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13578
July 26th, 2013 03:00
Battery only lasts 90 minutes in M18x R2
For the last month my now 4 month old Alienware M18xR2 only lasts 90 minutes on a fully charged battery. I am only doing general internet browsing and using MS Office 2007. I do have the twin 680M video cards active but doubt this will be a huge factor as I'm not doing any 3D usage.
Surely the battery should last more than 3 months.
When I first got this laptop I was getting over 4 hours usage.
Any suggestions as to how I can fix this or do I have a faulty battery?
cheers
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morblore
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2.4K Posts
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July 26th, 2013 07:00
High performance will do it to. Changes things like drive timeouts, CPU clocks and such. If you turn off the GPU's and used the on board when on battery it will increase your battery life.
morblore
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July 26th, 2013 05:00
Hi heywheelie
Awesome system btw, you picked right
Anywho, battery life will degrade over time but not by almost 75% in just 3 months. So it has to be a difference in configuration from when you first received it and now. First thing that stands out is having the dual GPU's active. I don't think they come that way from the factory and leaving them on is going to kill your battery life. Even internet browsing will use the GPU's, they are not being used only for gaming.
I understand where you are coming from about the GPU's but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. They are energy hogs when it comes to battery life. Kill the GPU's and then see if your battery life doesn't go back up.
heywheelie
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July 26th, 2013 06:00
Hi Morblore,
My setup is exactly as I bought it, the only change I've made is to turn Secure Boot on in BIOS and change the power profile from Balanced to High Performance. I had expected a drop from changing the power profile but not as much as it has.
I was using the dual GPUs and still getting 4 hours on balanced now on high performance I get 90 minutes. I'll try changing it back to balanced but I can't see it going back to 4+ hours.
Something isn't right.
morblore
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July 26th, 2013 10:00
Only time I touch high performance is if I'm on AC or running an ultrabook. One thing I always keep up is screen brightness but it's bad for battery life too. I just can't stand a dimmed screen lol.
89fordprobee
1.2K Posts
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July 26th, 2013 10:00
yeap your right about the mark for high performance, I set mine up M18x R2 dual 7970's tho and ssd's and average 1:45/2:00 hours from day I recived it, on power save/onboard video I hit over 5 hours as a test but im always tethered to the wall with ati cards enabled
heywheelie
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July 26th, 2013 20:00
Thanks for the input guys. I never realised the High performance made such a difference. At least I know everything is still working properly.
cheers