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My laptop doesn't have much battery life. This is usually not a problem while running windows. Now I don't have a windows os, where these problems never cropped up. So I guess this is a graphics card issue. The proper one being loaded.

Earlier I had asked for a set of drivers for my laptop, and this post came in as a consequence of it trying what the answer suggested. My laptop info can be found on that post.

In ubuntu whenever I try to change the driver software, it reverts back to X.Org. There is no error message.

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What is the Ubuntu version? – Pilot6 Jan 3 '16 at 9:42
    
Version is 15.04 at present. – deostroll Jan 3 '16 at 12:10
    
Version is 15.04 at present. – deostroll Jan 3 '16 at 12:10
    
Your original post is 3.5 years old. Could it be your battery is just worn out? How long since "usually not a problem while running windows"? – Ruud Helderman Jan 6 '16 at 20:26
up vote 1 down vote accepted
+25

The hardware information that you had provided in your earlier question says that you are using Ubuntu 12.04 on a machine that has a NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 520MX graphics adapter.

Install the NVIDIA drivers in an alternative way, but first remove all NVIDIA related software you have had installed ... this includes bumblebee ... it will be replaced with nvidia-prime.

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo apt-get purge nvidia* bumblebee  
sudo reboot

Install the stable NVIDIA drivers for GEFORCE GT 520MX from the official Ubuntu repositories :

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-352 nvidia-prime
sudo reboot

Update addressing the comment under your question that you are using Ubuntu 15.04 now :

Generally you should use the drivers from the official Ubuntu repositories. But when you have problems with these drivers ... you can install the drivers from the GPU Drivers PPA.

Uninstall the currently installed NVIDIA drivers 352 :

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*  
sudo reboot

Install the latest official stable NVIDIA drivers 358 :

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-358 nvidia-prime
sudo reboot
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looks like a +50 soon! ;-) – Fabby Jan 3 '16 at 20:21
    
Battery drain still an issue. I get less than three hours of time. If i am supposed to install from ppa, do i have to purge nvidia-352 & nvidia-prime before doing so? Ps: haven't installed from ppa. – deostroll Jan 6 '16 at 4:14
    
@deostroll : Power consumption when using the dedicated NVIDIA graphics usually is higher compared to the intel graphics - this is not an issue because it brings along much better graphics performance and user experience. To perform a clean and proper installation, remove the currently installed drivers following the first part of the answer, before installing the new drivers from the Proprietary GPU Drivers PPA. :) – cl-netbox Jan 6 '16 at 9:58
    
What are some tests I can do to verify that the graphics works okay? My original thought was that changing graphics drivers would optimize my power consumption. Now I am sort of lost...can you please recommend something that can reduce my laptop power consumption... – deostroll Jan 6 '16 at 10:28
    
@deostroll : You can install the mesa-utils from the Ubuntu repositories (sudo apt-get install mesa-utils) and run glxdemo / glxgears / glxheads / glxinfo - additionally you can use the portable tool GPU Test to run some benchmarks -> geeks3d.com/gputest - To reduce the power consumption when running the computer in battery mode you can switch to the internal intel graphics from NVIDIA X Server Settings (PRIME Profiles) ... I hope this information helps ! :) – cl-netbox Jan 6 '16 at 10:53

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