Does Windows Vista have 'smart' power options for laptops?

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Does Windows Vista have "smart" power options for laptops?

ahmad

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#18880 28-Jan-2008 09:29

Do I have to do it manually, or does the Windows Mobility Centre have an option where the laptop conserves power when on battery, but when plugged in increases performance?

I know I could probably go into the advanced settings and create my own profile, but I don't understand all the options within the menus, and I've discovered that Vista has now removed contextual help from control panel items (previously I remember being able to right click and "What's This" options to get an idea. This change is broken!!).

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#107114 28-Jan-2008 09:38

Just select the Power Saver mode and it should be ok. Unless you want to manually change each option of the power configuration...

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ahmad

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#107115 28-Jan-2008 09:51

Makes no sense - Power Saver mode (if you look at the options in advanced setup) tries to save power while plugged in :/

Ideally it should switch to the "performance" settings when you plug in power :/

freitasm

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#107120 28-Jan-2008 09:59

You can create your own power plan, based on one of the existing plans. And then select the options you want. For each settings there's a Battery and Power option. You can create one just to suit your needs then...

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ahmad

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#107123 28-Jan-2008 10:13

freitasm: You can create your own power plan, based on one of the existing plans. And then select the options you want. For each settings there's a Battery and Power option. You can create one just to suit your needs then...

This was mentioned in the first post already.

1. The options do not all make sense to me
2. I was asking if there was another way.

chakkaradeep

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#107126 28-Jan-2008 10:19

ahmad: Makes no sense - Power Saver mode (if you look at the options in advanced setup) tries to save power while plugged in :/

Power Saver - It does what it means. Tries to use less Power (Electricity) and uses the Battery. Once the Battery is low, it will start charging and use Power again.

What exactly are you trying for? Best would be to cite with an example. The Power Management is way better and different than XP in Vista. So, it would also be good to read something about Power Management in the Windows Help.

Here is from the Windows Help,

Use the Power saver power plan to minimize power consumption. You can always return to this article later to try more power-saving tips. To choose the Power saver plan, open Power Options in Control Panel.

Regards,
Chaks

Desktop : Intel Quad Core Q9400 2.66GHz - 8GB RAM - 500 GB + 500 GB HDD - NVidia GeForce 9800GT - LG246WH Flatron Display - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V
Virtual Machine : Powered by Hyper-V and VMWare Workstation
Laptop: HP dv7-3004TX Entertainment Notebook PC | HP Touchsmart tx2 1119au - Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Mac: iMac 21.5" Snow Leopard
Mobile : iPhone 3GS

ahmad

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#107141 28-Jan-2008 10:42

chakkaradeep: Power Saver - It does what it means. Tries to use less Power (Electricity) and uses the Battery. Once the Battery is low, it will start charging and use Power again.

Hi Chaks. With respect I think you are wrong here. If you have the power saver plan activated when you have a battery plugged in and the power adaptor plugged in, it will NOT exhaust the battery and THEN charge. It will always charge.

What I'm saying is that it makes no sense to save power when you have the laptop plugged in really. Surely you'd be wanting performance when you plug the laptop in (given that the main purpose of turning down performance is to conserve battery power when on battery).

Just as the screen brightness on all laptops turns itself up when plugged in and down when not, these performance settings should be automatic - give me good power conservation when on battery, but if I plug it in, automatically turn the performance settings back up.

chakkaradeep

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#107155 28-Jan-2008 11:49

ahmad:
Hi Chaks. With respect I think you are wrong here. If you have the power saver plan activated when you have a battery plugged in and the power adaptor plugged in, it will NOT exhaust the battery and THEN charge. It will always charge.

It will. You can check your battery meter. After sometime you will have it saying "Charging x%"

ahmad:
What I'm saying is that it makes no sense to save power when you have the laptop plugged in really. Surely you'd be wanting performance when you plug the laptop in (given that the main purpose of turning down performance is to conserve battery power when on battery).

Thats how it goes. Since you have a Battery, you are supposed to use that and consume less power even when you are plugged in. Well, thats a way people say they save power. Use when needed.

Again, here are the details from Windows Help,

Balanced. Offers full performance when you need it and saves power during periods of inactivity.
Power saver. Saves power by reducing system performance. This plan can help mobile PC users get the most from a single battery charge.
High performance. Maximizes system performance and responsiveness. Mobile PC users may notice that their battery doesn't last as long when using this plan.

ahmad:
Just as the screen brightness on all laptops turns itself up when plugged in and down when not, these performance settings should be automatic - give me good power conservation when on battery, but if I plug it in, automatically turn the performance settings back up.

You can set up and create your own power plan (which requires you to know advanced concepts which are in Advanced Menu). Each option has Plugged In and On Battery options. Of course this is Advanced User Concept.

ahmad

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#107163 28-Jan-2008 12:32

I'm happy to tailor a plan - if required. But I just can't see why there wouldn't be an automatic option.

Plus as I mentioned - why did Vista remove the contextual help in Control Panel options?? I should be able to right click to bring up "What's This?" kind of help. Bad...

weblordpepe

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#111244 17-Feb-2008 19:05

One wonders if it is possible to script events to occur when the power is plugged in / removed.

ahmad

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#111263 17-Feb-2008 20:09

It's really stupid, you shouldn't even have to do anything for this to happen.

It's a laptop. Of course you want (at least some) power saving when on battery power. And who would want less performance when the laptop is plugged in and battery power is a non-issue?

They should have had a "smart" option that is pre-configured rather than us having to manually configure such a power scheme.

chakkaradeep

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#111266 17-Feb-2008 20:22

Again for clarifications,

Power Saver - means that you save power

More performance when in Battery means very easily the charge will get down.

What you want to achieve ? Be clear in that. You can always change to any Power Plan avaialble even if you are in Battery or plugged-in. I dont understand the reason of having really high performance on, when working in Battery! If am travelling, I need less usage of my laptop resources with my Battery turned on so that I can use in the course of my entire travelling. Even putting a CD/DVD and reading from it will drain your battery.

Can you please point out what performance issues you faced when you changed from the default Power Plan Balanced to Power Saver and what you werent able to make it to high performance?. If you are not able to identify that and just since its shown less ratings for Performance, you shouldnt come to a conclusion for it. Thats why customization is there. If you are not ready to customize it, please learn how to do it.

chakkaradeep

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#111270 17-Feb-2008 20:39

@ahmad,

Have a read here about Mobile Battery Life in Windows Vista and hope that can give you a better picture. As far as I see this thread, you think things will be worse if the performance goes down, but you haven't identified whether is that really affected you or what actually degrades the performance for your laptop and try to customize them for your need.

ahmad

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#111324 18-Feb-2008 10:15

Chaks, I'm a busy man and don't have time to sort this out. That's why I haven't had time to customize. My point is that while I COULD do that, I don't see why I should have to. Furthermore, the customization has poor help explainations of the options (ie. none at all).

You have never understood my point from the beginning:

Windows has 3 basic power schemes:

a) "High performance" - which pays no attention to power used

b) "Power Saver" - which changes options to save power

c) "Balanced" - which falls in between

It makes perfect sense that the GENERAL user would use Power Saver, unless they needed higher "performance" - they can then manually change the setting or customize, fair enough.

It also makes perfect sense that when AC power in on, and you don't need to worry about battery life, that you would want "high" (or at least non-crippled) performance from your computer. It doesn't worry you that it might use a bit more power, because you don't have to worry about the battery.

Right now, when I plug my laptop in to the AC power, I have to REMEMBER to ACTIVELY change to High Performance. THEN, when I run on batteries, I have to ACTIVELY remember to change back to Power Saver.

Or else I have to used Balanced if I don't want to remember, which is a compromise and doesn't give me the the best option for either scenario.

I know that I'm talking marginal benefits when it comes to performance, but they are still benefits all the same. Windows by default should have configured a scheme which looks like this:

On battery: use the options that are configured in "Power Saver"
On AC Power: use the options that are configured for "High performance"

It's actually really simple chaks - Windows ALREADY knows whether you are on AC power or battery power. So this is a perfectly logical power scheme that should have been configured by default.

chakkaradeep

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#111332 18-Feb-2008 10:35

ahmad:
On battery: use the options that are configured in "Power Saver"
On AC Power: use the options that are configured for "High performance"

You havent understood the way power options work. Even if you are in Power Saver or High Performance, its not a problem. The Plans have two different schemes called,

1) Plugged-in Scheme
2) Battery Scheme

When its in Power, your system will use the Plugged-in scheme from your current plan and if you unplug it from power and use Battery, it will AUTOMATICALLY switch to the Battery Scheme of your current plan. That why there is always two options when you go into Advanced mode.

I am sorry to say that you have to read what is what and I find the Help really good. You are trying to switch Power Plans when plugged in and not, but you fail to understand that it already behaves that way in a way that there are two schemes (as mentioned above) in a plan and they change automatically and you can customize that too.

And moreover, the Laptop is for mobility and highly customized for that purpose. I have seen the Power Management in Vista is really good. I have used my laptop all the way from ChristChurch to Dunedin working and I am happy with what Vista gave me during that travelling time. It also highly depends on the configuration of your laptop. I use 9-Cell Lithium Battery and sure you can see Battery boost.

ahmad

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#111333 18-Feb-2008 10:47

Chaks, I've already shown that I understand that the laptop will distinguish between AC and battery power.

BUT

If you choose high performance as the mode, you get:

HP(AC) if you have it plugged in, and
HP(Batt) if you remove the AC power

If you choose Power Saving, you get:

PS(AC) if you have it plugged in, and
PS(Batt) if you remove the AC power.

PS(Batt) and HP(AC) are perfect. But HP(Batt) uses more power, and PS(AC) means you turn down the performance even though battery life is not an issue.

We are on crossed purposes.

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