Laptop battery life is measured in hours, although it often seems like minutes. Can the Windows Vista power management options prolong the power for an entire working day?
Published
on 26 February 2007
Usually when I’m on the move, or on holiday, my laptop battery lasts me around two hours before I’m either crawling around public transport looking for power sockets or surreptitiously swiping laptops from collegues or unfortunate passers by – but today I’m going it alone. Wish me luck!
9:00am 
First things first: all my USB stuff has to go, because it all draws power. Then it’s into Windows Mobility Center to disable Wi-Fi, switch the power saving mode from High Performance to Power Saver and tweak the power plan settings for maximum longevity. I also throttle the PC’s maximum power down to 50%. The laptop’s still plugged in, but the second I unplug it the battery indicator drops from 100% to 94%. Eek!
9:30am 
I need to check email, so I switch the wireless back on. I end up with stacks of rubbish and nothing useful. I’ve never resented spam as much as I do now. I switch the Wi-Fi off again and check the battery. It reads 86% – 2 hours and 34 minutes remaining.
10:00am 
I’m typing this document and editing a few others in Wordpad instead of the more demanding Microsoft Word, and I’ve closed unnecessary programs such as Messenger, anti-virus and so on. Time for a meeting, so I put the laptop to sleep.
11:00am 
The laptop’s now gone into hibernate mode. Upon resuming I notice that Aero’s window transparency has gone – that’ll be part of my take-no-prisoners power setting. It’s not looking good – the battery status monitor reckons I’ve got two hours left. Five minutes later it says 78 hours and 14 minutes. I’d love to believe the latter estimate, but I don’t.
12 noon 
Plain old typing isn’t very processor intensive, but it has still dropped the battery indicator from 75% to 58% in an hour. I dim the screen until I can barely see it.
1:00pm 
I realise that if I spend all day drinking coffee while my laptop sleeps, my battery could last forever. I suggest this plan to the publisher, and he suggests that I might consider applying for a job elsewhere. Time to make a sharp exit and go for lunch.
2:00pm 
I’ve lost another 5% in sleep mode, but the increasingly demented time-left figure says I’ve got 29 hours to go. I put the Wi-Fi back on so I can email.
2:16pm 
Battery capacity drops below 25% and a warning balloon pops up, but I can’t turn off Wi-Fi until my emails arrive. I notice that my laptop isn’t shoving superheated air out of its vents like it usually does, which is probably due to setting maximum processor performance in the power plan’s advanced settings. The laptop’s running so coolly that I reckon I could sit naked with it on my lap and escape without even a minor injury. But if I tried it and someone walked in, would they understand that I was carrying out an important scientific experiment? I decide to keep my trousers on.
2:24pm 
I know my net connection’s OK, but email isn’t happening, so I switch off the Wi-Fi again. When I said it was a battery hog, I wasn’t kidding: I’ve lost 1% of battery power for every minute it was on.
2:41pm 
A balloon’s popped up over the battery icon telling me that I’ve less than 10% left to go. I’m typing like a total demon now.
2:48pm 
The warnings say I must stop writing NOW or my laptop will go to sleep. So I’m typing as fast as I possibly --
2:51pm 
I probably should have heeded that warning. As soon as battery power dropped down to the critical 5% level, the system hibernated to protect my data – cutting me off in midsentence. But I’m not beaten yet. I’ve booted back in and resumed the system, which is neither big nor clever when there’s so little power left, but I have to see what it will do. I then immediately put the laptop to sleep and grab a coffee. Maybe it will magically regain a little power while it’s asleep.
3:02pm 
The battery indicator says ‘Monday’, which confuses me until I realise I’m hovering over the wrong icon. One minute remaining.
3:04pm 
No ifs, no buts, no warnings, no power: my PC is now officially dead. But I’m still writing, and I’m still doing it on my laptop. How? By writing on the lid with a marker pen. That still counts, doesn’t it?
The verdict
I didn’t make it to 5pm, but I’m amazed that I lasted so long: my laptop’s officially rated for 2.5 hours and, just as you’ll never get the miles per gallon car firms say, you never get the battery life PC firms promise. I think I’ve proved how useful Windows Vista’s power management features can be, though I don’t recommend dimming the screen too much unless you really like having headaches.
