imiprove battery and lower heat production?

[ultra99]

Do you think disabling services and any other tweaks could improve battery life?

 

[demandarin]

Yes it could. There are things/optimizations to make battery life even better. Try running it in power savings mode to.see how it performs. Only put brightness high enough to where u can see. The brighter the display, the more battery drains. Or set your own custom power profile and see how you like it. Set tablet to sleep and hibernate sooner. Cut wifi off when not in use. Don't leave Bluetooth on if you not using it.

Things like that and more can increase battery life. Bit the display is the main drainer though. Cutting down brightness alone can extend battery life and reduce heat. Power savings mode could reduce heat also. But with i5 processor, it will get warm regardless. It'll never get hot to the point of danger. Safety mechanism in there to throttle speed to reduce heat if it gets to warm. So there's no worries. Plus this thing is metal.

Someone should make a battery life thread. To share settings and stuff to get the most battery life out of our devices.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

There is only so much software tweaks can do. You can not change something that is inherently part of the Ivy Bridge CPU architecture. The Surface Pro 2 will use the fourth generation Haswell architecture resulting in lower power usage = longer battery = less heat = less cooling = less thickness = less weight.

 

[demandarin]

Damn type cover just erased everything I wrote..lol too much to repeat..smh

Just check out the advanced settings of each power mode. You will see it has huge impact on battery life with what mode you choose. These modes take effect immediately. You can open task manager then performance to see real time cpu speeds and how they change immediately upon choosing various modes.

Performance gives you maximum cpu and Intel graphics performance and sets brightness on high. I use this mode while gaming or plugged up. For me, my cpu speeds stay around 2.2-2.4Ghz or higher full time.

Balanced gives you maximum power when needed or is called for. But when it isn't, it'll lower speeds to around 0.78Ghz or so.

Power Savings mode will dim the display. Which is still acceptable for me. Its cpu speeds stay at 0.78Ghz or lower. Cpu speeds and Intel graphics are set to maximum battery life. The sleep and hibernation activation times are also shorter.

I'm using power savings mode now and don't notice any negative effects on performance. Everything still loads up just as fast. No lag at all. Of course I won't do any serious gaming in this mode. For that I'd use balanced or performance. But it even states power savings mode is recommended for laptops or in our case tablet pc formgetting the most battery life on a single charge. Most people don't need pc to be at maximum speeds. So try this mode out to see how it performs for your usage of getting the most out of battery on a single charge is important to you. I will try this mode out later off of a full charge to see just how much longer it'll last. Of I'm already getting 5hrs or a little more on balanced, I can easily see powersavings mode getting 6- maybe 7hrs. The 2 biggest factors on battery life is CPU speeds/graphics and display brightness. This mode addresses those and reduces them.

So it is worth peeking around in power mode settings and advanced settings in there to get most out of battery life on device we have now. Just because a newer processor is going to arrive for a new surface won't help our current situation..lo. We trying to get the most out of what we have already. I'll use this mode more and post back on how long battery lasts.

Are there any battery apps/programs like on Android that show actual battery usage times? Along with Screen on times, standby times, etc.. like the various parts that's using up the most battery.

 

[ultra99]

When I have multiple tabs opened in IE, the cpu locks at 100%! Then of course the heat and fans kick in.

 

[demandarin]

Today when I got off work I put my pro on power savings mode. It was fully charged so I unplugged it to see how long it'll last. I took it off charger at 3:41p.m. I've been using it off and on. I originally planned on using it straight through but I've been under the weather and kept wanti,g to sleep. But whenever I got up I used my Pro to surf the web. This forum and Facebook. Then I looked at a variety of news apps like Bento or Appy. I didmt mess with screen brightness or anything. I left it at where power savings mode put it. Which was more than adequate for me indoors. I will also say I saw no negative impact on Performance despite task manager, Performance tab, snowed me constantly at 0.78Ghz vpu speed.

So I took it off charger at 3:41p.m. its now 1:49a.m. I still have 46% battery left. Seems like it barely drains in standby in between my uses. Its telling me I still have about 3hrs. Left of use. Kind of amazing considering I'm using it alot. Streamed a few videos also.

If you not gaming on your session of use, I highly recommend power savings mode if you want to extend battery life by alot.

I have to cut my test short because I feel like playing The Walking Dead PC game on my pro. Which runs excellent at full resolution and graphics detail on high. So I'm about to plug pro up and put it in performance mode and play that game. Just wanted to report my findings with power savings mode so far. Amazing I still have about half battery life left considering how much I've been using it. Once again, no lag or slowdown what so ever. Apps and browsers still opened up fast and scrolling very smooth. Its worth trying this mode out. See what you can pull out of it with your type of usage.