PowerTOP for better battery consumption

tumblingthrough · 2016-07-20 15:25:28

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

The "power manager" in the systray sets the suspend/sleep and display options along with notifications and is not involved in saving battery life specifically.
How new is your laptop?
What is the CPU?

Thanks for getting back to me.

Laptop is around five years old, CPU I think is i5 2410M (though I'm not using the machine at the moment to write this), I'll double check when I get home.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-20 21:11:12

tumblingthrough wrote:

Laptop is around five years old

OK, support should be good then.

I have a similar vintage device and battery life for me is better under GNU/Linux than Windows, even without any special tools.

hhh · 2016-07-20 22:21:09

We are talking a gain of maybe just a few minutes to ten or twenty minutes on old hardware and/or old batteries. I didn't test, but the OP probably gave me another 15 minutes on my vintage-ish Thinkpad. At 3 hours or so max, every bit helps!

Ooo. I have a fresh install! Testing now, I'll post back in 6 or 7 hours. 6:24PM EDT, mark! *pulls plug, lovely notification appears*

hhh · 2016-07-21 00:43:04

Awful, just over two hours. I hope powertop helps a little.

martix · 2016-07-22 18:03:21

There is a tool called "powerstat", which may be helpful to find out how to configure the system for better battery consumption.

Generally the best thing for long usability on battery is a battery in good state (over 100-200 cycles the charging capacity will get lower and lower, according to my experiences over 400 cycles -> only 50-60% or less). An SSD drive, moderate CPU and low screen brightness are helpful. The tools above cannot do magic, but can be helpful to gain some more minutes. Old Thinkpads with i5 e.g. from the x200 or 201 series work up to ten hours with the best possible battery.

pvsage · 2016-07-23 05:45:26

martix wrote:

over 100-200 cycles the charging capacity will get lower and lower, according to my experiences over 400 cycles -> only 50-60% or less

Also, even a single "deep discharge" (less than 0.2C) will permanently reduce the battery's capacity; I found this out with my netbook. Ended up buying an aftermarket replacement with about twice the capacity of the original. An added bonus: The battery's additional bulk served as a foot at the back of the netbook, tilting the keyboard to a more ergonomic position and providing better airflow through the vents on the bottom. (Dell netbooks were designed with the battery at the center rear, so it made sense for the battery to be designed this way; don't know if this is the case for Thinkpads though.) I also remember an ancient Vaio that my father gave me when he upgraded; at the time, its battery capacity was <10 minutes and a replacement battery would have cost more than the laptop was worth.

I haven't owned a true laptop in a while, and I don't know if any of the utilities mentioned so far can diagnose the state of a battery's health, but it looks like sysfs can get this information: https://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/0 … -capacity/

@hhh: Depending on the health of your current battery, it might be time to get a new one.

martix · 2016-07-23 13:35:00

@pvsage That's a great way to check battery infos. The new battery icon also shows most of the data. Unfortunately

cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count

does not work on my machine, gives me "0". Otherwise tlp is great too for getting battery infos ("tlp-stat -b").

martix · 2017-06-19 18:00:33

This is interesting: After a test it turns out that batteries often last only half as long as manufacturers claim!

Does anyone maybe own a machine with 15-16 hours of battery time (surfing, watching movies, etc. - not only libreoffice writer)? Or even over 20 hours?

Last edited by martix (2017-06-19 18:02:15)

damo · 2017-06-19 20:50:42

martix wrote:

This is interesting: After a test it turns out that batteries often last only half as long as manufacturers claim!
Does anyone maybe own a machine with 15-16 hours of battery time (surfing, watching movies, etc. - not only libreoffice writer)? Or even over 20 hours?

The new M$ Surface lappy is claiming very long battery life of 14+h: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/micros … ace-laptop. Anyone running linux on it yet?

#21 2016-07-20 15:25:28

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#22 2016-07-20 21:11:12

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#23 2016-07-20 22:21:09

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#24 2016-07-21 00:43:04

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#25 2016-07-22 18:03:21

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#26 2016-07-23 05:45:26

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#27 2016-07-23 13:35:00

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#28 2017-06-19 18:00:33

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

#29 2017-06-19 20:50:42

Re: PowerTOP for better battery consumption

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