17 AluPowerBook Battery Performance

[Wren]

I have been using my 17AluPB for the past several days and I love it. For basic internet surfing and word processing, I am getting about 2.5 or 3 hours on my Powerbook. Now this is not bad considering how big the screen is but the Apple ad suggests that the battery is good for 4.5 hours. Any feedback on other 17PB users is welcome. Suggestions on how to save energy? BTW.. for gamers this machine is INCREDIBLE!! I'm very happy with this computer so far.

 

[Kwyjibo]

much like all apple laptops, the max time is lower than the theoretical time apple gives.

Since your cocnerned with battery life, open the energy saver\. Optimize / Longest battery life. Also you need to keep the screen pretty dim like one two or three things. Also airport and things like that will cause extra battery drain. Other things to be considered are the illuminated keyboad, i'm sure that draws pwoer not alot but some.

 

[acj]

game battery life

I'm very currious: Have you used the computer enough to get an idea for battery life for strictly gaming, or strictly watching a DVD? These two things often drain the battery the worst, and are often where you want the most life!

I've only owned one laptop, and it was an old dell 366MHz machine. The battery lasted 4-5 hours when typing or just sitting around, but movie watching or gaming (which sucked) it went to under 2 hours! P4 Laptops are even worse!

 

[Wren]

No--- I don't use the PB without plugging it in with the adapter while I'm gaming. I've only watched DVD once and it was plugged in. So I would imagine, it would give me less than 2.5 or 3 hours. The Genius at the Apple Store recommended that I charge the battery ( 100%) ) and use it up until it's time to be recharged ( 23 % ), before I reccharge the battery again. Well, I should not complain, I know someone who hates his 16 Sony Vaio Laptop cuz he only gets 45 minutes. Ha Ha!

 

[FlamDrag]

I've been pleased with my battery performance so far. I edited in FCE for about an hour unplugged and didn't have any problems. I ALWAYS run at 'max performance' on my powerbooks. I just comprimise in the following ways.

Battery Saving tips:

1. Turn your screen brightness as low as you can tolerate. This is also healthy for your screen.

2. Keyboardbacklight - sucks the life out of my battery, maybe yours too? Turn this suker off if you can.

3. Turn off AirPort if you're not using it.

4. Turn off Bluetooth if you're not using it.

5. If you're thinking for a second - get in the habit of dimming the screen all the way down.

6. Sleep if you think for too long - waking up doesn't take much time on this machine.

7. Turn off the sound if you're not using it.

8. Turn off any dock animations (including magnification) to save CPU cycles - this is just a theory.

9. Don't plug in more USB devides than you have to. If you're not using your powermate, unplug it from the USB port.

10. In general, don't make your machine think more than it really needs to.

5.

 

[Over Achiever]

I've had the computer for six days now, and I've been running CPU intensive tasks (Folding at home brings me to 100% CPU)

Battery life is on average 1 hour, 50 minutes or so, after calibrating my battery several times.

So i'd say it gets about 2 hours for 100% CPU tasks, which I think is pretty darn good.

Settings:
Screen two ticks from full brightness, processor downclocked to 666 MHz, L3 cache turned off, disk spun down when possible. 100% CPU usage



So with a dim screen and the processor not downclocked, i think getting 2 hours is reasonable...