Windows 7 Power Plans, Toshiba laptop & new battery

[poachedeggs]

I've just bought a new battery for my three year old Toshiba Equium
L40. It came with Vista and I'd also tried XP but mostly various Linux
distros on it. I'm currently calibrating the new battery according to
some annoyingly conflicting information online so I thought I'd ask
here as I'm now running Windows 7 32 bit. If the information helps
comments, I use the laptop online with Mobile Broadband, I do video
editing in Sony Vegas Platinum 9, I record acoustic guitar and I watch
DVDs.

Yesterday I altered the Advanced settings for when battery warning and
critical warnings are given, running from top to bottom of these four
settings (Low Battery Level and Critical Battery Level) I had
percentages of 12, 5, 8, 3 (%). I've put the defaults back because
despite what's said on some sites Microsoft's site is saying that
these newer batteries last longer if charged 'little but often' when
the
charge has reached about 30%, which may explain why the defaults are
in line with this.

My thinking had been that I wanted to be warned when the machine was
genuinely about to run out, not when the charge was still roughly a
third.

What do you think?

The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for £28
and seems excellent, like it's
going to operate as well as the Toshiba one costing three times as
much. For a fairly inexpensive 2007 machine about 2 hrs 20 to 2 hrs
50, depending on tasks, using High Performance, though I'm thinking I
understand Balanced might suit me for everything but video editing?

Thanks for any input.

[BillW50]

Post by poachedeggs
I've just bought a new battery for my three year old Toshiba Equium
L40. It came with Vista and I'd also tried XP but mostly various Linux
distros on it. I'm currently calibrating the new battery according to
some annoyingly conflicting information online so I thought I'd ask
here as I'm now running Windows 7 32 bit. If the information helps
comments, I use the laptop online with Mobile Broadband, I do video
editing in Sony Vegas Platinum 9, I record acoustic guitar and I watch
DVDs.

Well calibrating seems pretty cut and dry and not conflicting if you ask
me. The basic idea is simple. Test the true capacity of a battery by
charging it up and using it until it quits.

Some batteries have circuits in them to record and monitor this activity
and some don't. If they don't, then the OS has to figure it all out on
it's own.

If your battery does monitor this activity, then a program like
"BattStat Beta v0.98" can display the information. As it will tell you
the true capacity, wear level, etc.

Post by poachedeggs
Yesterday I altered the Advanced settings for when battery warning and
critical warnings are given, running from top to bottom of these four
settings (Low Battery Level and Critical Battery Level) I had
percentages of 12, 5, 8, 3 (%). I've put the defaults back because
despite what's said on some sites Microsoft's site is saying that
these newer batteries last longer if charged 'little but often' when
the
charge has reached about 30%, which may explain why the defaults are
in line with this.
My thinking had been that I wanted to be warned when the machine was
genuinely about to run out, not when the charge was still roughly a
third.
What do you think?

I think you should set it where you want to be warned at. Some people
want to run the battery down and some don't. It's true that you can get
more recharges if you don't run it down all of the way. But then again,
the battery will last longer the less you use it too.

Keeping the battery in the laptop all of the time isn't generally such a
hot idea. As the heat of the laptop also effects the battery life. And
the longer it is exposed to the heat, the shorter life it will have.

Another bad thing about leaving it in is that most laptops will tap off
the charge on the battery every time the AC is applied. This done
repeatably also shortens the battery life. And they generally charge
them up to 4.2v per cell instead of 4.1v per cell. They do this to
squeeze a bit extra out of the capacity. Although at the expensive of
shorter battery life.

Post by poachedeggs
The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for £28
and seems excellent, like it's
going to operate as well as the Toshiba one costing three times as
much. For a fairly inexpensive 2007 machine about 2 hrs 20 to 2 hrs
50, depending on tasks, using High Performance, though I'm thinking I
understand Balanced might suit me for everything but video editing?
Thanks for any input.

I didn't look up with processor this machine comes with, but most
nowadays use SpeedStep, PowerUp, etc. which throttles the CPU speed.
This can save 20 watts or more from your battery. Although depending on
the power scheme you are using, it might be locked on high.

I use CPU throttling even on AC. As light duty tasks the CPU is
throttled way back and runs very cool. And the fan runs on slow or not
at all. And when it needs more power, it throttles up all by itself and
you shouldn't notice any shifts in speed at all. As it is all pretty
seamless.

[poachedeggs]

Post by BillW50

Post by poachedeggs
I've just bought a new battery for my three year old Toshiba Equium
L40. It came with Vista and I'd also tried XP but mostly various Linux
distros on it. I'm currently calibrating the new battery according to
some annoyingly conflicting information online so I thought I'd ask
here as I'm now running Windows 7 32 bit. If the information helps
comments, I use the laptop online with Mobile Broadband, I do video
editing in Sony Vegas Platinum 9, I record acoustic guitar and I watch
DVDs.

Well calibrating seems pretty cut and dry and not conflicting if you ask
me. The basic idea is simple. Test the true capacity of a battery by
charging it up and using it until it quits.
Some batteries have circuits in them to record and monitor this activity
and some don't. If they don't, then the OS has to figure it all out on
it's own.
If your battery does monitor this activity, then a program like
"BattStat Beta v0.98" can display the information. As it will tell you
the true capacity, wear level, etc.

Post by poachedeggs
Yesterday I altered the Advanced settings for when battery warning and
critical warnings are given, running from top to bottom of these four
settings (Low Battery Level and Critical Battery Level) I had
percentages of 12, 5, 8, 3 (%). I've put the defaults back because
despite what's said on some sites Microsoft's site is saying that
these newer batteries last longer if charged 'little but often' when
the
charge has reached about 30%, which may explain why the defaults are
in line with this.
My thinking had been that I wanted to be warned when the machine was
genuinely about to run out, not when the charge was still roughly a
third.
What do you think?

I think you should set it where you want to be warned at. Some people
want to run the battery down and some don't. It's true that you can get
more recharges if you don't run it down all of the way. But then again,
the battery will last longer the less you use it too.
Keeping the battery in the laptop all of the time isn't generally such a
hot idea. As the heat of the laptop also effects the battery life. And
the longer it is exposed to the heat, the shorter life it will have.
Another bad thing about leaving it in is that most laptops will tap off
the charge on the battery every time the AC is applied. This done
repeatably also shortens the battery life. And they generally charge
them up to 4.2v per cell instead of 4.1v per cell. They do this to
squeeze a bit extra out of the capacity. Although at the expensive of
shorter battery life.

Post by poachedeggs
The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for £28
and seems excellent, like it's
going to operate as well as the Toshiba one costing three times as
much. For a fairly inexpensive 2007 machine about 2 hrs 20 to 2 hrs
50, depending on tasks, using High Performance, though I'm thinking I
understand Balanced might suit me for everything but video editing?
Thanks for any input.

I didn't look up with processor this machine comes with, but most
nowadays use SpeedStep, PowerUp, etc. which throttles the CPU speed.
This can save 20 watts or more from your battery. Although depending on
the power scheme you are using, it might be locked on high.
I use CPU throttling even on AC. As light duty tasks the CPU is
throttled way back and runs very cool. And the fan runs on slow or not
at all. And when it needs more power, it throttles up all by itself and
you shouldn't notice any shifts in speed at all. As it is all pretty
seamless.
--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era)
Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3

Thanks, this is the info I was after and feels like the most
watertight answer I've got off the 'net about these issues. I'll paste
it somewhere and read it till it's second nature. Cheers.

[Theo Markettos]

The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for £28 and
seems excellent, like it's going to operate as well as the Toshiba one
costing three times as much.

What seller did you buy it from OOI? There seem to be lots of dubious
battery suppliers around. Did it come from the UK or from China?

Cheers
Theo

[poachedeggs]

The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for £28 and
seems excellent, like it's going to operate as well as the Toshiba one
costing three times as much.

What seller did you buy it from OOI?  There seem to be lots of dubious
battery suppliers around.  Did it come from the UK or from China?
Cheers
Theo

Dock_basin is the eBay name of the seller. Sounds like a rough Chinese
translation of something but I'm very happy with it, 3 hours 5 mins
charge when word processing, plus the original is Chinese too. I'm
having the idea that big laptop manufacturers buy a few eBay batteries
to slander them in feedback, probably worth their while...

It took two days to come as well.

[BillW50]

Post by poachedeggs

Post by poachedeggs
The new battery (6 cell, 10.8v, 4800 mAh) was bought on eBay for
£28 and seems excellent, like it's going to operate as well as the
Toshiba one costing three times as much.

What seller did you buy it from OOI? There seem to be lots of dubious
battery suppliers around. Did it come from the UK or from China?
Cheers
Theo

Dock_basin is the eBay name of the seller. Sounds like a rough Chinese
translation of something but I'm very happy with it, 3 hours 5 mins
charge when word processing, plus the original is Chinese too. I'm
having the idea that big laptop manufacturers buy a few eBay batteries
to slander them in feedback, probably worth their while...
It took two days to come as well.

Well I don't know if I would go that far. As a lot of crap comes from
there. I bought two USB slimline DVD drives which never worked. An USB
to any hard drive that didn't work with 2.5" SATA HD. Because the power
supply couldn't handle a 800ma draw. Even though the supply was rated at
***@1.5A. And then there was that 8G flash card that was really a 2G
flash card. Although the OS was fooled to report 8G when it really
wasn't there. Then there was those AA rechargeable batteries that was a
tad longer. Which was hard to get in and out of anything. So there are
some concerns about buying something from China.