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Wifi PowerManagement in Linux

post #1 of 7
10/15/05 at 10:18pm
Thread Starter 
hey, i just installed breezy on my 6000 and it runs very nicely. however, i have noticed that the battery doesnt last as long as it does under windows, and it also gets hotter. at first, i thought this was just because i was undervolting in windows and not in kubuntu, but hte difference was too big for that to be the case.

Anyway, i opened 'er up and found the wifi chip right on top of the place that got really hot. at first i thought it mustve been something else, but i removed it and there was nothing under it. Im pretty sure its the problem here, and it is surprising cause that part of the laptop hardly ever gets hot under windows. when using breezy, it is the hottest part of the notebook.

has anyone else noticed abnormal amounts of heat coming out of their wifi chips, and is there any way to control it?
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post #2 of 7
10/16/05 at 12:10pm
hmmmm....i've never noticed that in my 9300. gotta check it out.
Also, have you guys tried playing some music on yr laptop speakers ?
I tried it on mine, and it SUCKS !! I dont think they're using all 3 of my speakers in stereo.
using XMMS btw.
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post #3 of 7
10/16/05 at 12:58pm
nev_neo ... probably using just 2 speakers.


as for heat, yeah its normal that it gets a bit hotter under linux and that the battery dies just that much faster. Make sure you have speedstep installed and working, it should resolve most of your heat and battery issues. Hell, i suggest you install gtk-cpuspeedy so taht you can control the speed via a mouse click rather than terminal (unless the gnome CPU speed applet works for you, it doesn't for me for some reason). at any rate....i noticed some other issues with my wireless (such as occasional signal drops) but never really heat related issues
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post #4 of 7
10/16/05 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 
well hte headphone sound quality sucks for me in both windows and linux, so i think its a hardware problem. thats only when its at higher than 75% volume though. still, dell should pay attention to this kind of stuff.

that sucks that its not using your sub though, i dont have one so i cant test it out.
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post #5 of 7
10/16/05 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
abf, i use kde and according to the ksysguard, my cpu scales up and down automatcially the same way it does with windows. i actually disabled standby support in kde, and now standby works by using fn+esc.

also, i was watchcing my battery ussage and when i disabled wifi, it made very little difference. battery life isnt just a little shorter, im getting 1-2 hours less. does undervolting really make that big of a difference?
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post #6 of 7
10/16/05 at 3:59pm
hmm..wow. for me in windows i get about 2 hours, in linux maybe 10 to 15 minutes less. (not undervolted or anything AMD64 3200+ 82w)
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post #7 of 7
10/16/05 at 6:48pm
Thread Starter 
well i just checked again, and according to the gnome panel battery meter and the CHC, i get 2:10 minutes in ubuntu at 90% charge and 2:43 in windows at 87%.

i guess its not a huge difference. i just wish it was easier to undervolt in linux.
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