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Maxing out battery life on an xps2

post #1 of 16
7/6/05 at 6:16pm
Thread Starter 
Well i was planning on returning my xps2 because the battery life was poor but when i called the lady offered me $250 off bring my price to $2025 a $200 coupon and a free 9 cell battery.... which make my choice between the 9300 and the xps2 hard once again.

what all can i turn down off to get more battery life while watching a movie? i was watching a divx and only got 1:38 min.... not enough time for most movies have not tried a dvd but cant be much different. i was at lvl 4 brightness and sound at 50% video card set to max power saving, is there any way to get like 2:15 while watching movies? i would like the better video card but if it cant use it unpluged then it wont work.
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post #2 of 16
7/6/05 at 6:41pm
I think you're pretty much just screwed. All the tweaks out there dont get you that much more time on battery. You could use the coupon you got and buy a 6800 non-ultra and then you could probably watch a full movie on a single charge. I think the non ultra is like $300 from dell.

I'm buying a crappy video card for mine, and for trips and when I'm not in game playing mode (which goes months at a time sometimes) I'll just leave the crappy card in. Once travels settle down for me I'm putting the ultra back in.
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post #3 of 16
7/6/05 at 6:51pm
I've watched a two hour movie on a battery before. I just shut down all my external progs, unload anything I don't need, and run on max battery. Works fine.
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post #4 of 16
7/6/05 at 7:46pm
the screen is a major user of power... there is a big difference in the time you get if you change the brightness. Thus, if you can bare with it, just put the screen to minimal brightness.
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post #5 of 16
7/6/05 at 8:04pm
Here's my partial listing of things I've tried.

Slow down the fans until they are needed (I9kfangui in temp control mode)
Reduce the Brightness of the Display
Turn off WIFI
Turn off Bluetooth
Reduce CPU voltage & speed
Powermizer settings for GPU
Closing down unneeded services (like system restore, drive indexing, remote connections, etc).
Anything that uses USB power, like those USB optical mice, external drives, etc.

an x300 would do the trick, or a 6800 non-ultra. In time, with enough hacks to the video bios, we should be able to reduce the amount of power that's used by the video card. (Or maybe we could get Dell to do it).
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post #6 of 16
7/6/05 at 8:29pm
I've tried all the power saving tricks myself. None of them make a significant difference to battery life.

The other alternative is to buy an extra battery from Dell, which means you will have to turn off the computer to replace it. The other option is to buy a 3rd party external battery, which plugs into the AC power jack in the back of the computer. I bought an APC External Battery which adds about 2 more hours, giving a total of 4 hours on battery if you include the internal Dell battery. The advantage to this option is that you won't have to swap batteries. And I'm sure there are even higher capacity external batteries on the market for even more added juice.
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post #7 of 16
7/6/05 at 9:20pm

who did you speak with at dell?

I want to call them too! Maybe they will give me a free batt as well!
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post #8 of 16
7/6/05 at 11:13pm
Thread Starter 
i talked to carla,1800-695-9133 extention 7285749(i think forgot to lable all the numbers i was writting down) i told her i wanted to return it because it did nto get good battery life, she offered to send me a secound battery free of charge, i turned it down, she offered to drop the price $250 and give me a $200 coupon i told her i would let her know in a few day...
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post #9 of 16
7/6/05 at 11:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayt
I've tried all the power saving tricks myself. None of them make a significant difference to battery life.

The other alternative is to buy an extra battery from Dell, which means you will have to turn off the computer to replace it. The other option is to buy a 3rd party external battery, which plugs into the AC power jack in the back of the computer. I bought an APC External Battery which adds about 2 more hours, giving a total of 4 hours on battery if you include the internal Dell battery. The advantage to this option is that you won't have to swap batteries. And I'm sure there are even higher capacity external batteries on the market for even more added juice.
what external battery did you buy? where did you get it? and how big/heavy is it?
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post #10 of 16
7/7/05 at 12:38am
Yea, it's a bummer about the battery life on the XPS2. It's one of the reasons why I cancelled and ordered a 9300. Even the 9300 battery life leaves something to be desired, but of course I had been used to my 5 hour battery time on my 700m. As it stands, I get a tad over 3 hours with the 9300 on a 9 cell. I watch movies on battery quite a bit, so this was someone of a concern of mine. I don't know if I'd return your XPS2 just for a longer battery life. I mean, a 9300 probably isn't THAT much longer. Are you getting 1:30 on a 9 cell?? If the lady is offering you a free battery, that might solve your problem unless you care about hauling around an extra battery.
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post #11 of 16
7/7/05 at 12:46am
You guys know that the only reason the iXPS 2 sucks battery is because it has a 6800 Ultra in it. You have to sacriface something when getting a gaming notebook.

Take out the 6800 Ultra and slap in an X300 and watch your XPS get 4 + Hours on charge.

I love my X300
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post #12 of 16
7/7/05 at 10:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sylo
what external battery did you buy? where did you get it? and how big/heavy is it?
Sylo

I bought the APC External Notebook Battery (APC is the manufacturer). It is rated at 88 W-hr capacity. It's about the size of little more than half a folded sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 paper (folded along the short axis), and is about 1/2 inch thick. The weight is 28 ounces according to the spec sheet.

I bought mine at Comp USA. As I mentioned before, there are other brands out there. The most popular I think is Electrovaya's PowerPad, but I don't know if these are compatible to the XPS2. The PowerPad models are a little larger and have a higher charge capacity. They're also a bit more expensive.

Hope this helps! Good luck.
Rayt
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post #13 of 16
7/8/05 at 1:26am
Sylo,
how long have you had your XPS 2?
So you just called them up saying you want to return and they gave you some deals?
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post #14 of 16
7/8/05 at 1:34am
Thread Starter 
i got my xps2 last monday so i have had it 10 days, i called wanting to return it to keep the 9300 i ordered since it got better battery life which was more of a plus to me then the extra gaming power. still not sure if i am goin to take the deal since the lack of battery power is a big down side for me.
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post #15 of 16
7/8/05 at 1:51am
so you just ran both and the 9300 battery was much better? What was the difference in time for just regular stuff, no gaming...

man that's smart. I should have orderd two too with that 35%. now, just waiting for the my XPS2 to come...i'm not a gamer (yet), but decided to splurge, but i hope i won't be disappointed in the battery....hmmm....i did order the extra battery...
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post #16 of 16
7/8/05 at 3:04am
If you aren't a gamer, you should have ordered the 9300 w/X300.


-fopkins
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