X31 playing sound eats too much battery?

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Wlkus · #1 Post by **Wlkus** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:41 am

Recently I found strange thing on my X31. Battery time on X31 is about 4.30h while im just browsing/reading on internet, using ICQ and so on. Problem arises when I want to listen to music (mp3). Remaining battery goes down to 3h or less, but CPU usage while decoding MP3 (foobar2k used as player) is zero or next to zero. Always thought that decoding MP3 takes almost no power, files are cached to memory, so disk is not constantly used. Still, I get cca 30% less battery time - is it possible that soundcards circuits just eats that much power while playing/amplifiing sound? Situation is absolutely same for integrated speaker or connected earphones, always noticeably less battery time...

#2 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:17 am

Unless foobar2k caches entire MP3 clips in memory, disk will be in regular usage while playing MP3s. With Windows Media Player, there is regular disk access as the application reads data (and buffers some of it, yes).

Wlkus · #3 Post by **Wlkus** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:43 am

Fubar easilly cashes all data, there is no disc activity as I can see for at least few minutes...

#4 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:11 am

What speed is the CPU running at while you are playing MP3s? What power profile are you using?

Wlkus · #5 Post by **Wlkus** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:34 am

Im using NHC to set dynamic CPU speed. But its not the problem, foobar2k is not using even one percent of CPU power in its slowest speed mode. Thats what i cant get - almost no cpu usage, no HDD usage (tested even with tool monitoring hdd usage) and still while sound is on remaining time on battery goes down by 20-25%. Tested even with 200kb wav file played in loop, tested winamp and mediaplayer - same results. Expected battery time goes down by large number of percent while playing sound. No difference if im using internal mono speaker or stereo earphones connected through jack...

#6 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:02 am

So is the CPU speed staying at 600 MHz (regardless of what the CPU usage may be)?

Wlkus · #7 Post by **Wlkus** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:13 am

yep, it stays at 600MHz while playing MP3. Ofc that it goes higher when there is higher usage, but through testing it was all the time at 600MHz

ragefury32 · #8 Post by **ragefury32** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:48 am

Look at the battery discharge rate. If it's above 9.5w, then you'll have a problem. Are you running a visualization during MP3 playback?

Wlkus · #9 Post by **Wlkus** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:52 am

No visualisation, ofc. Where can I check discharge rate?

ragefury32 · #10 Post by **ragefury32** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:45 pm

Wlkus wrote:No visualisation, ofc. Where can I check discharge rate?

Thinkpad configuration -> Battery information.

X31 playing sound eats too much battery?

X31 playing sound eats too much battery?

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