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I have trouble with battery life on ubuntu 12.10

Before I installed ubuntu 12.10, ı was user of ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

My computer is HP Probook 4530s. On 12.10 my battery life is less than 1.5 hours but on 12.04 my battery life is 2.30 - 3.00 hours.

Actually, İt sounds me crazy because sometimes i had to use my laptop portable without ac power.

Could anyone suggest anything about my problem?

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1 Answer 1

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General tips:

  1. Install jupiter. More info: Does Jupiter really improve battery power? To me this is a great battery saver since when changing from AC to battery it actually tells the kernel to set parameters to power saving. The deb installer can be found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jupiter/files/

  2. Try another desktop like Cinnamon . You can install this next to the normal Unity 3D. Unity and Compiz seem to be a bit power hungry.

  3. Install powertop and see what is causing wake up calls. The less you have the better

    sudo apt-get install powertop
    sudo powertop
    

    This AU topic: How to analysis the output of powertop to increase battery lifetime got me this link to a powertop benchmark topic. Conclusion: "For best power consumption, we should have some pm-utils power.d scripts to put the following device controllers into a low power state: webcam, audio, DRAM, ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, SATA link, and your card slot (MMC/SD)"

    Important If you want to test for wakeups, you need to close EVERYTHING except the base desktop (clean boot recommended), open a terminal, unplug, and start powertop as root. Wait 10, 15 minutes and check the result.

  4. Check for programs that you never use. If you never use bluetooth disable it from starting (boot up manager).

  5. Check the lesswatts.org website for general pointers. Though some of these seem to be already active in 12.10. For instance: VM writeback is set to 60.000 (weird thing: powertop claims it is bad).
  6. Check power management for less aggressive options. Dim the display. Spin down the hard drive when possible.
  7. ... and of course check websites like Ask Ubuntu, Phoronix or OMG! Ubuntu! for tips.
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    I submitted an edit for your question; I just added links to the last tip. Hope you don't mind :) Jan 20, 2013 at 13:28
  • @esy never :) AU is a community effort so edit away :D
    – Rinzwind
    Jan 20, 2013 at 13:29

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