linux_challenged Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi all... I just purchased a long life battery for my dell i6400 lappie and have a question. I am dual booting xp pro and mandriva 2008.1 on this puter and there is a discrepancy regarding how much time is left under battery power. The windows side shows twice as much time left as the mandriva side. Is there a setting I need to adjust so that the time left is maximized? I don't want to have to switch back to the dark side just because of a faulty power indicator... thanx in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tux99 Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 (edited) Do you have frequency scaling enabled? open a konsole window and type the following 3 commands (each followed by enter/return): cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor and post the output here Edited March 7, 2009 by tux99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 (edited) 1. When on batteries make user your laptop uses the Powersave CPU frequency policy, as tux99 said, 2. Check which services are running (Mandriva Control Center -> System->Services). Stop and disable for good those that you don't use. In particular, turn off file indexing. 3, Turn off/disable bluetooth, fingerprint reader, etc. 4. Turn down the screen brigtness. Edit: run the powertop command and try the suggested improvements. Edited March 8, 2009 by coverup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linux_challenged Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Do you have frequency scaling enabled? open a konsole window and type the following 3 commands (each followed by enter/return): cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor and post the output here @tux99 thanx for your reply... following is the output for the three commands - they are in the order you indicated... 1733000 1333000 1067000 800000 acpi-cpufreq ondemand Please tell me what these responses are indicating - I am still in the learning curve phase with linux thanx again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tux99 Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 (edited) following is the output for the three commands - they are in the order you indicated... 1733000 1333000 1067000 800000 acpi-cpufreq ondemand Please tell me what these responses are indicating - I am still in the learning curve phase with linux The output you got looks good. The row of numbers is the frequencies your cpu supports (1.7Ghz, 1.3Ghz, 1.06Ghz and 800Mhz) and you have the acpi-cpufreq ondemand scaling active, which means your cpu should slow down to 800Mhz when idle (to use less power) and ramp up to 1.7Ghz when busy. What this tells me is that your battery life problem is not, due to non functioning cpu scaling, so the problem must be somewhere else. I'm wondering, have you actually tried out how long the battery lasts under Linux and under Windows, as in, fully charged it and then used the laptop continuously until the battery runs out of power while measuring the time with a watch? I'm wondering if it's just the indicator that's not correct or if in fact the laptop runs out of power quicker with Linux for some reason. This would be useful to know in oder to find the cause of the problem. Edited March 9, 2009 by tux99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linux_challenged Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 I haven't used the laptop under battery power until it actually dies but I am wondering if it will actually die or keep running until the battery is truly out of juice... I will try it tonite or tomorrow and post back with the results... thanx for your help!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linux_challenged Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 1. When on batteries make user your laptop uses the Powersave CPU frequency policy, as tux99 said, 2. Check which services are running (Mandriva Control Center -> System->Services). Stop and disable for good those that you don't use. In particular, turn off file indexing. 3, Turn off/disable bluetooth, fingerprint reader, etc. 4. Turn down the screen brigtness. Edit: run the powertop command and try the suggested improvements. I ran the powertop command and it came back with several suggestions - can I cut and paste the commands from the list into a terminal window? I have read several online articles but no indications of how to physically apply the suggestions. Cut and paste is more accurate for me :D I also went into MCC and checked that I didn't have anything running that isn't needed, so I am hoping the powertop suggestions help. I am also going to physically monitor the battery life as was suggested by tux99... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted March 15, 2009 Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 The best way would be to manually edit the scripts, in case something goes wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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