Playing DVDs on Battery

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Asmoden56 · #1 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:12 pm

Does anyone get repeated hangs while doing this? These aren't small problems, either...the video noticeably stops and then picks up. The problem isn't that noticeable when I plug the power in, although I think it's still there. I have the Matshita DVD-RAM drive...

pundit · #2 Post by **pundit** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:33 pm

No, I didn't see this, but I know what must be going on.

Your power settings are (too) aggressively trying to power down your processors, leaving insufficient processing muscle for smooth playback. Adjust your power settings to work like "as if always on power" (or something like that, I don't remember), and all should be fine.

People who have the their ThinkPads, can suggest lower level things, probably in the BIOS.

Asmoden56 · #3 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:46 pm

Yeah, that's what I thought at first...however, my settings really weren't that low on performance. I've tried it with the "max performance" setting and it still happens, and is just as bad...

Here's another interesting thing...if I look at the system manager I see periodic spikes in processor usage that correspond exactly to the skips...

Any ideas?

donking! · #4 Post by **donking!** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:16 am

Did you try changing this in the BIOS or in the ThinkPad Power Manager?

My T60 shipped with the power setting for the CPU in the BIOS set at "Battery Optimized." This forces the CPU to always run at a much slower speed when on batteries (and I believe over-rides any setting in the Power Manager).

If you didn't check the BIOS, go there under Config: Power: Intel SpeedStep settings. Set your battery setting to "Automatic."

In the BIOS settings I don't really understand why one would want any setting other than "Automatic." Do I really want to use "Battery Optimized" that forces the CPU to always run slow? Don't I want it to be able to speed up if I need it too? Even if I'm running on the batteries?

And if I'm doing processor unintensive tasks, won't the setting on "Automatic" basically give me the most battery life possible anyway? In fact, I thought Intel developed the whole "Automatic" setting in the first place for battery use.

Anyone have further explanations and suggestions on these BIOS settings?

*

Also, what's the deal with the various schemes in the Power Manager. They have all these different settings that can be customized (cpu performance, fan control, display refresh rate). But the only one that actually effects the little scale for battery life, in the Power Manager, is the display brightness setting. It seems to suggest all these CPU speed settings don't matter much.

And why on AC would I want to set the CPU to "adaptive" if it doesn't allow maximum performance. Does that really mean the CPU will never reach it's maximum speed?

I don't know, the whole Power Manager seems silly and poorly thought out or, at least, not at all designed in a way that makes sense.

pundit · #5 Post by **pundit** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:22 am

God I wish I had my computer on hand so I could probe a teeny bit and answer these questions---appearing all knowledgeable and pro.

But alas, I don't and can't.

Rats.

Oh, and don't use JPEG for desktop screen-shots. Use a format like PNG which won't cause that annoying colour mangling.

Asmoden56 · #6 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:26 am

Sorry about the .jpg.

Anyways, it's odd that the BIOS defaults to something other than automatic. I tried changing it, but I still have the same problem...

pundit · #7 Post by **pundit** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:28 am

On a more useful note, it is my inkling (as in based on no scientific evidence whatsoever) that the periodic spikes have something to do with the wireless connection manager process.

For kicks, try killing the related processes or disabling the connection and retry playing your DVD.

Asmoden56 · #8 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:33 am

Ah, that was a good guess, but I tried disabling the connection and it still happens...this is a tricky [censored] to track down, it seems.

pundit · #9 Post by **pundit** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:36 am

It really shouldn't be that hard. Just keep your process monitor up, sorted by processor usage, and see which one jumps to the top when your DVD stutters. You have your culprit. Kill it, and resume your entertainment.

(I didn't suggest this initially because it seemed too rational and proper a way of going about doing things. It's less glorious.)

Asmoden56 · #10 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:45 am

Clever, clever. The offending process appears to be "ati2evxx.exe" and the movie runs fine once I kill it. I guess it's the "ATI HotKey poller" and appears to be pretty much useless so I disabled the service. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. Thanks for the help!

lithium726 · #11 Post by **lithium726** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:45 am

Try installing some new video card drivers, those spikes look like the spikes seen from the Catalyst Control Center, and while the unit is on battery power, the video chip throttles down too. You might wanna try playing with powerplay settings too, but the low power mode should be just fine for a DVD, it is on my radeon 7500...

sugo · #12 Post by **sugo** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:44 am

Powerplay may not work properly when "ATI HotKey poller" service is disabled. At least that was the case on a T42 9600.

Asmoden56 · #13 Post by **Asmoden56** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:14 pm

Hmm...is PowerPlay very useful? I've never had a laptop w/ an ATI card before so I'm unfamiliar with it...

jeremivw · #14 Post by **jeremivw** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:16 pm

Asmoden56 wrote:Clever, clever. The offending process appears to be "ati2evxx.exe" and the movie runs fine once I kill it. I guess it's the "ATI HotKey poller" and appears to be pretty much useless so I disabled the service. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. Thanks for the help!

I have this exact same issue. However, I have TWO of these ati2evxx.exe processed (one for System and one for my user name).

Did you kill both? Also, how did you permanently disable this service? Did you use the task man or is there a way to do it through one of the ATI GUIs? Thanks!

Asmoden56 · #15 Post by **Asmoden56** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:49 pm

I'm pretty sure I only had one. To disable it, right click on My Computer, go to Manage, then Systems and Applications, and finally Services. Right click on "ATI HotKey poller" go to properties, and set it to "disabled". That oughta do it!

darrenf · #16 Post by **darrenf** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:15 pm

Without powerplay, you'll burn through your battery pretty fast. I'm not confirming that removing this turns off powerplay -- I would just make sure it's on because running the GPU at full clock all the time will cost you power, generate heat and run the fan more than required.

IIRC, the HotKey Poller detects when you attach an external video display.

-darren

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