does vista automatically change power settings?

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fartonmyear · #1 Post by **fartonmyear** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:45 am

since the battery monitor thing isn't supported in vista, does vista detect if you're running on AC/battery and automatically change powersettings?

#2 Post by **jdhurst** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:59 am

XP does (and even W2K if I remember correctly), so I expect that Vista will as well, but I have not yet tried it. ... JD Hurst

#3 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:19 am

I'm not booted into Vista at the moment to verify everything, but IIRC in Power Options, you can choose one of three settings (possibly misnamed here); Maximum Battery, Balanced, and Maximum Performance. Each of these settings has timers for LCD off and Suspend/Hibernate, and the timers are independent between AC settings and Battery settings. You can also create your own power scheme if you like.

When I installed Vista beta, my first time to Windows Update it found a Lenovo power management driver, which I installed. This is on a T42.

arni · #4 Post by **arni** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:14 pm

Yes, as is on RC1. Powersettings working very well out of the box so you don't need Battery Monitor at all.

The new Mobility Center allows you to modify much more power settings than in XP, so you won't miss the Battery Monitor. There are three predifined power settings, but you can define more by yourself.

Generally speaking, since Lenove brought out the first release of a Vista compatible Bios ans Touchpad Driver, i'm staying all day with Vista on my T60. It's running fine and stable.

fartonmyear · #5 Post by **fartonmyear** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:12 am

it doesn't switch settings automatically does it though

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:21 am

fartonmyear wrote:it doesn't switch settings automatically does it though

It should. There aren't as many settings to adjust as in Battery MaxiMiser Wizard or Power Manager, but at least it does control CPU speed and timers for going into Standby or Hibernation.

fartonmyear · #7 Post by **fartonmyear** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:50 am

i have to manually change my power settings. if i leave it on powersave, it'll stay on powersave even if i'm on AC.

#8 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:04 pm

I'll test later when I am booted in Vista. I'm in XP at the moment.

#9 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:32 pm

fartonmyear wrote:i have to manually change my power settings. if i leave it on powersave, it'll stay on powersave even if i'm on AC.

I think this quote from Windows Vista Help and Support will clear things up.

Windows Help and Support wrote:Balanced
This plan balances energy consumption and system performance by adapting your mobile PC's processor speed to your activity. For example, the processor speeds up when you play a multimedia game and slows down when you read a document.

When this plan is in effect, Windows makes the following adjustments to your mobile PC:

* When your mobile PC is plugged in, Windows turns off the display after 60 minutes of inactivity, and the hard disk after 20 minutes of inactivity. After two hours of inactivity, Windows puts the computer to sleep.

* When your mobile PC is running on battery power, Windows turns off the display after 15 minutes of inactivity, and the hard disk after 10 minutes of inactivity. After 60 minutes of inactivity, Windows puts the computer to sleep.

Power saver
This plan saves power on your mobile PC by reducing system performance. It's primarily for people who want to maximize battery life.

When this plan is in effect, Windows makes the following adjustments to your mobile PC:

* When your mobile PC is plugged in, Windows decreases the processor speed and display brightness. When you're not using your mobile PC, Windows turns off the display and hard disk after 20 minutes. After an hour of inactivity, Windows puts the computer to sleep.

* When your mobile PC is running on battery power, Windows decreases the processor speed. When you're not using your mobile PC, Windows turns off the display after three minutes and turns off the hard disk after five minutes. After 15 minutes of inactivity, Windows puts the computer to sleep.

High performance
This plan provides the highest level of performance on your mobile PC by adapting processor speed to your work or activity and by maximizing system performance. It's primarily for people who use graphic-intensive programs or play multimedia games.

When this plan is in effect, Windows makes the following adjustments to your mobile PC:

* When your mobile PC is plugged in, Windows turns off the display and hard disk after 20 minutes of inactivity, but it never puts the computer to sleep.

* When your mobile PC is running on battery power, Windows turns off the display and hard disk after 20 minutes. After an hour of inactivity, Windows puts the computer to sleep.

#10 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:47 pm

OK, I just tried the Power Saver Plan in Vista (I chose that Plan because it was the quickest to test). When on battery power, it did just what it was supposed to. The display went dark at 5 minutes, and then it went into Standby at 15 minutes. When plugged in to AC, the display went dark at 20 minutes. I did not wait the hour for it to go into Standby, however you can see that the behavior is different depending if you are running on battery or AC. So in other words, Vista does automatically change power consumption depending on if you are on battery or AC.

There are additional settings available. If you go to a Power Plan and choose Change Plan Settings, it will open to another window. There is a link in that window for choosing Change advanced power settings. Here is where you really get to the nuts and bolts of it all. Here you can change minimum processor power level on battery and minimum processor power level plugged-in, and you can change maximum processor power level on battery and maximum processor power level plugged in. There are other settings here as well. I'll leave it to the reader to explore them.

If you decide to set up a power plan different than the 3 built-in ones, you can create additional ones of your own and leave the default ones be. There is even a choice to return a changed built-in Power Plan back to its default values.

fartonmyear · #11 Post by **fartonmyear** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:53 pm

it still doesn't change it automatically for me. i just pulled out my AC and my current plan still shows high performance...

#12 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:36 pm

fartonmyear wrote:it still doesn't change it automatically for me. i just pulled out my AC and my current plan still shows high performance...

The Power Plan won't change, but the behavior under the Power Plan will. Read carefully the quote I made above from Windows Help and Support. It clearly states what will happen when on AC power and what will happen on Battery in each different Power Plan.

If you have chosen the High Performance Power Plan, when you are on Battery, your ThinkPad will go to Sleep or Hibernate after one hour of inactivity. Test this. Just boot into the Windows desktop, then do not touch the computer for one hour - this means do not move the mouse pointer with the TrackPoint or Touchpad. If you are on battery, at one hour you will see the crescent moon LED light up, indicating the computer has entered the Sleep or Hibernate state. If you do this test on AC power, the computer will not enter the Sleep or Hibernation state by itself.

As I indicated above, you can test this faster under the Power Saver Plan.

Note that a running video, and certain other programs such as Alcohol 120% can interfere with the laptop entering the Sleep state.

does vista automatically change power settings?

does vista automatically change power settings?

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