# What do you do to improve laptop's battery life?

## senseiwa

I think it's a nice idea to share informations about the laptops and the settings & programs used to improve battery life. With gentoo I mean   :Very Happy: 

----------

## vla_do

```
emerge cpuspeedy
```

cpuspeedy - A simple and easy to use program to control the speed and the voltage of CPUs on the fly.

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## senseiwa

```

emerge cpufreqd

```

Settings:

```

[General]

pidfile=/var/run/cpufreqd.pid

poll_interval=2

pm_type=acpi

# acpi_workaround=1

verbosity=4

[Profile]

name=hi_boost

minfreq=1200000

maxfreq=1600000

policy=performance

[Profile]

name=medium_boost

minfreq=900000

maxfreq=1200000

policy=performance

[Profile]

name=lo_boost

minfreq=600000

maxfreq=900000

policy=performance

[Profile]

name=lo_power

minfreq=600000

maxfreq=900000

policy=powersave

# conservative mode when not AC

[Rule]

name=conservative

ac=off

battery_interval=0-100   

cpu_interval=0-40

profile=lo_boost

# need some power

[Rule]

name=lo_cpu_boost

ac=off

battery_interval=0-100

cpu_interval=30-80

profile=medium_boost

# need big power (not if battery very low)

[Rule]

name=hi_cpu_boost

ac=off

battery_interval=50-100

cpu_interval=70-100

profile=medium_boost

# full power when AC

[Rule]

name=AC_on

ac=on

profile=hi_boost

# full power when watching DVDs and not AC:

# this is the last rule and takes less

# precedence with respect to the others

[Rule]

name=dvd_watching

ac=off

battery_interval=0-100

programs=xine,mplayer,avidemux

cpu_interval=0-100

profile=hi_boost

```

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## Anior

```
less /usr/src/linux/Documentation/laptop-mode.txt
```

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## nephros

[EDIT:]degermanification

Disable any hardware you don't need to be on all the time either via the BIOS or by not loading the kernel modules.

USB and PCMCIA are examples for this.

but the abovementioned HOWTO sais this already.

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## senseiwa

 *nephros wrote:*   

> Alle Hardware die du nicht ständig benötigst per BIOS oder Nichtladen von Kernelmodulen ausschalten. 
> 
> Aber das steht eh im obengenannten HOWTO.

 

Ehem... can you talk in english? This is a non-localized forum...

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## nephros

 *senseiwa wrote:*   

> Ehem... can you talk in english? This is a non-localized forum...

 

AAHRGL   :Embarassed: 

Sorry, I was posting in a German Forum at the same time. Translating now.

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## alkan

Depending on your battery type, Once every a few month, totaly drain your battery by turning off "sleep and turnoff when battery low" options. Then fully charge it. this procedure helps avoid the memory effect. Clean battery contacts also helps.

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## drakos7

Only true for NiCad batteries. Li-ion batteries should not have memory effect.

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## chrism

Do I have to run 

```
rc-update add cpufreqd default
```

?

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## chrism

ohh and why do I need "cpuspeedy". Sorry to border you but I am sort of new to Linux.   :Very Happy: 

Chris

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