# power management

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by The Shuck Fitter (My name is Liam) on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 6:51:16

I'm going on a long train trip and I want to get the most out of my battery. I'm interested in seeing if there's a way to step down my processor. here's my specs for what it's worth.
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU
T7200 @ 2.00GHz
998 MHz, 0.99 GB of RAM
I don't feel like messing with the bios, so I'm wondering if I can dial it down in windows. I have a dell xps m1210 if maybe someone has ideas. I need to squeeze all the power out of this laptop I can. 29 hours is a long time on a train.

## Post 2 by fuzzy101 (The master of fuzz!!) on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 10:53:14

I can give you some basics.
Make sure program's you don't plan on using aren't running.
This also includes any wireless cards, and if you are a jaws user turning off the mouse.
Hope that helps.

## Post 3 by Dusty (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 14:35:04

Here is a list of all the suggestions I can think of in order to maximise your battery life. I apologise for the more obvious ones but they're the kind of thing I'd forget! Please also bear in mind that I don't use screen-readers so I don't know how to achieve some of these using Jaws etc; maybe you know or somebody else can suggest:
1. Have a look to see if your Dell has a range of power management profiles (I use Toshibas which do). If so, switch to the one called something like "Long-Life" or "Low Power" which will attempt to run on minimal power, shutting down any unnecessary systems
2. Disable the LCD panel
3. Avoid using any USB or externally-connected devices. In fact you can temporarily disable your USB host from within windows (My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager)
4. If you do close the laptop for a period, use Hibernate rather than Standby (which uses battery to maintain standby status) or Shut Down (which is energy-hungry both to shut down and startup again)
5. Switch off any radio devices (wifi, bluetooth, infrared etc)
6. Avoid use of your CD/DVD drive
7. After start-up, disable/shut down any programs you wont be using. This includes background programs and those that run intermittently. Anything you don't need from the task tray should be closed and you can hit control-alt-delete and cancel any processes you are sure you wont need. Also since you wont be online and if you're sure it's safe, disable antivirus and anti-spyware.
8. If it's possible (and affordable) buy a second battery!
I stand to be corrected by anybody who knows that some of these tips may interfere with Jaws. Oh, and don't forget to reverse all the steps you take once you're back on battery power! 29 hours *is* a long time on a train, but unless you buy another laptop (or can change the laws of physics, cap'n) you'll be spending most of it singing to yourself! lol

## Post 4 by jmbauer (Technology's great until it stops working.) on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 15:21:38

If you're taking Amtrak, I'd consider getting a train with bedroom cars and avoiding this problem. lol. Also, I'd suggest setting the hard disc to deactivate after a rather minimal amount of inactivity. Of course, this may be done in a power profile; it's been a while since I've needed to conserve notebook battery life.
Jim

## Post 5 by frequency (the music man) on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 19:48:52

yes. there are outlets by the seats as well. If you don't know if you can disable your monitor, feel for a tiny button that sticks up right almost under the screen. If you can tape that down, it'll turn the monitor off since it thinks the lid is closed. If there is none, the trigger is in the latch itself.

## Post 6 by jactac1111 (Generic Zoner) on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 20:21:44

i wouldn't know about that since i use a mac.

## Post 7 by The Shuck Fitter (My name is Liam) on Thursday, 20-Mar-2008 3:23:44

I'm hoping that I can get a power outlet, but if that fails. I've set thing thign to use the max battery power management preset. the button to switch off the monitor is inside the latch so that won't work unfortunately. Hopefully I won't even have to worry about this at all.
Liam

## Post 8 by Dusty (This site is so "educational") on Thursday, 20-Mar-2008 15:35:49

Just make sure that if you're going to try and fool the laptop into turning off the LCD that this doesn't trigger the shutdown function.
Oh and thanks for such a worthwhile and helpful post, jactac.

## Post 9 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 20-Mar-2008 22:33:06

a word of warning: Disabling your lcd screen internally (if the latch has the function to shut it down) is rather harmful to jaws since this also messes up the video intercepts. I am sure system query dependant screen readers like NVDA or the terrible Microsoft's narrator can get away with this one pretty easily. Something too I have done is to set the hard drives to turn off after a mnute and so when I listen to music all i have to do is put on my favorite playlist and close the lid. This will make your battery last for a bit over eight hours on some machines. Hybernation is a good technique so long as you have twice as much of your ram's space available on your hard drive. Good luck with that one.