Battery life display in taskbar

[Guest]

Archived from groups: 24hoursupport.helpdesk,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I've got a new notebook and have noticed that the battery life icon in the
bottom right corner of the task bar only fluctuates between 3 different
levels of charge. Is there a better way, or 3rd party application which will
give a better indication of battery life?

Also, is there any utility I can use which can give me a guestimate as to
how much battery life I have remaining in minutes, rather than as a
percentage? I've seen this on other notebooks, but can't seem to enable it
in any Power Management features of my Centrino.

Finally, any essential hints, tips and tweaks for a first time laptop user,
are greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 16:37:28 +1100, "Rudiger Flatula"
<rudigur@yahoo.com> wrote:

>3rd party application which will
>give a better indication of battery life?


If there is one, it would be very old. Since W2K/XP have built-in batt
meter, no new development of this utility has been necessary.

Use the one that came with your machine first, then the one built-in
Windows, one of them ought to work right. Now if you have one of them
made-in-Sri-Lanka laptops, anything is possible.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: 24hoursupport.helpdesk,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Rudiger Flatula" <rudigur@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:422a9702$0$22660$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au:

> I've got a new notebook and have noticed that the battery life icon in
> the bottom right corner of the task bar only fluctuates between 3
> different levels of charge. Is there a better way, or 3rd party
> application which will give a better indication of battery life?
>
> Also, is there any utility I can use which can give me a guestimate as
> to how much battery life I have remaining in minutes, rather than as a
> percentage? I've seen this on other notebooks, but can't seem to
> enable it in any Power Management features of my Centrino.
>
> Finally, any essential hints, tips and tweaks for a first time laptop
> user, are greatly appreciated. Cheers.

As far as I know, my battery meter is just part of Windows XP, and it does
display both percentage and estimated time remaining. It seems like the
only option is Control Panel|Power Options|Advanced tab|Always show icon on
the task bar.

--
Tom McCune
http/www.McCune.cc

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: 24hoursupport.helpdesk,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 06 mar 2005 "Rudiger Flatula" <rudigur@yahoo.com> wrote
news:422a9702$0$22660$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au in
24hoursupport.helpdesk:

> I've got a new notebook and have noticed that the battery life icon in
> the bottom right corner of the task bar only fluctuates between 3
> different levels of charge. Is there a better way, or 3rd party
> application which will give a better indication of battery life?
>
> Also, is there any utility I can use which can give me a guestimate as
> to how much battery life I have remaining in minutes, rather than as a
> percentage? I've seen this on other notebooks, but can't seem to
> enable it in any Power Management features of my Centrino.
>
probably a hardware issue, the only indicator on my laptop is a series of
rather loud beeps about 10 seconds before it powers down, that is shuts
off, a/k/a not enough time to save and shutdown softly.

I reckon you'll just have to live with it.

> Finally, any essential hints, tips and tweaks for a first time laptop
> user, are greatly appreciated. Cheers.
>
1. get a laptop bag. my laptop got scratched and dirty real fast.
2. if your laptop seems extremely loud, check if the microfone is on ;-)
damn annoying, mine is right next to the already not too silent
harddrive.
3. if you have wireless network, get netstumbler, really neat program to
find APs and measure the strength.


--
R. Amtjip ;-P
Just mail away, I'm trying out gmail's spam killer by having a REAL
address in my header *gosh*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: 24hoursupport.helpdesk,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Charlie, I downloaded "mobmeter" and upon installing on my TP600e, I
saw that although my power adaptor is plugged in (the icon on my
systray shows "charging"), mobmeter says it is really not charhing the
battery (my battery tops off at 43% and lasts about 1 hour to get to
5%). So I think there are two dynamics here going on:

The laptop charging circuit says: charge the battery as it's charge is
less than 100%
The battery smart logic says: accept no charging since I am already
charged as much as I can take (through the srial communication pins).

Therefore, leaving the power adaptor plugged in or turned off doesn't
really matter. When I am using the laptop on battery only I see
graphically the battery being used, and if 15-30 minutes later I
plugged the power in, I see charging going on. So, it is really the
battery pack smart circuit that controls the true charging currents.

 

[Charlie]

Archived from groups: 24hoursupport.helpdesk,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I strongly advise that you look after your battery and avoid repeated
over-charging as this shortens its life. Make it a routine to switch off at
the mains at the end of each day.

Try this site for general hints and tips:
http/www.any-batteries.co.uk/tips.htm

Hope you find it helpful despite all the typographical errors!

Best wishes,

Charlie


"Robert Amtjip" <ramtjip@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9611BF0D491A2ramtjipgmailcom@67.98.68.13...
> On 06 mar 2005 "Rudiger Flatula" <rudigur@yahoo.com> wrote
> news:422a9702$0$22660$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au in
> 24hoursupport.helpdesk:
>
>> I've got a new notebook and have noticed that the battery life icon in
>> the bottom right corner of the task bar only fluctuates between 3
>> different levels of charge. Is there a better way, or 3rd party
>> application which will give a better indication of battery life?
>>
>> Also, is there any utility I can use which can give me a guestimate as
>> to how much battery life I have remaining in minutes, rather than as a
>> percentage? I've seen this on other notebooks, but can't seem to
>> enable it in any Power Management features of my Centrino.
>>
> probably a hardware issue, the only indicator on my laptop is a series of
> rather loud beeps about 10 seconds before it powers down, that is shuts
> off, a/k/a not enough time to save and shutdown softly.
>
> I reckon you'll just have to live with it.
>
>> Finally, any essential hints, tips and tweaks for a first time laptop
>> user, are greatly appreciated. Cheers.
>>
> 1. get a laptop bag. my laptop got scratched and dirty real fast.
> 2. if your laptop seems extremely loud, check if the microfone is on ;-)
> damn annoying, mine is right next to the already not too silent
> harddrive.
> 3. if you have wireless network, get netstumbler, really neat program to
> find APs and measure the strength.
>
>
> --
> R. Amtjip ;-P
> Just mail away, I'm trying out gmail's spam killer by having a REAL
> address in my header *gosh*