8 cell battery life running only 4+ hours. What is drain?

[atwnsw]

Hi there,

I am new to the x61s and haven't deviated from the factory software which initially showed 5-6 hours and I have had the unit for 2 weeks.

Something must be sucking down some serious battery life.

I am taking a trip in a couple of weeks and would like to be able to have the machine operate for more than 4 hours.

What is the simplest way to find out what is draining the battery life?

I changed the thinkvantage power settings to video playback thinking that it would give it higher screen viewing but shutdown other features that aren't necessary on an airplane, but it showed only 4 hours of life remaining. No now, I changed back to energy star.

Your input would be appreciated....

I am confused:

Programs running:

Symantec Internet security
Thinkvantage
Intel Graphics Media accelerator
Thinkvantage Access Connections
etc.....

[loyukfai]

Have you tried running down the battery and is it really approximate 4-hour as reported...?

CPU speed, display brightness and wireless adapters (on/off) are the main configurable factors affecting the battery life I guess. Tried adjusting these parameters...?

BTW, Power Manager can show how many watts your system is drawing, when it's on battery. The figure is a lump-sum through. Anyway, how much power is your X61s drawing when idle...?

[atwnsw]

Hi there,

Okay, I have a few questions:

1) I haven't tried running down the battery to test the accuracy. But you bring up another question: There is the horizontal battery in green which shows 97% remaining and 4:56 hours left of battery life. Then there is a little blue vertical battery on the bottom right icon which also shows 97% but says there is only 4:26 hours left of battery life. Why is there a difference in battery life if the % is the same.

2) How do I reduce the CPU speed? I know how to lower the lcd brightness using the Fn key and dimmer button on the "End" key. I believe the simplest way to turn off the radio/signal power is using the button on the front of the machine. But how do you lower the cpu demand?

3) You mention that I can view the battery drainage using the Power Management tool. Can you please show/explain where to find it? I tried a few different approaches using both Thinkvantage and control panel but couldn't see where I could view the live power consumption?

4) Finally, I should know the answer to this but when I fly, how would you program the laptop with the goal of watching movies? Is there a power management setting for strictly watching movies or would you create a new power setting?

Thanks again in advance..

[loyukfai]

1) I haven't tried running down the battery to test the accuracy. But you bring up another question: There is the horizontal battery in green which shows 97% remaining and 4:56 hours left of battery life. Then there is a little blue vertical battery on the bottom right icon which also shows 97% but says there is only 4:26 hours left of battery life. Why is there a difference in battery life if the % is the same.

The horizontal green bar is provided by Lenovo's Power Manager. The little blue icon is provided by Windows' built-in function.

See this blog post for why they report different figures.

2) How do I reduce the CPU speed? I know how to lower the lcd brightness using the Fn key and dimmer button on the "End" key. I believe the simplest way to turn off the radio/signal power is using the button on the front of the machine. But how do you lower the cpu demand?

If you're running Power Manager in the basic mode, just push the slider to the right.



In advanced mode, adjust the system settings directly.

3) You mention that I can view the battery drainage using the Power Management tool. Can you please show/explain where to find it? I tried a few different approaches using both Thinkvantage and control panel but couldn't see where I could view the live power consumption?

See screenshot below:

4) Finally, I should know the answer to this but when I fly, how would you program the laptop with the goal of watching movies? Is there a power management setting for strictly watching movies or would you create a new power setting?

I've never flown but I guess the Video Playback mode should do fine.

You may like to store the movies on the HDD or a flash drive so you don't have to use the optical drive.

Have a nice weekend.

[atwnsw]

Thank you for the in depth response.

Wow.

You made it easy to understand and quick to fix.

Awesome.

Thanks again.

[sportfreak]

should help new thinkpad users on how to control and use power manager settings..
nice going

loyukfai