Re: Low processing power on battery

"just bob" <kilbyfan@aoldotcom> wrote in message
news: m...
> We have a bunch of Dell D630 and D830 laptops and it seems somewhere along
> the previous Dell laptop product releases - we think when Intel
> eliminated
> the SpeedStep application - we lost the ability to run laptops at full
> power while on battery.
>
> To prove this we did a test where we timed a download of files from a
> professional memory card via USB 2.0 interface and found while on battery
> the download took twice as long. We used the same card and card reader,
> SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF with SanDisk professional USB 2.0 reader, for
> both tests. We also processed about 1000 RAW digital images using
> Photoshop CS3 and doing a test on battery vs. using the AC adapter we
> found
> it takes more than twice as long.
>
> The laptop is configured using the "Quickset" application at "Maximum
> performance" and also tried using the Screensaver advanced power setting
> of
> "Always on". CPU on the test model is Core 2 Duo T7800 at 2.60Ghz with 3GB
> of RAM running WindowsXP Pro Sp3.
>
> Again, if I remember right, the older Dell laptops, going back to the D800
> and previous models where SpeedStep was employed, we could force the
> laptop to run at the same full processing power on battery as it ran on
> AC.
>
> Please let me know if you think my findings are typical. I am open to
> suggestions.
>
> Thank you,
> -Bob
>
>
>
>


Bob,

No cross-posting please, due to the nearly guaranteed resulting flame wars.

I don't know if your findings are typical, but I would not be surprised.
I'd assume that you guys have disabled SpeedStep in the Dell BIOS prior to
testing?


Stew

"S.Lewis" <> wrote in message
news:Xt1kk.1242$...
>


Also, you might wish to toy with this SpeedStep XP utility if it would serve
any function in your testing:

http://findfiles.com/list.php?string...401&db=Mirrors


Stew

I have not tried speedswitchXP yet but just to give you an idea of what
happened when I disabled SpeedStep in the BIOS: the machine ran dog slow,
and took two hours to process 1,000 12MB Camera RAW files with Photoshop
CS3. After changing the BIOS setting it took only 20 minutes.

I'll try speedswitchxp now.


"just bob" <kilbyfan@aoldotcom> wrote in message
news: m...
>
> "S.Lewis" <> wrote in message
> news:Xt1kk.1242$...
>
>
>> I don't know if your findings are typical, but I would not be surprised.
>> I'd assume that you guys have disabled SpeedStep in the Dell BIOS prior
>> to testing?
>>
>
> Hi, The Dell BIOS states if the SpeedStep Enable is set to "OFF = Place
> the system into the lowest performance state and prevent the
> IntenSpeedStep applet or native operating system driver from adjusting the
> processors performance."
>
> I'll give it a try but it sounds like performance will be degraded.
>
> But thanks for pointing to this because I had no idea Intel Speedstep
> still existed - I assume because Dell stopped loading it that it was
> something Intel discontinued.
>

"just bob" <kilbyfan@aoldotcom> wrote in message
news:489a1c23$0$17182$...
>I have not tried speedswitchXP yet but just to give you an idea of what
>happened when I disabled SpeedStep in the BIOS: the machine ran dog slow,
>and took two hours to process 1,000 12MB Camera RAW files with Photoshop
>CS3. After changing the BIOS setting it took only 20 minutes.
>
> I'll try speedswitchxp now.
>
>


I'm using that application to force a Latitude C640 (WinXP Pro SP2) to run
at a full 2.0GHz on a continual basis.