November 2004
Intermediate to advanced
272 pages
10h 6m
English
Content preview from PC Hardware AnnoyancesBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
BATTERY ANNOYANCES
MAXIMIZING BATTERY LIFE
The Annoyance:
My laptop battery seems to last about 10 minutes. How can I squeeze more life out of this thing?
The Fix:
To get more running time from a battery charge, try these popular tips:
- Remove unnecessary devices.
For example, PC Cards (PCMCIA devices) and USB optical mice draw additional power while connected. If you don’t really need that PC Card hard drive, NIC, or mouse, remove it from the system.
- Dim the display.
LCD displays can draw as much as 40% of the laptop’s total power budget. Reduce the backlight intensity (usually accomplished through a series of keystrokes defined by the laptop maker). Lower backlighting will make the display seem a bit washed-out, but it will buy you precious battery time.
- Throttle back the processor.
Many leading laptops can reduce the processor speed (and thus its power demands) to stretch the battery life (see the previous annoyance, "DVD Frames Lost When Mobile“). Of course, you may need to wait until you plug into AC power before running demanding applications.
- Adjust the power management settings.
Use the Power Options dialog to adjust the LCD shutdown and hard drive spin-down times for your system. In most cases, if you set the Power scheme to Portable/Laptop, it will adjust the display and drive settings to a default value.
- Use the suspend mode.
Close the LCD lid whenever you step away from the laptop. This puts the laptop into suspend (or standby) mode.
- Cycle the battery periodically.
If you consistently ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.