Question on laptop standby

shotgunefx · 01-25-2007, 10:21 AM

Not sure if this is better suited for general discussion, but anyway, here goes.

Been doing a reinstall of my laptop install (Dell 8600 going to Ubuntu from Debian) and decided to play with standby as hibernation takes ages to wake up.

I did a lot of searching and googling but found no stats for actually power consumption when in standby or how long it would last.

I figured on standby it would still draw a lot of current (relatively) but did a little test. Let it run for 4 hours and the battery is still between 98-99%.

If the discharge circuit in the battery is somewhat accurate, that means between 200-400hrs on standby. This blows me away. I never imagined it would be that long or I would have instantly investigated it.

My question, Is this common for most laptops?

If so, I'm suprised as I've not come across a mention here of such long runtimes.

Ruffy · 01-25-2007, 02:58 PM

my acer laptop came with a program called acer power management. it gives you a estimated time of how long the laptop will last in each mode. Standby is always over 150hours, Hibernation is like 700 hours+

I've gotten 4 hours+ while watching movies on a long trip.

so yes it's common.

Keep in mind while in standby the laptop keeps it's usb ports powered. if you have alot of devices plugged in they can drain the laptops battery quicker.

shotgunefx · 01-25-2007, 03:32 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Ruffy

my acer laptop came with a program called acer power management. it gives you a estimated time of how long the laptop will last in each mode. Standby is always over 150hours, Hibernation is like 700 hours+

I've gotten 4 hours+ while watching movies on a long trip.

so yes it's common.

Keep in mind while in standby the laptop keeps it's usb ports powered. if you have alot of devices plugged in they can drain the laptops battery quicker.

Thanks.

Regarding USB, that's the benefit of the docking station I was referring to, it kills the usb when power is removed and turns it back on when "AC" is back.