LlamaGuy Posted January 26, 2006 Share Posted January 26, 2006 Well now that Broadcom wireless is fully functional in 8f1099 and 8f1111 I decided to bite the 10.4.3 bullet and upgrade to 8f1099. I chose 1099 over 1111 because of the virtual memory differences in 1111. I'm running a Dell C640, no SSE3 and an ATI Radeon 7500. In 10.4.1 I could get about 1h50m of battery life while using my laptop with wireless on and brightness around mid level. In 8f1099 I only got 1h20m with brightness all the way down and wireless on. That's not even enough to make it through one class which just won't do. So now I have all weekend to come up with a solution until I'll need my trusty dellBook again for class on Tuesday. How do you guys think 8f1111 will hold up to 10.4.1 when it comes to battery life? I'm assuming it won't be too good because of the 4gb/4gb VM swap problems. What are some things I can do to improve battery life? Here's some things on my check list 1) Play with the ATIRadeon.kext kernel extensions, try with and without it loaded 2) Maybe kill some unused services That's all I got... any suggestions or insight? I have a dream of one day getting QE supported with my 7500. I know it's possible... it meets the hardware requirements. I'm sure that would improve battery life quite a bit because the CPU wouldn't have to render so much. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
xkenneth Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 (edited) It's called some paper and a pen. What do you need a notebook for in class? Maybe a programming class.... Also, what sort of battery life do you get under windows? Edited January 27, 2006 by xkenneth Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49047 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LlamaGuy Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 It's called some paper and a pen. What do you need a notebook for in class? Maybe a programming class.... Thank you for your help! No really, I appreciate it. Go to college with a laptop and then with a pen and paper and tell me which one you like better. Also, what sort of battery life do you get under windows? And to respond to your edit -- Somewhere around three hours, if I remember correctly. I only need 1h30m to make it through my lecture classes, which is I've been using 10.4.1 on my laptop. I like the interface better than Windows, and Word:mac's Audio Notebook is the coolest thing I've ever seen for taking notes. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49050 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LlamaGuy Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 Alright, to get an accurate measurement on the battery usage, I used my debug version of PowerManagement.bundle (http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=2237) to look at the current being pulled from the battery in various situations. I took four consecutive samples on a fresh boot with wireless off, no programs (besides console) and brightness all the way down. Here's what I came up with: Without ATIRadeon.kext, no kext loaded 1233, 1230, 1225, 1243 With ATIRadeon.kext from 8f1099 loaded 1259, 1244, 1267, 1341 With ATIRadeon.kext from 10.4.4 loaded 1286, 1297, 1279, 1339 Repeat with no kext loaded 1278, 1323, 1275, 1256 The differences are marginal at best. Anyone have some ideas of other things I could test? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49198 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xkenneth Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 Yes I do attend college, and I stand firm that pen and paper beat a laptop for note taking. Was just a bit of sarcasm, no hard feelings. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49261 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LlamaGuy Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 Yes I do attend college, and I stand firm that pen and paper beat a laptop for note taking. Was just a bit of sarcasm, no hard feelings. To each his own, I guess. I can type twice as fast as I can write, record the lecture at the same time, and it comes out neater. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49304 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazymonkeypants Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 You're not going to get good battery life out of Mac OS on non-Apple portables; the OS power management strategy is heavily dependent on specific hardware in the system. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49366 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LlamaGuy Posted January 27, 2006 Author Share Posted January 27, 2006 You're not going to get good battery life out of Mac OS on non-Apple portables; the OS power management strategy is heavily dependent on specific hardware in the system. Yes, I realize that but I just want to squeeze out an extra 20 minutes. I was able to do it in 10.4.1 and just wanted the same thing in 10.4.3. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49544 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzie123 Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 I agree with crazymonkeypants. My brother's iBook can squeeze up to 5 hours life time without any sacrifice on performance. And with some little tweaking done, It can get through more than 6 hours (well... 6 hours top). Mine? Can only get it less than 2 hours... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49675 Share on other sites More sharing options...
U.C. Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 ur best bet get a sony, they have like 9 hours battery life in windows, so it must be atleast 5 hrs in mac Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-49983 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzie123 Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 Rather than buying Sony VAIO that'll cost you 1500-up, just wait for intel-based iBook. I believe it will be priced $999 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-50004 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LlamaGuy Posted January 31, 2006 Author Share Posted January 31, 2006 I've reevaluated my battery situation in Windows, and it turns out that 10.4.1 is getting roughly what Windows gets. Quite interesting... the battery performance was getting worse and worse as the versions went on. I wonder what would happen if someone installed 10.4.1 on their MacBook... though I don't know if that would be possible with the EFI problems. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-50932 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ultrasoul Posted June 10, 2006 Share Posted June 10, 2006 Have a Dell 9-cell battery (a premium over the standard 6 cell) and it lasts for 5 hours in Windows XP with Wi-Fi on. When running 10.4.6, I can only get 2 hours and 30 minutes. Anyone know of a solution to get better battery life? I always thought OS X was more efficient Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-127435 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashgotti Posted June 10, 2006 Share Posted June 10, 2006 I've gotten 6 hours on my t42 with it's stock battery with OSX tho I get about 2 hours, but wifi was on and i was watching a movie. i gotta try it out in the fall in class. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7823-best-battery-life/#findComment-127531 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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