# Laptop Battery Life



## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

In a few months I will be purchasing my first laptop, I’d like to pay off the remaining $800 on my desktop first, before I drop another $2.5K+ on a computer. Next time Best Buy has 12 months no financing I’ll order it, since I doubt they’ll offer 24 months again anytime soon, like I got on this computer. I know it will depend on what I’m doing, but on average how long can a battery go before recharging. I’d like to make a decision on whether or not to buy an extra 12 Cell Lion battery for $74 when I build it. The processor will be a P4 HT 3.0+ GHz, and I’ll have the WiFi turned on most of the time (always looking or unsecured wireless networks), bluetooth will be off. I know with my iPaq, WiFi chews up battery life, but if I have both WiFi and BT activated, the battery is drained really fast, and at the present time I have no use for Blueooth. At home I’ll probably have it plugged in, but on the go I’ll be using it as a mobile DVD player/burner, word processing and internet.


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## BFG (Jan 23, 2004)

My battery only lasts 15 minutes, but I think there's something wrong with mine.


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## BuckeyeChris (Apr 20, 2004)

If you are looking to conserve battery power, go with the Intel M chips. These have WiFi integrated into them and conserve power much better than the P4 chips, which suck energy and can get very hot. 

I have a Dell Inspiron with a P4 2.6ghz chip and an internal 802.11 G adapter. I use the WiFi all the time and still can get two hours easily from my battery.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Steve, I'm still getting 2½-3 hrs on my almost two-year old battery (2003 Compaq laptop). Today's batteries are better and 4-7 hrs can be expected, depending. Power management is the key. My goal is to have enough batt life to fly across the country while watching two 2-hr movies. :grin: 

If you plan to keep your LT /ON as you travel around, I would suggest spending the extra $$ on a mobile power adapter to plug in to your vehicle's 12v power receptacle. OTOH, if most of your mobile usage will be away from an external power source, then get the 2nd battery. Tweak your LT power management utility settings to your personal usage profile (PUP), reduce screen brightness, minimize D drive usage, shorten HDD spin-down delay setting, and keep LT well-ventilated to minimize cooling fan usage. It's the mechanical devices that suck battery life.

Tip: When swapping LT batteries, plug into external power (AC/DC) if possible to avoid the necessity of power-down/reboot. Plan ahead. 

Finally, invest in a high-quality carry-case (Staples, Office Depot) with plenty of pockets and ample storage space. With all the disks, movies, PCMCIA cards (I have 3), adapters, dongles, dangles and dingles, you will be glad you listened to the voice of experience. The inside of my case resembles a small Radio Shack. Later, if your case becomes too burdensome, consider getting one with wheels.

Good luck & let me know if I can help. You have my number.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

BuckeyeChris said:


> If you are looking to conserve battery power, go with the Intel M chips. These have WiFi integrated into them and conserve power much better than the P4 chips, which suck energy and can get very hot...


Excellent strategy, Chris. A mobile chip w/ integrated wifi will be my next choice.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

Lithium ion is the only battery that can safely be stored without a charge. It is the slowest draining battery when not in use and provides the most power for the weight. It is the only battery where no special care is necessary. There is no worry about overcharging, as the charger must prevent this with lithium batteries. It is the ideal battery for many products. Lithium's drawback is its life is fixed. If you charge the battery 3 or 4 times or 500 times, sometime between 2 and 10 years the battery will go dead. Sometimes these batteries will appear to be dead, but just have a "hiccup" Before you dispose of the battery, try to find someone that can charge your battery on Their charger, this sometimes brings them back.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

BuckeyeChris said:


> If you are looking to conserve battery power, go with the Intel M chips. These have WiFi integrated into them and conserve power much better than the P4 chips, which suck energy and can get very hot.
> 
> I have a Dell Inspiron with a P4 2.6ghz chip and an internal 802.11 G adapter. I use the WiFi all the time and still can get two hours easily from my battery.


I agree. We've got a couple of 600Ms and easily get 2 hrs. of battery life. The last Dell laptop we got was less than $1K.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Steve- some tips from one who uses 3 laptops now regularly and has owned quite a few over the past 10 years.

But first, make sure you get the Best Buy Reward Zone card before you buy that $2500 purchase. You'll get a bunch of gift cirtificats in about 2 months.

Battery life. With a 2.4 Ghz or better expect about 90 minutes on a 12- 14.4 volt LiIon with DVD running. If you don't absolutely need it, don't go for the 1 G ram and stick to .5 G. Operate the screen at reduced brightness when inside as that will help on burn time. My older 1.3 Ghz Athlon burned for 2hr 15 minutse with DVD player. And it got hot so I have switched to Pentiums that can work on the "lap top" without burning your legs like the athlon. One of my laptops is a wide screen 3.2Ghz with 1 G Ram and uses a 120 watt charger. The battery runs for about 75 minutes. The one I travel with is a standard screen Compaq with a 2.4 Ghz and 0.5 G ram. Batteries last 90 min to 2 hours. I own 4 Li Ion batteries I carry in my roller case. I am prepared to travel all day on batteries this way. I can edit video with this package and I have two USB 2.0 microdrives 7200 RPM 80 G's that also suck power. Running these reduces the battery life to about 50 minutes on the travel laptop. 
Bottom line, I would recommend having a second Li Ion battery spare minimum. More if you typically need to go all day and are not sure about having power.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Don't forget about the external flat batteries that plug into the power input port.

Great way to cover the need while switching the internal battery.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Thanks for the comments guys, looks like I'd be looking at 90 or so minutes battery life, so I'll defiantly be adding the extra battery and probably a cigarette lighter adaptor.

The Pentium M is pretty much out of the question for me. The M is available only on lower end systems with smaller scenes, integrated video and/or XP Home only. Here's what I'm looking at will end up getting unless HP changes the line up around between now and then.

Compaq Presario X6000
-Intel Pentium 4 HT @ 3.0 GHz 
-1.0 GB DDR2 SDRAM
-80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
-256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X600
-DVD+/-RW/R DL & CD-RW Combo
-Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
-17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1680x1050)
-Extra 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery 
-Windows XP Professional SP2

Standard Features include

-1 Type I & II PC card slot 
-CardBus enabled 
-4 USB 2.0 ports 
-Firewire Port
-S-video TV-out port 
-6-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader 


Total $1945+ 8.25% tax

As with all my PCs I'm looking for power and I always told my self my first notebook would be a desktop replacement machine, not a thin and light weight machine. Battery conservation isn’t a high priority, just something I was thinking about. The Reward Zone completely slipped my mind, Thanks Don. Nick, what carrying case did you get? Never really thought about it, but I like being organized, I'll have CDs, DVDs, SD cards on me. And between my cell phone, PDA, keys, wallet, change and a few flash drives it's hard to get my pants to stay up.  Would be nice to have a carrying case that would also accommodate my iPaq and flash drives.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Carrying case depends on mode of travel-

I like the self contained roller cases for a complete mobile office when traveling distance, night in the hotel, airport etc. I also have a few small bags that hold a few files, pens and two spare batteries, a few cards, an ether net cable and phone cable (Targus) but mostly simple for tossing in the car on local travel. 

Steve, another great tip I use here is to go to walmart cosmetic dept and buy those zippered clear vinyl pouches. I have several made up for , Printer (BJC85 accessories), one for my IPAQ GPS stuff. One for misc mouse batteries and other stuff. I grab the appropriate bag and put it in the roller case as needed. 

You mentioned 1 G ram. I don't know what apps you are running but I run typically, Vegas video editor, Inscriber character generator, Sound Forge, and Photoshop all launched with 0.5G. I discovered some extra battery life by lowering the ram. Found I just didn't need the additional 0.5G for most of my travel needs. At home I may also open Outlook, and 3-4 instances of IE so 1 G serves well for convenience.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

The most intensive applications I'll be using are Dreamweaver and Flash for my on again/off again web design hobby. Dreamweaver is a resource hog. Even on this machine, Pentium 4 3.2 GHz with 1.0 GB PC3200 DDR RAM I occasionally get hiccups and processor and memory usage spikes. Doesn’t’ help much with Winamp going and a few windows of Yahoo News and Fox News open that auto refresh every few minutes.  Usually I like to keep Outlook open, but now I save resources and have Pocket Outlook check for new email every minute, if it's important I'll open it up on the desktop and download the message.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Steve:
*NO NO NO NO*

For gawd's sake do NOT buy a Compaq or HP - PLEASE! they are *JUNK!*

Toshiba is decent, and there's a VERY few others - Dell comes to mind. I've had decent luck building Acers for my few customers that demand we custom-build for them. We send everybody else to Toshiba. We have had NO complaints or failures.

OTOH, I've got 3-4 dead HP/Compaqs in the shop that are not economical to fix, and HP/Compaq warranty service is a JOKE.

BTW - I'm a HP dealer, I know from whence I speak.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Toshiba and Dell are garbage from first hand experience. They do not last well at all.

I'd recommend - Apple (unless you're a gamer, Apple's are my number one recommendation, especially for laptops thanks to the beautiful networking and superior battery life at a very reasonable price), Sony (overpriced but excellent), and HP/Compaq (good lower budget Windows systems)

"Dreamweaver is a resource hog."

I think it's likely just not ported to Windows well (the Macromedia programs were designed initially for Mac from what I understand), Dreamweaver MX 2004 runs great on my 1GHz iBook G4. Some slowdowns but never anything major. Usually with iTunes and Safari and Mail.app in the background.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Simon, while I respect your opinion and position, I have been using Compaqs for the past 6 years, two desktops, three printers and a PDA, totaling over $6K in costs and have no intention of getting anything different. I’m a kind of a guy that likes to stick with one brand, and if I get screwed I won’t support the company anymore and so far I haven’t got screwed. A friend of mine has a nearly the exact same laptop as I’ll have, but with an AMD processor instead of Intel. He has had it for 9 months so far IIRC, and has no problems, the 17” high rez widescreen display is killer.

I've only needed their tech support a hand full of times, mostly on my older computer when I first got it, most of the issues were operating system related. Going from Windows 3.1 to WIN98 was a big jump for me. I’ve used their warranty service three times, once for fried speakers (purchased with system so they were under warranty also), once for a wireless keyboard replacement warranty service and the most recent time a few weeks ago for my PDA. I accidentally left my iPaq in my truck over night during -15 degree temps, thing wouldn't boot up completely, in less then 20 minutes on the phone I had a repair pick up scheduled. Called Monday, box came Wednesday, sent it back same day from an Office Max, Saturday morning I get home and it's back on my door step, fully repaired, no charges. No joke there.  

Re Apple- If I wanted a fruit I’d go to a supermarket. I’m Windows only, you should know that by now.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

No problems with Compaq here - had two.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

I have 2 HP's and 2 Compaq's. One is broke but that was because two security guards startled me at the airport and caused me to drop it to the floor and it killed the LCD screen! So, I use it as a spare battery charger now. 

Everythime I think I'm ready for a new laptop, I first look to Sony Vaio's because they are well known great for multimedia. But in a store shootout, I seem to end up with an HP/Compaq, now for the 4th time because they have just been better cost vs. performance and features. My wife has the oldest HP which is the 1.3Ghz athlon. My only complaint on that one was the excessive heat but I rebuilt the hard drive content for her use and it has performed without fail for her on the road as she mostly uses a word processor and excel SS plus e-mail. I warned her about using it as a "LAP top" so she wouldn't burn her legs. My other two work very well as video editing platforms and I often set them up here in the house for render stations since they are quite fast with video editing and rendering on Vegas or DVD rendering. No crashes, no conflicts and my travel Compaq 2.4 Ghz switches from ethernet to T-Mobile Sierra card to wifi PCMCIA card with out issue. My bigger HP is a wide screen and it is mostly used pool side with 802.11G internal or ethernet and a 2.0 USB PCMCIA card for extra hard drives as it was purchased before USB 2.0 came out. It is a 3.2 Ghz Pentium with 1G ram. I rarely run it on battery. It has a super bright screen and makes it work fine in brite FL sun by the pool. That is my favorite place to edit and work. 

I wish I had a Vaio laptop to compare but I don't. The HP's and Compaq's are not junk. The two I use heavily, the one for a year before I broke the screen at the airport and my Wife's HP athlon all have performed very well and have made me a ton of money in my business! 

In the studio- I use Desktops that ARE Sony Vaios and never tried an HP desktop. The price point of the desktop Vaios were just too competitive with HP to think about going with the HP. Sony often has some nice rebates as well as better multimedia interfacing than HP's used to have. 

I'd say, unless you're in the habit of dropping your laptop on the floor, the HP's and Compaq's should do well for you.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

I'm happy you guys have had exceptional luck with those P.O.S.s.

All I can do is report what I see. My first experience with Compaq customer non-support was when they tried to rip off one of my customers for $500 to replace a HDD in her laptop. Get that - 500 frelling dollars! 

I told her a new drive was like $180 (it was back when HDDs were costly). Opened the box, checked the HDD - it was still under manufacturer's warranty. Net cost to customer, $50 labor to do the RMA and reload software.

Want more horror stories, I've got them.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Simple Simon- Admittesly, I haven't had to deal with their service center except in a way you did in that example. They did want $1100 for a new LCD screen which was crazy since I pnly paid that much for the whole computer. But the CSR said I should try their lease back inventory and gave me the number. I bought a replacement computer from them that nearly matched my broken one for $550. Since the on line LCD supply house (don't recall the URL) wanted $600 for a screen I decided to just buy a leaseback with full new warranty. That is the one I've now been using for about 18 months. In case anyone was wondering this lease back section is where people have HP's on lease and return them. They are factory re-furbished and sold through this section with like new warranty. The other thing was I was able to swap out the leaseback CD drive for my broken machine's DVD drive, Ram too and then I ended up with another spare battery and power supply. The only thing I couldn't swap out easily was the new machine didn't have built in wifi so I lost that feature. If you are a dealer, you must know about this program. I know Computer Rennaisance buys loads of these for resale here in Jacksonville, but their prices are appropriately marked up from buying direct. 

The one good thing about owning a set of laptops from the same manufacturer, is that I have swappable spare parts. In the same class machine the parts are interchangeable. When I figure the cost of a new machine, I consider my stock of spare parts as well.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

" I’m Windows only, you should know that by now."

I pretty much was too, until I bought the iBook because the battery life and durability were too hard to pass up. 6 hrs rated, I see over 5 normally, 4-5 in heavy use. Now I wouldn't use anything else...

But with laptops, the Apple really is much more portable. They've got insane battery life, they're lightweight, and very durable. And they're some of the only laptops with good graphics chipsets at the low price range.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

BuckeyeChris said:


> If you are looking to conserve battery power, go with the Intel M chips. These have WiFi integrated into them and conserve power much better than the P4 chips, which suck energy and can get very hot.
> 
> I have a Dell Inspiron with a P4 2.6ghz chip and an internal 802.11 G adapter. I use the WiFi all the time and still can get two hours easily from my battery.


The Pentium 4 M and the Celeron M based off the Pentium 4 M do not have built in wifi in the processor. I own 3 laptops 2 P4 -M and a Celeron 4 M all use MINIPCI wifi which is a separate card put plugs into mini pci slot on the mother board.

Centrino is not a processor either like some like to be but a intel standard intel states what type of processor and what mother board chipset and what mini pci wifi card the laptop maker must have in the laptop to get the Centrino Sticker.

But the P4/Celeron - M processors do use less power than the typical P4/Celeron4 processor .

Mini PCI cards are a some what new format that been out for a couple of years. Mainly used for new wifi cards. Which allows power to be turned on and off to the wifi card by the press of a button. On my HP i even have a light for it when it on or off my dell does not have a light but there is a on/off button for the mini pci wifi card.

But on the issue of the Battery Life I get 3 hours of life with this new HP laptop but that is with Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 which is battery killer. * aircards are for data transfer from you celluar provider. But with out the aircard and just 802.11B/G I get 4 to 4 /12 hours.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

SimpleSimon said:


> Steve:
> *NO NO NO NO*
> 
> For gawd's sake do NOT buy a Compaq or HP - PLEASE! they are *JUNK!*
> ...


I own a couple of HP laptops nothing wrong here. I know people who had theres for 6 plus years with out issues.

I also use Dell and Apple laptops on a constant daily business.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

SimpleSimon said:


> I'm happy you guys have had exceptional luck with those P.O.S.s.
> 
> All I can do is report what I see. My first experience with Compaq customer non-support was when they tried to rip off one of my customers for $500 to replace a HDD in her laptop. Get that - 500 frelling dollars!
> 
> ...


Simple Simon,

All computer companies rip you off for replacement parts. I have friends who work for shopws that are authorized HP and Dell and Gateway and Apple ( Apple shop is a separate place) Anyway I have access to there Tech site for Dell and Gateway and I have a copy of the HP replacement part book. with items numbers It doesnt matter which company you are with. Best thing to do wait for some one to clearlence the times out.

Dell motherboard for Inspiron 6000 ( pretty new still being sold) 420 dollars now if I were willing to buy 10 of them at a damn time the price goes down to 134 per board according to the dell site.

Or my favorite is the 70 dollar inverter board for the lcd. You seem to like to HP bash when they are really not doing anything other than what every other computer company happens to do.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

The weakest point on most laptops is the ac plugin. I've got an old Toshiba that had the cord bumped and broke the connection inside the case. Had it fixed once for $180, then the second time I bought used case I could change over the hd, memory, etc. with. Right now I have a Dell sitting here from my sister's boy friend that I am going to pick up a port replicator for. Hopefully the half of the ac plug receiver that isn't there anymore fell out of the case.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

to summerize, all computers are pos. buy Bamboo


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## BuckeyeChris (Apr 20, 2004)

stonecold said:


> The Pentium 4 M and the Celeron M based off the Pentium 4 M do not have built in wifi in the processor. I own 3 laptops 2 P4 -M and a Celeron 4 M all use MINIPCI wifi which is a separate card put plugs into mini pci slot on the mother board.
> 
> Centrino is not a processor either like some like to be but a intel standard intel states what type of processor and what mother board chipset and what mini pci wifi card the laptop maker must have in the laptop to get the Centrino Sticker.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info. My Dell has a 1300 Mini PCI WiFi card in it, but there is no button to turn it on or off. Not unless I go into the software settings to turn the radio feature off; though there is an amber light that indicates WiFi activity on the rear of laptop next to the ethernet plug in connector. What gives?


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

You might want to look closer (or read the manual) - I've never seen a laptop that didn't have either a Fn-key or a slide switch to instantly kill the WiFi.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

"You might want to look closer (or read the manual) - I've never seen a laptop that didn't have either a Fn-key or a slide switch to instantly kill the WiFi."

The iBook and PowerBook - it's a task accomplished by clicking the signal meter in the menu bar, then "turn AirPort off" (or on). Much nicer in my opinion.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

The funny thing is not all dell's put a kill the wifi button on all there laptops with built in wifi. like mine has it but my friends who has a newer one does not have kill button like mine does but a function buttion like his is fn+f9 .... I do like this hp as the button ins the the front below the wifi light. While it the light does not show activity if the wifi is conecting and working it does turn on and off with the wifi.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

MarkA said:


> "You might want to look closer (or read the manual) - I've never seen a laptop that didn't have either a Fn-key or a slide switch to instantly kill the WiFi."
> 
> The iBook and PowerBook - it's a task accomplished by clicking the signal meter in the menu bar, then "turn AirPort off" (or on). Much nicer in my opinion.


 Well of course - Steve-O doesn't want you to disconnect from his mind-control devices - after all, what else could cause anyone to buy an Apple computer? :lol: :rolling:


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Thanks Simon for spelling it right, Steve-o, quite a few people actually call me that, but spell it Stevo, go figure


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