Battery Life Maximizing...

[zahir]

Hey any tips on maximizing battery life?
My R51 runs a 1.3 celeron M,
512 ram
40 gb hdd
dvd combo
inbuilt wifi
14.1" screen...

I use the following profile when the laptops running on battery...
Hdd Swtich off : 10 mins
Stand by : 10 mins
Turn off monitor : 5 mins
LCD : level 2

I still manage only 2.5 - 3 hrs tops of battery life....
Advice anyone?

[Aroc]

Swap the Celeron M for a Pentium M. That makes a big difference there. The main difference between the Celeron M and the Pentium M (Dothan core) is the former does not have the low speed throttling that the latter possesses. A Banias Pentium M (400Mhz bus) throttles down dynamically to as low as 600Mhz. A Dothan Pentium M (533Mhz bus) throttles to 800Mhz. The Celeron runs at full speed regardless of load or power saving schemes. This is not optimal for battery life. Although the Celeron is optimal for wallet life.

and/or get a 9 cell battery if you only have a 6 cell now. The 9 cell will obviously run longer than a 6. I don't believe you mentioned which one you have.

Some other things. Turn down the screen brightness as much as you can. The LCD backlight is a big drain on the battery. Also turn off the Wireless ethernet radio when you aren't using wireless. Running wireless, even just idling, eats some battery. But in my experience, the screen eats more than wirelss does.

(edit:) I re-read and saw you were using LCD level 2. Disregard the comments on turning down screen brightness then.

Assuming you are using the 9 cell, this may be just about the best you can do with a Celeron M.

[zahir]

hey thanks for all the input buddy... actually i got a celeron cuz it fit in my budget. i was always under thhe iimpression that celerons were slow but this one out performs itself... im truly impressed with that.... so the question of switching for a centrino doesnt arise, cant afford it rite now....

I read something abt high performance batteries on the lenovo site, gonna get one of those.... btw if my comps idle... wats better, standby or hibernate? someone told me hibernation kills the battery

also, any shortcut on the keyboard for hybernation?