Vista and laptop batteries

[rebelo]

Hi there,

My current Sony Vaio laptop (VGN-SZ1M/B) has some neat power management in XP. I can stay writing at Word for 5 hours with everything else disabled (sound, lan, wlan etc). In Vista, I can't get to 3 hours, usually in 2h30 the battery is dead. Sony doesn't have the proper software yet and I personally doubt they will release new versions for Vista.

Please, do you guys know any thid-party application that could do a better power management than Vista itself? Because Vista looks like crap for a laptop user, batteries run out so quickly.

Thanks,

Rebêlo.

[Biohead]

I have the total opposite to say for Vista. I recently went back to XP since I didn't yet have a key for Vista, and my battery lasted a maximum of 150mins (2.5hours). That was everything disabled except from wlan.

In Vista, in Power Save mode, I can get about 4hours 15mins from my battery. Except thats with sound enabled, WMP playing frequently and constant wlan usage.

[fizban2]

rebelo, have you checked out the power features in vista? even setting them up like you had in XP you don't get the same preformance? vista should do considerably better then Xp power wise, i get an extra 45 min to 1:30 hr of battery time with Vista over XP

[cluberti]

The only thing you have to watch out for is wireless devices - they're set to "max performance" by default, and if your WAP supports it, they can be set to power saving modes and save a good chunk of battery time.

[rebelo]

Guys,

the way I see, the problem is not with Vista or XP, but with Sony's software. The Vaio Power Management in XP is **** good. It allows me to reduce the LCD brightness and that saves a lot of battery.

I cannot reduce LCD brightness in Vista, how can I do that? In Vista, I cannot disable with a single-click my soundcard, LAN and DVD drive- that also saves a lot of battery. If they are enabled, even if you don't use them, they consume a bit of battery.

Vaio Power Mgt in XP does a lot of things and is highly customizable. In Vista, I can't find even a mid-level of customizable options. My hotkeys buttons of Vaio (reduce brightness, sounds) don't work in Vista too...

According to Sony (official website), the VGN-SZ1M/B (my laptop) is Vista capable.

Thanks for any help.

[wfunction]

Guys,

In Vista, I cannot disable with a single-click my soundcard, LAN and DVD drive- that also saves a lot of battery.

Hi. I see. I have two solutions for you:

1. Have you checked out the processor power management and the indexing service in the advanced options in advanced power settings? They help a lot. Don't look at task manager for CPU usage - it doesn't seem to show it. However, it really does affect things - try putting a max of 50% for battery.

2. Out of the kindness of my heart , I may write a visual basic 2005 program (which I'll test to see if it works with vista) which will do all these for you, plus enable/disable devices. I may or may not do it (depending how hard it is), but if you want me to, I recommend PMing me so I'll know. (PS: Use it at your own risk!)

[Spooky]

maybe doesn't apply, but did you read http://www.msfn.org/comments.php?shownews=18957 ?

[rebelo]

Hi,

thanks for the tips. But it's not wireless related. As I said, main problem is that we have less customizable options. Even LCD Brightness, a truly basic thing for laptops, we can't manage it within Vista. And Vaio's software - even being "vista capable" does not work

I'll keep checking, thanks!

[Stead]

out of interest, doesn't the sony laptop have a function key for adjusting the lcd brightness? i've never used a sony laptop myself, but i've used a few from other brands and everyone of them has a lcd brightness button?

i've found that usually the function key and the up and down arrows adjust the brightness

[LLXX]

out of interest, doesn't the sony laptop have a function key for adjusting the lcd brightness? i've never used a sony laptop myself, but i've used a few from other brands and everyone of them has a lcd brightness button?

i've found that usually the function key and the up and down arrows adjust the brightness

That's the norm. My IBM ThinkPad can adjust the LCD brightness even with no OS installed, since it's controlled directly by keyboard -> hardware.

Default install of Vista will use more power than XP, since it has more services etc. running in the background which takes more CPU activity.

[rebelo]

the function keys of Vaio only works via software... and Vista does not identify these function keys. So, all functions keys (sound, brightness etc) are useless in Vista. It's really a mess.

[cluberti]

Default install of Vista will use more power than XP, since it has more services etc. running in the background which takes more CPU activity.

I've found Vista to do the complete opposite on my laptops and tablet PC's - however, my WAP supports the wireless card power features of Vista, so I do well there too, but Vista under it's lowest power setting runs for a good 4 - 5 hours on my Thinkpad X under regular use.

[uvmain]

The keyboard works fine for brightness etc on my gf's laptop.. make sure you have 'Extended Keyboard' rather than normal keyboard chosen in your localization/language settings

I find that the power management features are much better in Vista - go to

Control Panel>Power Options>Edit Power Options>Change Advanced Settings

There's a plethora of stuff to change

Hope this mat fix at least one of your problems!

If not.. Ah well, sony software sucks

I hate SonicStage, and I loved LikSang

[wfunction]

Uh, just a couple questions:

Did the laptop Processor Power Management help? I set it at 40% in Power Saver and switch whenever I need to.

Just out of curiousity, what is that program's name?

[N1K]

Just had an article on this issue yesterday..

LINK