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#1 2010-04-17 02:51:50

cmtptr
Member
Registered: 2008-09-01
Posts: 135

NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

I'm using the NVIDIA driver on an MSI laptop, and I've noticed that it doesn't dynamically detect my power source.  The result of this is that if I boot the computer on battery power, then plug it in, the video card will continue to perform at less-than-maximum performance until I reload the driver with modprobe (of course, this is annoying because I have to exit from X11 first, then restart X11 after).  This goes the other way, as well; that is, I can boot the machine on AC power, then unplug it and the video card will continue to run as if it were still on AC power.  I have the "PowerMizer" configured to "Adaptive" in the settings.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?  Any ideas on how to solve it?

Thanks.

Arch x86_64
NVIDIA 195.36.15
MSI MS-1651 laptop
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

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#2 2010-06-02 16:28:34

pezz
Member
From: Geelong, Australia
Registered: 2010-05-23
Posts: 74

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

Took me a bit to work out why my nvidia card wouldn't behave the way I wanted it to on battery / AC.

I've just achieved the behaviour you're describing working on my Dell laptop (I wanted adaptive on battery, full performance on AC in X).

What works for me is:

Option    "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x3322; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"

... in xorg.conf and making sure you have installed acpid and starting it at boot.

It seems the nvidia driver uses acpid to detect if the cable has been pulled or not -- if you don't have acpid running it will always stay at max performance with my xorg.conf device settings listed above.

All I did was install acpid, started it at boot in rc.conf, no acpid configuration at all (i.e. I didn't touch a file except for rc.conf after I installed it), then I found the nvidia driver was able to detect the AC state.

If you want to tweak the settings for an on boot scenario (e.g. runlevel 3, no X), I'm pretty sure you can pass module parameters to get what you want -- however I haven't bothered with that as I'm always in X anyway.

Hope this helps, cheers.

References:

http://tutanhamon.com.ua/technovodstvo/ … IX-driver/
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acpid

Last edited by pezz (2010-06-02 16:35:28)

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#3 2010-06-12 15:26:48

cmtptr
Member
Registered: 2008-09-01
Posts: 135

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

So sorry for the late reply!  I had forgotten about this thread until I encountered the problem again today.

Thank you very much for your help.  Maybe acpid should be added as a dependency or optional dependency to the nvidia PKGBUILD?

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#4 2010-06-13 01:54:50

z3r0
Member
Registered: 2010-01-23
Posts: 21

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

got the same problem. Coudn't get it to work thpugh. With your line added and the acpid deamon running, the graphics card preformance is still set to maximum on battery power

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#5 2010-06-14 01:58:55

cmtptr
Member
Registered: 2008-09-01
Posts: 135

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

I didn't even need to edit xorg.conf.  I just installed acpid and it started working the way I wanted.  Try removing the line, z3ro.

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#6 2010-06-14 11:06:56

z3r0
Member
Registered: 2010-01-23
Posts: 21

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

acipd starts automatically with the hal deamon. So when i put it in my rc.conf, it gives me a fail when it starts up for "acipd".
Shure i'm not supposed to modify the .xorg file?

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#7 2010-06-14 12:39:39

flamelab
Member
From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)
Registered: 2007-12-26
Posts: 2,160

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

ACPID not ACIPD.

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#8 2010-06-14 12:42:43

z3r0
Member
Registered: 2010-01-23
Posts: 21

Re: NVIDIA driver doesn't dynamically change power source

yeah, i've got that. wrote it wrong on the board+

yaourt -Q acpid
==> Query installed packages
extra/acpid 1.0.10-3

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