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#1 2009-02-05 14:46:21

Winland
Member
Registered: 2009-02-05
Posts: 2

trying to extend battery runtime!

Hi all!

Edit 1:

It's a Acer Aspire 5054WLMI (aka 5020) with a 1.8 GHz amd turion 64 processor and 1Gb ram.

i have a little problem with my arch configurations. I have tried to get extended batterytime, beqouse today when i tested
i had about 45 min runtime if i just let it be. so i guess 25 min if i do something at all. hmm (Windows installation
runs about 2 h, so it's not the batterys fault)

btw. during the test the processor used 0-1 % at 800 MHz (frequtils) and between 45-55 degrees Celsius.

i have allso intstalled the laptop-mode-tools, and had to install the open-sorce drivers for the ati card in it (Mobility radeon X700), beqouse i didn't seem to be able to install catalyst drivers sad
So if anyone have some nice tips on how to tweak this, and get the catalyst running, and getting a bit longer batterytime i'd appreciate it. big_smile

this is my acpi battery status:

present:                 yes
design capacity:         4400 mAh
last full capacity:      1984 mAh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          1984 mV
design capacity warning: 95 mAh
design capacity low:     57 mAh
capacity granularity 1:  38 mAh
capacity granularity 2:  1889 mAh
model number:            Bat 8Cell
serial number:           33119
battery type:            LION
OEM info:                Acer
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charging
present rate:            1672 mA
remaining capacity:      1530 mAh
present voltage:         16770 mV

so, it's like arch can't get it charged any more than 45% of it's capacity???

LSPCI output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI-X Root Port
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 11)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)
06:05.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
06:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
06:06.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
06:06.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
06:06.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller
06:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

Xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X.org Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "drm"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "xtrap"
        Load  "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "fi"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        #DisplaySize    330   210       # mm
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "CMO"
        ModelName    "1505"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Option     "RenderAccel" "true" 
       Option "AGPMode" "4"
       Option "ColorTiling" "on"
       Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
       Option "AGPFastWrite" "yes"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "radeon"
        VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName   "Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
               Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes   "1280x800" "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Last edited by Winland (2009-02-05 14:58:50)

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#2 2009-02-05 17:15:43

tlawson
Member
From: MN, USA
Registered: 2009-01-24
Posts: 24

Re: trying to extend battery runtime!

Lesswatts is one resource.

Powertop helps track programs that are waking the system up, but it doesn't sound like that's the problem.  At the least it gives you live feedback on your wattage so you can see what's having an effect.  pacman -S powertop

Thinkwiki has a nice (but Thinkpad-specific) list of tips for reducing power consumption, a lot of which apply more generally.  Disabling unused kernel modules and other programs for a start.

I've found that main killers that are hard to get rid of are the screen (turn it down using xsetbacklight), the hard drive (use laptop-mode-tools to spin it down when you can), the wireless (again, turn it off as often as possible), and the system fan.  conky has some nice options to help you monitor your system temperatures and keep an eye on whether the fan is working; if really stretching it is important then when the system gets hot you can put it into suspend for a little while to try and save the fan some work.

so far as full capacity on your battery goes, if you really think that's an issue you might try charging the battery in windows and seeing what the resulting Arch battery life is.

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#3 2009-02-22 14:59:22

eldragon
Member
From: Buenos Aires
Registered: 2008-11-18
Posts: 1,029

Re: trying to extend battery runtime!

there are some things ive learned:

linux uses more power, so dont expect windows runtimes. ive had my share of tries. the best i could do, is follow the guidelines from this ubuntu forum post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=847773

its not for your notebook, but many things there apply anyway.

i suppose youve got your cpu scaling daemon running. that should give some extra life too big_smile

one last thing, your battery appears to be half dead from those readings, you should expect between 1 to 1:30hs from that battery fully charged.

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