What To Do If Still Seeing Poor Linux Battery Life

[swt2c]

On my Dell Latitude E6410, forcing ASPM on results in ~5-10% power savings.

Running pts/battery-power-usage-1.0.0:
Battery Power Usage (Avg): 13748.75 (1-default) vs 12903.14 (2-pcie_aspm=force).

http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1...IV-UBUNTUNAT12

Phoronix Test Suite v3.0.1
System Information

Hardware:
Processor: Intel Core i3 M 380 @ 2.53GHz (4 Cores), Motherboard: Dell 0667CC, Chipset: Intel Core, Memory: 7680MB, Disk: 250GB Western Digital WDC WD2500BEKT-7, Graphics: Intel Core IGP 256MB, Audio: IDT 92HD81B1C5

Software:
OS: Ubuntu 11.04, Kernel: 2.6.38-8-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity 3.8.16, Display Server: X Server 1.10.1, Display Driver: intel 2.14.0, Compiler: GCC 4.5.2, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1280x800

[utrrrongeeb]

I have a desktop, so the excess power consumption isn't too much of a problem -- but it's measurable. Core i7 2600K, Asus P8P67 Deluxe rev3. My CyberPower UPS measures power consumption in 8-watt increments, and ASPM reduces it by one [8-watt jump]. I'll dig up a Kill-a-watt and test it better later....

[AlbertP]

HP Pavilion dv6730ed
Intel Core 2 Duo
NVidia 8400M GS running open-source driver

There's something not OK in the hardware power management; there's no OS or program able to measure the power consumption.

BIOS updates can do wonders on HP laptops. Even on Windows there used to be a power and fan control related bug in the BIOS of many HP's with an Intel processor.

Now that I've upgraded the BIOS, the laptop doesn't feel as hot as it used to be and the battery life is 100% OK. Actually, Windows Vista consumes a lot of memory.

My mother's Acer Aspire 5530G, AMD Turion X2 64, ATI Radeon HD 3650, overheats after 30 minutes using Linux Mint 11. I haven't yet tested upgrading the BIOS.
Please people, try upgrading your BIOS and report here if it solved your problems.

[Alliancemd]

First, I do agree with "danwood76", Michael Larabel doesn't make things in the Community Spirit but for such a cause I am ready to generate him some revenue. I even disabled AdBlock for this site...
Anyway, I think he should post what he found to the Community instead of saying that I found something but I would not tell you for a time cause I care more to make money than help faster and more the community...

Btw, my data:

System Information

Hardware:
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual T3200 @ 2.00GHz (2 Cores), Motherboard: FUJITSU SIEMENS ESPRIMO Mobile V5505 v20, Chipset: Intel Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 + ICH8M, Memory: 3072MB, Disk: 250GB Western Digital WDC WD2500BEVS-2, Graphics: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 IGP 256MB, Audio: Conexant CX20549 (Venice)

Software:
OS: Ubuntu 10.10, Kernel: 2.6.35-30-generic (i686), Desktop: GNOME 2.32.0, Display Server: X Server 1.9.0, Display Driver: intel 2.12.0, Compiler: GCC 4.4.5, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1280x800

Later the "battery-power-usage" benchmark, cause I need to close all the programs...

[isaidyep]

On a dell xps 15, nvidia graphics off

http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1...GR-MIRKOROSS05

[ahlaht]

HP Pavilion dv6730ed
Intel Core 2 Duo
NVidia 8400M GS running open-source driver

There's something not OK in the hardware power management; there's no OS or program able to measure the power consumption.

My HP has that problem also:
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/current_now: No such device

BIOS updates can do wonders on HP laptops.

A good idea. Unfortunately I already have the latest BIOS/UEFI.
I have upgraded it 2-3 times in the past.

[AlbertP]

At me Linux and Windows at least recognise the battery and show the %, and I can see the tension (volt) but not the power consumption. My other HP (nc6120 with a BIOS from 2005) does not suffer much from the regression.

[sylock]

On my computer (HP Compaq 6730b) enable aspm into the kernel makes cold down the computer but makes it unstable when awakes from the suspend state (sometimes it crash just after the awakening - sometimes not).

System Information

Hardware:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz (2 Cores), Motherboard: HP 30DD, Chipset: Intel Mobile 4 MCH + ICH9M, Memory: 2 x 2048 MB DDR2-800MHz, Disk: 160GB FUJITSU MHZ2160B, Graphics: Intel Mobile 4 IGP, Audio: Analog Devices AD1984A

Software:
OS: Arch, Kernel: 2.6.39-ARCH (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.0.2, Display Server: X Server 1.10.2, Display Driver: intel 2.15.0, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 7.10.3, Compiler: GCC 4.6.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1280x800

[bobi]

forums muylinux.com in a Spanish page on linux I found the case of a guy who quotes the following: I have installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a macbook 4.1 and I have that battery problem,
it seems that these computers do not have what which is a BIOS (I'm not sure a lot of computer science is not it ...), let any developer writing to compare, look for or report, it is an important detail, with which to discover the problem, which Kernel is safer

[AlbertP]

MacBooks indeed do not have an IBM-compatible BIOS like other computers, but the ACPI tables (the FADT is one of them) are still there so it's still affected by the power bug if Mac have used ASPM the Windows way.