Batt time on new laptop

[protoplatapus]

Ok, tried to post this thread right after registering, but it didnt post after a few hours of waiting: anyways:

I have a brand new Compaq AMD turion 64 2ghz laptop, nvidia 6150 GPU, 1 gig ram, 80 gig HDD. I only get 60 - 100 minutes of battery life. The system says the battery is in good condition. For my computer, is this an OK battery life? My biggest concern is that when Best buy went to set it up for me (using the wrong name for the admin account at that) they just plugged it in and went with it, it didnt get a 100% change until the next day. When on battery power I use power savings mode that is set to 50% cpu and 40% display brightness. Also I have a wireless B/G built in, and use that exclusivly for internet on a wireless router that is never more than 10 feet away (so I cant imagine that to be a problem). Anyways, is my system holding its own on power usage, or is the battery possibly bad?

[wh666-666]

Ive got a very similar computer. A HP pavillion dv8000 series laptop (laptop 1 in sig). Mine is a AMD turion 64 ml-37 2ghz cpu as well and the battery life isnt great. We appear to have similar systems in some parts.

First thing, when laptops first arrive the batteries are never fully charged. A 14hr charge before use is advised. Also modern batteries are different to old ones, with older batterries it was better to let them run flat and then fully recharge. With newer batteries like in both of our systems for battery life overall its best to let them run half charge and then charge them. The thing is batteries are the only thing not usually covered on warranties.

AMD's eat in to the battery alot more than lets say an intel m cpu from experience. Ive got an ati 200m gpu and youve got a nice gpu card there as well, another thing that eats in to battery reserves especially if your doing something graphical on battery power.

Ive had this laptop for just over a year. I run xp home 64bit and in the very first place my battery life was pathetic until i downloaded speedswitch. Works very nicely with the amd cpu. Basically it alters the stepping of your cpu for if your on AC or battery for performance or battery life. My battery life between charges got alot better and im still using it one year later with no problems at all. Download linky below, give it a try, far better than XP power management.

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/

[wh666-666]

PS: Dont worry about posts or threads not showing for a while when submitted. To inhibit trolls, warlocks, etc etc, there is a moderation queue for newer users or posts that may contain certain keywords. Dont worry its just so we dont become overflown with spam, a mod will OK a comment as soon as they can :)

[Learux]

The battery needs to go trough a few cycles before optimal times are reached.

Charge/discharge five times and then post back, too early to tell if your battery is faulty or not.

Learux

[protoplatapus]

Well Vista has a good system built in that will limit the CPU % of speed and allows for about 30 different options for power managment, which can be saved as power profiles, so I dont think speedstep will improve anything. Thanx for the help tho.
Also, I have heard that cycling a Li-ion battery is really really bad for its longevity, I plan to never drop it below 40%(the storage level for one) except once in everywhile, since running it dry helps reset power level detection (same for cellphones). Ill look into the full 5 cycle thing, dont want to kill the battery too early on ;)

But anyways, the question was answered, someone with almost identical hardware has the same crappy battery life as I do, so i guess that solves it (well sorta).

[Nick_B]

I have a DV8000 almost exactly like wh666-666's. I get an hour to an hour and a half of battery life depending on what I'm doing. I don't bother to use the thing without plugging it in.

If you want decent battery life, you need a more mobile laptop and not a desktop replacement type of deal. I have a tc4200 tablet from HP that gets four to five hours of battery life from the system battery and with a travel battery stretches to nearly ten hours--and is still more portable than the gigantic DV8000.

[proxops-pete]

My Compaq R3000z with A64 3400+ (2.2 GHz) goes for about 1.5 hours of video time.

Consider undervolting as well. My CPU at stock gets 1.45V @ 2.2 GHz. I can run just fine @ 1.25V. :) And in battery mode, by using RightMark Clock Utility (http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml) to do so and use even lower mutlipliers to save battery life!

[wh666-666]

I have a DV8000 almost exactly like wh666-666's. I get an hour to an hour and a half of battery life depending on what I'm doing. I don't bother to use the thing without plugging it in.

If you want decent battery life, you need a more mobile laptop and not a desktop replacement type of deal. I have a tc4200 tablet from HP that gets four to five hours of battery life from the system battery and with a travel battery stretches to nearly ten hours--and is still more portable than the gigantic DV8000.


Yea it is pretty big!!

Can i just ask nick, do you have alot of hardware problems with yours? Ive just had mine for just over a year and its got fault all over the place including power connectors, keyboard/mouse, speaker grill, hdd, etc etc. Just wondering whether its just mine or everybody else finds loads of problems as well?

[Nick_B]

Yea it is pretty big!!

Can i just ask nick, do you have alot of hardware problems with yours? Ive just had mine for just over a year and its got fault all over the place including power connectors, keyboard/mouse, speaker grill, hdd, etc etc. Just wondering whether its just mine or everybody else finds loads of problems as well?

It was a replacement for another 17" model that died three or four times--they replaced it because the model was discontinued. While this one hasn't died, I'm not at all impressed. The power connector is complete crap--finally bought an AC adapter from radioshack that will stay plugged in. I blame the the jack on the laptop--I have 2 other laptops that use the exact same adapter and they stay plugged in without an issue. I also get random errors from the default install that I believe were hardware based, but could be software.

Honestly, I don't use it much. It replaced a crappier model, so I was just happy that Windows would boot consistently. I'd never recommend somebody buy one.