Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,

Is there a nice utility, preferably freeware, that shows power consumption for laptops, i.e. what's drawing the most power when using the laptop on battery power?

If this is for your thinkpad, you can install the power manager from Lenovo to see the wattage of your machine on AC/battery.

Mobilemeter or RMClock might work too, I am not sure.

hey gator,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using the T-pad power manager but unfortunately it only shows total wattage drainage. I also have RMClock installed but there's not option that indicates individual component power consumption.

I'll try your third suggestion to see what the capabilities are.

I'm just curious to see what in the laptop drains the most power under what conditions so I could perhaps create a specific profile using a combination of RMclock/PM to better adjust the system for long-lasting usage (when on battery power).

Cheers!

Interesting. I have got to try this out to improve battery life.

Notebook Hardware Control is a good program.

icantux wrote:Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using the T-pad power manager but unfortunately it only shows total wattage drainage. I also have RMClock installed but there's not option that indicates individual component power consumption.

[...]

I'm just curious to see what in the laptop drains the most power under what conditions

I don't think this information is actually collected in the laptop. Total power draw is easy to read because you have only need one meter at the battery. To my knowledge most components don't have their own meters. (If there is an exception, I think the hard drive is most likely to be one.)

You could try disabling/shutting down the components manually and see how the baseline power draw changes.

I use MOBmeter and love it. However, I haven't been able to get it to work on Vista. Has anyone? Is there a good alternative - I like to be able to graph my clock speed and power so I can go back and look at the last 1/2 hour or so.

Windows or *Nix?

For *Nix I use Powertop and that helps extend the battery life an extra 10-15 minutes in some cases.