do not see the increase in consumption after standby, so it must be related to bluetooth or the Intel card.

Thinkpad battery life issues?

Thinkpad battery life issues?

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