Dimmed screen necessary to get extended battery time?

[mitzi]

I've started playing around with power manager, but it seems that the only way I can get my 8-cell battery to last beyond 4 (sometimes 3.5) hours is to have the screen dimmed. Is this just the way it is? I'm only doing word processing, sometimes running statistical software.

[whoisjohngalt]

are you kidding?

do you have it set to "thinkpad default" in the power manager?

dimming the screen WILL add life to the battery, but it isn't necessary to get even 6 with wifi on.

[mfratt]

I run mine with the brightness all the way up and wwan on, and i get 5.5-6.5hrs.

[Saml01]

Are you running max performance in your power manegment. That could be the reason.

Another reason may be a faulty battery. go look up the battery info in the power manager.

[FredFromNYC]

Do you see the Power Manager Gauge in the taskbar? From Power Manager help: "The settings are effective only when the Power Manager Gauge is running in the task bar."

[yiplong]

In my power management, I set the screen 'brightness when on battery' to level 7, which is the highest, but when I unplug the power cord, the screen still dims noticeably, and I no matter what I do, I cannot get it as bright as it was when on AC power. Is this normal? The screen is always dimmer on battery then on AC?

[mfratt]

In my power management, I set the screen 'brightness when on battery' to level 7, which is the highest, but when I unplug the power cord, the screen still dims noticeably, and I no matter what I do, I cannot get it as bright as it was when on AC power. Is this normal? The screen is always dimmer on battery then on AC?

Its a BIOS setting.

[smvp6459]

You can also change the setting from XP using the "Thinkpad Configuration" program, but you will need to restart since you're just changing a BIOS setting.