Already did! See Page 2 of this thread.

Sirius,

[nevermind previous link]

On my friend's HP zv6000 series notebook, installing the latest AMD processor driver (ver 1.3.1) fixed the processor throttling issue. It will now run at constantly at full speed when the Always On setting is used in XP's Power Options. It will throttle up and down on demand when the Portable/Laptop setting is used in Power Options.

Note that XP never quite accurately reports the processor speed, but it does throttle up & down. AMDClock (from AMD's website) seems a bit more accurate. Not that it matters.

However, I cannot get the Power Management tabs to appear in the Device Manager with the latest processor driver. I have updated my first post. So far, I can only get the Power Management tabs when using processor driver version 1.2.2.1.

EDIT: yeah, I can say for sure that the 1.3.1 driver does not provide the Power Management tabs in the Dev Mgr. I've tried it on two different notebooks with the same result. Anyone have a link to the old 1.2.2.1 driver?

when not using a battery for either a short period of time like over night or a long period of time, is it better to store the battery in the refrigerator?

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-19.htm

15° C (59 F) ?

Thanks for this great tutorial. I kinda add some stuff to my knowledge!

Nice howto...That pic of the innerds was awesome...also never thought about disabeling unused devices...gonna use those tips next time I find myself in rush hour traffic.
Nice Guide!

Whatever you do, DON'T do this. Full charge discharge cycles can actually damage the battery. The number of cycles you get from a lithium battery increases greatly if you only cycle it shallowly.

There are other ways to reset the smart circut. You can typically get to it through the boot-up command line (at least on sager/clevo notebooks). I think there was a funny key combinatation that you hold (note: not DOS command prompt, I think it's a BIOS function).


Another bit of informations about lithium batteries that few people know is that lithium batteries have a 3-5 year shelf life, independant of use. So if you don't use the battery it will eventually degrade anyways. Heat greatly accelerates the process.



Lithium batteries are often rated by the numbers of charge discharge cycles they can handle, Generally 100% - 10% charge gives you 500 cycles to 50% capacity. However, only discharging the battery to 60-40% charge extends the cycle life towards 1000 cycles.

This is all just off the top of my head.


Oh, by the way, the Nickel-Cadmium "Memory Effect" is a complete fallacy.

Very useful post. Thank you.

I have a Sony Vaio R505, I guess it's about 4 or 5 years old by now. Recently the battery I had started intermittently refusing to take a charge. I could leave the laptop plugged in all day and Windows would report it as "charging" but at the end of the day the charge would be the same. I figured the battery was old so I'd get a new one. Well, I got a new one and it worked fine for about a month. Now the problem is back.

The simple problem is that the laptop will not send a charge into the battery anymore. I have tried cycling the batteries, unplugging them, charging while the laptop is off, etc. It seems pretty obvious it's a problem with the laptop itself. My question is: what part of the laptop would it be? Is this something that probably means I need to replace the laptop? I have that sinking feeling...

Great guide, I was surprised (and glad) to know that cycling doesn't really do anything.

New to notebooks here and battery care to me is the most important thing I should learn.

When the battery is charged to 100% when the notebook is plugged in, can I just take out the battery or do I have shutdown first?

Would it hurt the battery's long-term performance if I always leave it to low battery levels to recharge?

BTW, I am on a Li-Ion battery. Thanks!

Big dillema.... I want to ask you, and if possible give me a link to read, if when i bought a notebook, which has a li-ion battery,on the first use of the battery, I wonder if I have to format it ( a full charge 5-8 hours, then let it discharge till 0%)? Is this thing necesarly? Can it cause problems to the battery if I do this, or it will help it?
TX for the answers!

Have a nice read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery

So that means it's better to store the battery at 40% charge rather than 100%? It looks like a huge difference!

Yes it means exactly that... Its best to store batteries at 40%.

Also its best to keep the battery cool as possible during use/storage.

Cool, thanks. I'll try to store it at 40% when I can.

So say if I have battery charging on AC power. Then I put on hibernate which basically completely shuts it down. I want to take out my battery since it is at the level I want it to be at. Does it damage the battery in any way if I do this?

How about the reverse, with me being on AC without battery and I want to be unplugged so I hibernate then put in the battery? Or just hibernate and move elsewhere to plug?