[nd4spdbh]

Well i started messin round with the power profiles on my mini 9 and made up a super simple batch file that creates a power profile called "ultimate battery". that keeps the cpu at a constant lowest power state.

Reason i made this was because i noticed when doing normal little tasks (browsing the web, taking notes in class while chatting on aim...) where tons of cpu power wasnt needed that if there was a small spike in cpu usage speedstep would ramp up cpu speed and voltage, problem is those little spikes are very short and the speedstep lags behind, keeping the cpu at a higher frequency and voltage for much longer that was needed. (i wish speedstep was a little more agressive, in that it waited like 5 seconds of high cpu usage before ramping up... o well)

So what this profile does is use the "constant" throttle state when the cpu is on DC power, as defined by the /processor-throttle-dc option in powercfg. I also have it set to use a more normal adaptive throttling when its on AC power, adaptive allows speedstep to do its thing when being powered off ac.

Now when watching youtube vids or other cpu intensive stuff your obviously gonna have a performance hit and thus need to switch back to something like the "Minimal Power Management" power profile, but for normal use this profile does a good job of keepin the cpu locked at its lowest power setting. Does do quite a bit, using orthos to load the cpu and notebook battery info to monitor curent draw, running the cpu locked at its lowest draws ~ 580ma... running with "minimal power management" and thus adaptive cpu throttling current draw went up to 690-700ma, granted stuff will get processed slower, but for those short times that cpu usage spikes, the extra half second of waiting isnt gonna be noticed, but the extra battery life will :-P

So all ya do is download the attached zip file and run the batch file. Go ahead open it up on notepad, i swear its not doing n e thing other than creating a power profile. :-P

[xokeman]

I d'loaded it an am gonna try it out! thanks!

[nd4spdbh]

howd it work out for ya?

[SlvrScoobie]

why not just disable the speedstep in the bios?

[nd4spdbh]

Originally Posted by SlvrScoobie

why not just disable the speedstep in the bios?

because doing this makes the cpu run at max frequency and voltage all the time, thus not allowing you to downclock it within the os.

its definietly looking like im gettin more batery life ... ~30min more.

[DarkFox]

Kudos nd4spdbh.

Yup yup, I'm getting about 45 minutes more. Very nice

[Raxid]

I downloaded this and tried it on Windows 7 but the script wasn't compatible. Sure would be nice to save battery life when I can. I'll have to look into it some more. 45 minutes saved is alot!

[nd4spdbh]

Originally Posted by Raxid

I downloaded this and tried it on Windows 7 but the script wasn't compatible. Sure would be nice to save battery life when I can. I'll have to look into it some more. 45 minutes saved is alot!

If you could, could you open up the cmd prompt, type "powercfg /?" w/o the quotes and press enter, and take a print screen? so i can see what the options are in the win 7 powercfg.

@darkfox, dont ya love the royal / royal noir xp theme... makes everything look so nice.

EDIT - downloaded win 7 rc1 gonna install on some comp i have and see what powercfg has to say... then ill make a script for win7... although i dont see why the xp script wouldnt work in win 7 dont look like they have changed n e thing.

EDIT2 - Ya i installed windows 7 on my main rig to check out powercfg and its completely different unfortunately. I tried messing round with it but it has a very different way of handling profiles and cpu throttling.

[30secs]

Originally Posted by DarkFox

Kudos nd4spdbh.

Yup yup, I'm getting about 45 minutes more. Very nice

hey dude -- how do u get the pc to show time remaining? that's cool.

[DarkFox]

All I did was the bios update. Before the bios update all I got was a percentage, after update got percentage and time left.