Ubuntu Laptop Battery Usage more than Windows Vista

[Jatin Davey]

Andrew Farris wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Jatin Davey <daveyjatin at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>         Hi all
>>         
>>         I am a new convert from Windows Vista to Ubuntu. While i was
>>         using Vista
>>         the Avg time that my laptop battery would run was for 1 hour
>>         15 mins.
>>         After installing Ubuntu it runs for a maximum of 1 hour with
>>         the battery
>>         fully charged. I am using Ubuntu 9.10 on a Toshiba A135-S2386.
>>         Just
>>         curious to know if i need to tweak anything to use the battery
>>         optimally. Though i am satisfied with the support and the
>>         usage of
>>         ubuntu on my laptop just wanted to know if i am missing some
>>         thing.
>>         
>>         Note : The battery usage was observed for over 3 weeks now.
>>         
>>         Thanks
>>         Jatin
>>
>>     
>
> I fixed your top-post for you Darshana...
>
> On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 15:28 +0530, Darshana Jayasinghe wrote:
>   
>> Did u try saving power by changing CPU frequency? Laptops have a
>> greater effect on frequency reducing. 
>>     
>
> @Jatin: Another thing you can try is running powertop from a terminal
> (must first install with a sudo apt-get install powertop, or through
> synaptic) this program can, a lot of times, help you reduce the power
> load of your system by turning off some unneeded services, suspending
> USB ports, etc. when on battery. 
>
> You can also check "System > Preferences > Power Management", and
> configure your laptop to turn the monitor off after a certain time to
> save battery, and to spin down hard disks when possible...which also
> helps.
>
> To monitor/configure your laptop CPU's frequency, look at adding 
> the CPU frequency scaling monitor to your panel (right-click > add to
> panel > CPR frequency scaling monitor)...this applet will let you know
> what your frequency is, and let you manually change the mode your CPUs
> are in (though this is usually automatically handled).
>
> Lastly, if you're using compiz, consider cutting down on the effects, or
> turning it off altogether, and use metacity's compositing instead, if
> you just want the drop-shadows and stuff... running compiz means you
> will use more GPU, taking more battery.
>
> that said, even with compiz running on my new dell laptop, I still
> regularly get about 3:20-3:45 on my battery, depending on what I'm
> doing...and this is a standard battery, not a long-life one.
>
> Hope that helps!
>
>   
Thanks all.

I would try the mentioned settings and get back if it helps or any 
further assistance is needed.

Thanks
Jatin