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How come my Studio XPS 16 battery life is so bad?

post #1 of 7
9/29/10 at 3:05am
Thread Starter 
Hi. I recently got a Studio XPS 16 laptop and I was wondering why my battery life is so bad. I know it has an i7 and drains alot of power, but I only get a little over 1 hr before it dies. Is this normal? Thanks

Specs:
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor
1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)

4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz

Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED
LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP

500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 - 1GB

85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
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post #2 of 7
9/29/10 at 5:37am
Normal to me. Good specs you have there.

Try reviewing start up processes and services, disable what you don't need, run it in power balance mode and see.

cheers ...
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post #3 of 7
9/30/10 at 1:30am
Thread Starter 
Really. Im surprised. I was hoping I would get more than 1 hour battery life. I wonder if 9 cell is the largest battery they have.
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post #4 of 7
9/30/10 at 7:02am
With the specs you are having it is not really a portable

I personally prefer carrying an extra battery than getting a larger one - works better with the stock ac adapter

cheers ...
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post #5 of 7
9/30/10 at 9:56am
Sound about right, mid-high end GPU, high-level CPU, probably a very skinny laptop (not much room for a battery).... yup, 1 hr to 1.5 hr seems correct. Just because it's skinny and pretty doesn't equate to long life, it's the wattage required by the individual components that play a bigger role. If you had an i3-450m and an integrated graphics solution, THEN you may be able to use the battery for 4 hours+. However, dedicated GPUs and quad-core / octo-thread CPUs use a great deal of power because of their many cores (GPUs can have HUNDREDS) and their affinity towards high performance. Unless you have a VERY large battery, or a VERY economical processor, with every bump upwards the CPU or GPU go, is an equal bump downwards in battery life.

Jason
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post #6 of 7
10/3/10 at 7:27am
Ever heard of powermiser or undervolting / downclocking? You can probably get an extra half hour by doing that. Plus I thought i7s were smart enough to downclock / put themselves in uber low power states when on battery.
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post #7 of 7
10/3/10 at 11:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by matchbox2022 View Post
Ever heard of powermiser or undervolting / downclocking? You can probably get an extra half hour by doing that. Plus I thought i7s were smart enough to downclock / put themselves in uber low power states when on battery.
I have heard of it, and I have also heard of "power saver". Undervolting is a special technique that I am not sure the OP has heard of, and it is somewhat risky to do to the CPU / GPU if you do not know what you're doing. Additionally, even with the CPU / GPU undervolted, while you may get an extra half-hour or so out of the machine, it's still a quad-core / octo-thread machine with a 1GB GPU. Even with undervolting and power saving, there is no outright "optimus" switch or even a physical switch that allows the computer to have an integrated graphics solution a la GMA 950 or something of that sort. The GPU is always on, always processing (albeit slowly) and always sucking up battery. That's just the way it is.

Jason
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