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cbutters
Starting Member
14 Posts |
 Posted - 03/02/2006 : 09:31:58
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Using a few little tips and tricks, it is possible to extend your battery life much further than normal. I just got my P1510D and with all the tweaks I have done to it, my battery life now reads 4 hours 33 minutes after a full charge and screen brightness on low. All on the standard battery mind you. It also runs a lot cooler than normal.
Tip 1)Install Notebook Hardware control
This program can be found here: http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm
By installing this application, you can reduce the voltage supplied to your processor, while still keeping the same speeds as before. I chose a battery setting with min multiplier 6 @ .70 volts and max multiplier of 8 @ .732
By reducing voltage, you reduce heat produced, which means less energy is being used, and the fan doesnt have to come on as often (if ever) using even less energy.
In addition to the undervolting capabilities of this program, it also provides usefull taskbar icons, one that states your battery time remaining, Hard drive temp, and current mhz. I liked this program because you can have your powersettings automatically adjust depending if you are plugged in or on battery. It also shows how many watts you are currently using
Though I do not believe so, it has been said that it is possible that undervolting your processor could potentially cause hardware damage/dataloss, I personally have never seen or heard of any problems.
Please refer to this thread for more info: http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8517
Tip 2)Disable unnecessary hardware devices
Every component on your machine uses a little bit of energy, by disabling unused devices you can benefit from additional battery life. This concept is actually well known. Think about the wireless on-off button, everybody knows using wireless cuts down on your battery life. thats why they install the switch.
Go to your control panel, system, then device manager.
The first thing you will want to do, if you ordered a non-bluetooth P1510, is remove the bluetooth device, since you dont even really have it installed.
***Be sure you know what you are disabling before you disable it!***
Now, start disabling devices that you do not use. everyone's needs are different. I disabled my LAN, my modem, the CF card, and the SD card. because I do not commonly use these devices.
The great thing is, if you ever DO want to use these devices again, just right click and enable them again. its like having an on/off switch.
Tip 3)Misc power settings
1)use at your own discresion, but setting your HD and screen to shutdown after 1-3 minutes can increase your battery life dramatically.
2)I would recommend enabling hibernate in the power settings window, hibernate takes less time to reboot than if you were completely shutting down your machine and turning it back on. This is especially usefull because the powersaving effects of notebook hardware control program arent enabled unless you are in windows. If you like having a logon screen after hibernating to protect your data like I do, click the advanced tab on the power settings window and choose prompt for password when computer resumes from standby.
I like setting my powerbutton to be the hibernate button, that way hibernate becomes a natural step, if you ever DO want to hard shutdown or hard reboot your system, just hit start-shutdown as normal.
Conclusion:
by using the previous tweaks it is possible to conserve significant battery life and increase your up time. These tweaks are useful in my microeconomics class when my teacher goes 15 minutes over the class time ;)
There are many more tweaks to be found, I have heard of other laptop programs like speedswitch and some motherboard tweak programs to further reduce chipset voltages, which i am planning on researching more about. I can only imagine what the battery life would be with an extended battery using these settings! maybe 9+ hours ? Further discussion is welcome on this topic. |
Edited by - cbutters on 03/02/2006 09:37:24 |
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toddm
Junior Member
134 Posts |
Posted - 03/03/2006 : 23:45:46
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| All good tips. I don't know about you, but I can't lower the screen brightness all the way unless there is almost no light. I usually keep it on 3 or 4. I had thought about disabling devices before, but never tried it. Where is the bluetooth device listed? Turning off wireless definitely helps. Should be useful for flights. |
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kindall
Junior Member
USA
145 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2006 : 17:40:42
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Nice tip on the Notebook Hardware Control utility. I've found (with Prime95 stress testing) that my machine can easily run at .700 volts at 600 and 800 MHz, and that's making a big difference in heat. I'm doing more testing, maybe it'll run at even faster speeds at that voltage. That'd be nice. Not many times you get a free lunch, but this is the closest thing to it!
Jerry Kindall - Bellevue, Washington, USA |
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toddm
Junior Member
134 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2006 : 00:18:01
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| I've been running 0.7v in battery mode for quite some time now with no problems. I pushed it down to 0.812v in full performance mode, but never tried going below that. Plus, I like that the Notebook Hardware Control system tray icon shows the remaining battery life in an hours:minutes format. Some people might be familiar with Centrino Hardware Control. This is the same app with a modified name. |
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kindall
Junior Member
USA
145 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2006 : 19:55:44
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Here are my settings:
6: 0.700
8: 0.700
9: 0.700
10: 0.732
11: 0.764
12; 0.796
Looks like I've got a good one.
Jerry Kindall - Bellevue, Washington, USA |
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bakdai
New Member
USA
98 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2006 : 20:20:12
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What are you doing for your settings under CPU speed? Do you have Dynamic switching in both settings? And do you have Enable custom dynamic switching checked?
Also under cpu voltage, after clicking on the 6 multiplier .7 volts and under the 8 multiplier .732 volts, you clicked set, right?
Sorry for the newbie questions, just got the lifebook and I want to be able to get the 4 hour battery life that you mentioned with the normal battery. Otherwise, I'd have to fork over some more dough for the extended battery. |
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toddm
Junior Member
134 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2006 : 11:47:44
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| I only have the 6 and 12 multipliers set. Anyone notice any advantage to setting more? |
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kindall
Junior Member
USA
145 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2006 : 03:41:03
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If you only have two multipliers set, I think your machine is going to either be running at its slowest speed, or flat out. If you define additional ones then it can run at additional speeds in the middle, which may preserve battery life when it would otherwise run flat out.
Additionally, if you define a range of multipliers you can set the utility to use different ranges when the machine's on battery and AC. On battery I don't let it go above 9X multiplier. On AC it'll go all the way up to 12.
Jerry Kindall - Bellevue, Washington, USA |
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marklar11111
Starting Member
24 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2006 : 13:23:15
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I have been studying the excellent tips posted above for saving battery power.
I find myself working during extended-battery P1510 sessions in such a way that I go on Standby for 10, 20 or 30 minutes at a time before returning to work on the laptop.
How much does Hibernate help, compared to Standby mode, in perserving battery life? If its significant, I think I will convert my power/standby button to power/hibernate.
Finally, about the notebook hardware software, I am a little leery about messing around with voltage/cpu speeds...I do not perceive unusually excessive heat even when I am using this for 4 or 5 hours at a time (both in extended-battery and AC power mode).
Can this software really benefit my strong usage of the P1510, in terms of heat and battery? And if so, can someone give me safe settings?
Any feedback would be appreciated. TIA.
SJ
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georgi55
Junior Member
125 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 07:52:41
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"How much does Hibernate help, compared to Standby mode, in perserving battery life"
Hibernate does not use ANY POWER at all, it dumps everything on memory into hard drive and when you power the laptop, it does the oposite. That's why I always use Hibernate, I can't remember the last time I shut down since I let it Hibernate and carry it around. |
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marklar11111
Starting Member
24 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 09:30:58
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quote:
Originally posted by georgi55
Hibernate does not use ANY POWER at all, it dumps everything on memory into hard drive and when you power the laptop, it does the oposite. That's why I always use Hibernate, I can't remember the last time I shut down since I let it Hibernate and carry it around.
that sopunds like a great idea, thanks for the tip.
I noticed since I enabled Hibernate, that there are two options for the configuring power managment to standby/power button:
1) power button
2) sleep button
So is the sleep option essentially a 2nd button press option? ie after I have pressed pwoer button to go to standby...if I press it again I could go to hibernate?
SJ |
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soda97
New Member
95 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2006 : 13:42:09
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for some reason, my laptop is still hot as before
I wonder did I miss any steps?
Here's my setup,
CPU Speed:
A/C - dynamic switching
battery - battery optimized
set selected power scheme - minimal power management (my windows default)
CPU Voltage:
6 - .700
8 - .732
9 - .748
10 - .780
11 - .812
12 - .844
(I haven't done the full check yet but anything lower will freeze)
Hard Disk:
Standby Time - 15min and 10min
Advanced Power Management - Enable Spin Down (1)
Monitor HDD is checked
Don't Monitor if runs on batteries is checked
Do I need to enable custom dynamic switching?
Thanks in advance,
soda
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2disbetter
New Member
57 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2006 : 22:06:47
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that sopunds like a great idea, thanks for the tip.
I noticed since I enabled Hibernate, that there are two options for the configuring power managment to standby/power button:
1) power button
2) sleep button
So is the sleep option essentially a 2nd button press option? ie after I have pressed pwoer button to go to standby...if I press it again I could go to hibernate?
SJ
[/quote]
I'm not sure about your power settings, but to hibernate you generally have to click on shutdown from the start menu. Then holding shift, stand by will turn into hibernate.
Incase you didn't know that. |
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UnLoGiC
Junior Member
Sweden
345 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 19:38:42
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I'm abit curious, how many of you P1510 users here on the forum are undervolting the CPU and which values are you using?
P1510 (60GB,1GB,BT,XPT), Portreplicator, Lacie USB DVD-RW |
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jenks228
Starting Member
13 Posts |
Posted - 11/28/2006 : 19:06:13
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Anyway to reduce the heat?
I am using this NHC program and see most of the time, the CPU speed is 600MHz. However, the lifebook is still pretty hot.
I previously owned P1120 which has never heat problem but of course 1120's performance sucks.
Any idea?
Thanks,
Michael |
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bigjohn
Junior Member
361 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2006 : 00:20:20
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jenks,
If you undervolt, you will see a heat reduction, vs stock voltage at the 600 speed.
Less voltage at the multipliers should result in reduced heat. My Panny W2 is much cooler after I undervolted it, same as my U101 in the old days. My P arrives Thursday, will wing it out.
Also, this topic from Nigel is great at getting performance out of our small machines-
http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8981
jv |
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jkim
Junior Member
USA
161 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2006 : 10:22:03
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| Has anyone tried this on the p1610? |
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CommanderData
Starting Member
48 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2006 : 11:54:22
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quote:
Originally posted by jkim
Has anyone tried this on the p1610?
I have done some experiments with NHC and RMClock on my P1610. Apparently, Intel thinks they know what is better for us with the Core Solo line... They have them locked so that you cannot go below a certain voltage (0.9375V). On the P1610 the entire voltage range consists of 4 steps from 0.9375V at the low end to 0.9750V at the high end. At best, you might save 0.0375V if you can undervolt 1.2GHz at 0.9375V.
As for other the other suggestions that are listed... Disabling unused hardware can help but it can also be a pain in the @ss if you need something semi-frequently. You should definitely go through and disable any unneeded start-up programs or services to keep the CPU usage lower.
A quick tip that I noticed helps out is to reduce the transmit power of your wireless. Open your Atheros client utility, go to "Profile Management" and modify your default profile (click "Modify"). Now select the "Advanced" tab and pick a new transmit power for B/G and A wireless. Drop them as low as you want but keep in mind that your weaker signal may not reach a distant wireless access point even if you can see it. I put B/G and A all the way down to 10mw transmit power, and can use my wireless almost anywhere in the house still. I find this is a good compromise so that you can still use wifi while extending your battery life.
I have some bits of code that I am playing with to extend battery life further on the P1610. Once my workload dies down a bit maybe I can polish it up and post it.
If anyone has extra tips/tricks to extend battery life of the P1610 I'd like to hear about it! Maybe there will be some additional things I can automate in my test program.
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jkim
Junior Member
USA
161 Posts |
Posted - 12/24/2006 : 21:46:51
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| thanks for that tip regarding the wireless.. |
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schick
Starting Member
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 04:39:32
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| Does anyone know if NHC is compatible with Vista? |
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jkim
Junior Member
USA
161 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 13:14:16
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Here's a warning re: NHC
I've used NHC on several different laptops now. I notice that when the CPU is clocked down, the fan doesn't run as often - hence, the HD gets very hot. I've even run into some overheating issues and I'm guessing that it's because the fan depends on the CPU settings. So, if I run the CPU at max, the fan runs often and keeps the HD cool. |
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toddm
Junior Member
134 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 19:46:14
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Try SpeedFan. On supported systems it allows you to control the fans. This should allow you to compensate for the problems you're seeing.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php |
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scth83
Starting Member
4 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2007 : 01:03:55
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quote:
Originally posted by schick
Does anyone know if NHC is compatible with Vista?
It doesn't. I try it on Vista Ultimate. Each time I run NHC, it shows error and blue screen and reboot itself. >"< |
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MilanoRex
Starting Member
24 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2007 : 03:56:28
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| The newest beta works fine with vista on my 1510! |
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2disbetter
New Member
57 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2007 : 12:19:41
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one thing about these tips. They are good, but still messing with cpu voltage is just really not necessary. It is dangerous, despite how many people have good luck with it. Believe it or not the engineers who designed your lifebook knew what they were doing.
Secondly for anyone planning on having their lifebook for a longer period of time should consider not causing your hard drive to park every 3 minutes (or whatever you set it too). While this does help save juice it also quickens your hard drives going faulty. 10-15 minutes is probably a smarter choice, as if you are not using your lifebook for longer you shoudl hibernate or stand by it. Both are superior to hdd spin down.
2d
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toddm
Junior Member
134 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2007 : 16:34:13
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| You might be correct about spinning down the hard drive, I don't know, but lowering CPU voltage should not going negatively affect the lifetime of the processor. The engineers chose the voltage that allowed the best combination of yields, clock speed, etc. but some chips yield better than others and you're taking advantage of that if you're able to under volt and still have a stable system. |
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Topic |
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Tips for extending battery Life 4.5 Hours plus!
