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XPS m1210 poor battery life :(

post #1 of 11
8/18/06 at 7:07am
Thread Starter 
Hi there,

I have been testing my 9-cell battery over the last couple of days, where I leave my laptop on with no applications or games running. And it shuts off on average after 2 hours and 50 minutes. Never goes longer than that.

I have been reading some guys have been getting 4 hours and 20 minutes on their 9 cell. If it was around ~50mins difference I wouldnt care too much but I cant see how I could possibly even get 4 hours life out of this thing. I would appreciate it if you could post the settings that you guys use to get 4 hours+ as I will be travelling in the next couple of days and would love to get some assignments and work done on the 4 hour flight.

Also on my battery it doesnt say 9-cell or anything just capacity: 85Wh, am I correct to assume that the battery that "bulges" out the back is the 9 cell battery?
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post #2 of 11
8/18/06 at 10:40am
check how many processes you are running and your computer's CPU usage.

yes, the "bulge" is the 9-cell.

maybe you have a faulty battery. I am sure dell would be happy to send you a new battery!
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post #3 of 11
8/18/06 at 10:41am
Wow...I got more than that from my 6-cell. Do you always have your LCD turned up to the brightest? Is your processor set to "dynamic" where it will change the speed as needed?

these are the two things that I would check for.
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post #4 of 11
8/18/06 at 10:43am
3 hours is about right for a 9 cell, you have dedicated memory and i am sure other stuff that causes battery drain
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post #5 of 11
8/18/06 at 10:44am
something must be wrong, i get ~6hrs with wireless on & low brightness when i'm doing basic stuff (internet, msn, music, word, etc......)
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post #6 of 11
8/18/06 at 12:17pm
I get 4 hours and 38 min. , the battery indicator says thats what I have when it's fully charged and thats exactly what I get useing it. I have 52 plus processes running ,,,
Yes the 9 cell is the one that sticks out the back. I have the same system that "Pondskipper" has ,,,, scroll up , (the XPS 1210)

My 6 cell shows close to 3 hours.
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post #7 of 11
8/18/06 at 2:28pm
I was getting 3 hrs on my 9 cell and dell was happy to replace it. Not even 12 hrs from when I called them the brand new battery was at my door. Now I get 4 hrs and 20 min.
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post #8 of 11
8/18/06 at 5:01pm
4-5 hours average here...
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post #9 of 11
8/20/06 at 2:08pm
Check what processes you have running. I had 2 processes running in the background that took up 80-90% of cpu utilization and this caused the battery meter to read only 2 hours 15 mins remaining on a full charge.
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post #10 of 11
8/21/06 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by grecinos
Check what processes you have running. I had 2 processes running in the background that took up 80-90% of cpu utilization and this caused the battery meter to read only 2 hours 15 mins remaining on a full charge.
When firefox want to go into bugged out mode and use 100% of the CPU it kills battery.. Am I the only one that noticed how whacked firefox has been the last 6 months lol.
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post #11 of 11
8/23/06 at 7:22am
also, check if powermizer for the nVidia card is enabled or not...
With powermizer enabled, the go7400 clocks itself to as low as 0.3 mhz on battery vs 450 mhz on AC

NHC shows me a power drain between 14-17W on the battery while browsing/chatting etc. wireless on and the screen at medium brightness
With my 53Whr battery, i get ~3 hours
Since yours is 85Whr, you should get ~5

Why don't you install NHC and check the load on the battery...If the power drain shows anything over 20W with no games/heavy apps running, then you have a configureation related issue
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