Battery life of Vista vs XP on laptop ?

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

I am wondering:

Which operating system would last longer on a laptop:

1. Windows Vista Premium with the aero/glass gui.

or

2. Windows XP with basic gui, no special effects.

Some hardware details:

The laptop has NVidia GeForce Go 7300 128 MB (Graphics).
Intel Core Duo T2250. 1.73 GHZ

(This is not my laptop... "I am just taking care of it" =D)

The owner wants XP on it and pinacle studio.
(Vista problably drives him crazy <-everything different and chaotic)

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Bob]

Hello,

I am wondering:

Which operating system would last longer on a laptop:

1. Windows Vista Premium with the aero/glass gui.

or

2. Windows XP with basic gui, no special effects.

Some hardware details:

The laptop has NVidia GeForce Go 7300 128 MB (Graphics).
Intel Core Duo T2250. 1.73 GHZ

(This is not my laptop... "I am just taking care of it" =D)

The owner wants XP on it and pinacle studio.
(Vista problably drives him crazy <-everything different and chaotic)

Bye,
Skybuck.

http://www.google.com/search?q=vist...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Hmm..

I just learned a neat trick from reading the laptop's manual which I will
share with you

"Windows Key" + E = brings up window explorer ! NEAT

Also:

shift+windows key+m makes minimize all undone

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Joerg]

http://www.pbus-167.com/

This will help, my Dell I9300 when't from four hours to 6 hours per charge.

Interesting. I wonder how one can find out whether or not CPU clock
speed changes are supported on a certain machine. The "manuals" that
come with them these days barely go past "Do not stick this into your
mouth".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Dave]

Hello,

I am wondering:

Which operating system would last longer on a laptop:

Given everyone (myself included) have complained about the excess
resources (in particular CPU) that vista uses, it is likely it will use
more power.

Given all the special visual effects they will use more power from your
graphics chipset.

My own laptop has two chipsets - Nvida and Intel. The Nvida uses more
power, but is quicker. A switch can select one or the other.

The possible flaw in my argument will be if the drivers for power
management exist for Vista, but not XP, or if the drivers for XP are
less well refined.

I personally use Solaris x86 on my laptop now. Despite spending over
£1600 ($3200) on a laptop which came with Vista Business, I've now
resorted to a free operating system. Vista was too slow, with 2 GB RAM
and dual core 2.0 GHz.

Dave

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Well,

The replacement of Vista back to XP is mostly done.

The acer chaps where nice enough to provide all necessary drivers for
windows xp on their website

I had to download them from my own computer though... since the laptop's
network card wasn't detected by windows

Well I'll spare you the details but it was quite an undertaking.. but
interesting undertaking

Actually this is the first time I was actually glad to remove a microsoft
operating system...

I was signing:

"Since you've be gone !" LOL.

I do feel a bit sorry for Vista... it was nice looking but just way too
chaotic...

XP is much more peacefull.. and clean... and efficient

I hope the dude likes it... I put on the classic xp gui... with visual
effects all turned off for maximum gui response...

And ofcourse fully updated... This is what I did I shall give you some
important details/tips:

I learned from my pentium iii upgrade experience.... windowsupdate was way
too slow.. and probably buggy.

So what I did was:

1. Download Service Pack 2 from download center.
2. Download Service Pack 3 from download center.
3. Disable messenger service.
4. Install SP2, Reboot
5. Install SP3, Reboot
6. Install IE7, Reboot
7. Apply further patches via windows update.
8. Install flash media player.
9. Install acrobat reader.
10. Install windows live messenger/mail/etc in case he wants that.
11. Remove the old msn messenger.

Hopefully the computer will be stable...

My own xp computer seemed to have some issue's with iexplore.exe which would
remain active... also some explorer.exe crashes... maybe that's a
windowsupdate **** up... or a crack issue.

The laptop is 100% legal though... so far it seems to be working ok.

More work needs to be done though like:

12. Install quicktime.
13. Install Office.
14. Install Pinacle Studio.

Try some stuff out.

The dude has a external usb drive which came in handy to store the drivers
on...

SP2/SP3 install did something a little bit odd.. it used D: for temp
storage... not sure if that was smart but ok. USB drive only 6 mbyte/sec.
But it was still acceptable speed.

I also made some backup's with norton ghost 14... and made a recovery cd...
not sure if it will work... I did do a boot... it looked ok... it seems to
use windows ? wow weird/special... it needs 500 mb of ram to work... laptop
has 2 GB ram.

Actually it's an acer Aspire 9410... so there ya go.. full detail there
hehe.. it doesn't have the webcam though.. hd is 120 gb... external drive
was 500 gb.

Haven't tried any games on it yet... I am bit curious if that's possible and
how good it will work and how the refresh rate will be.

Oh yeah btw... I did not install the acer empowering technology bullshit...
the dude didn't like that so... I left that out... the pad seems to work a
little bit odd/buggy or maybe that was because I had a mouse attached to it
as well... but I did manage to configure the pad a little bit better... the
quick launch buttons on the laptop seem a bit bullshit.

Also I was quite surprised when vista was on it... it automatically
connected to wirelss networks etc.. that was just configure issue though..

XP has all the possibilities that vista has... xp is nice... at least it
didn't auto connect to somebody elses network lol..

There were at least 5 wifi networks in my neighbourhood.. one unsecured
which the laptop can use... but I just used my own cable internet
connection... I don't want any trouble...

It seems like the wifi network was running unix or so.. maybe it's a
honeyport or a criminal... or just a city service I dont know...

The LCD display was pretty good/crispy... they it must be placed correctly
otherwise the angle aint nice.

The laptop seems to have bluetooth as welll but I don't have any bluetooth
devices... so I am a bit curious about that... I hope somebody I know has
bluetooth... could be funny to try out.. maybe the dude has bluetooth
himself who knows !?

Oh that reminds me... I didn't re-try the flash card reader...

I tried it with a flash sd card... but I think the hardware doesn't support
the flash sd card... it's old style pcmia flash card reader I think not
sure... I did install drivers for it... there is a black placeholder in it..
probably just to prevent it from getting dirty... first I thought it was
some kind of simlock or something... but it's just a piece of plastic...

There is also an expansion pcimia slot or something...

There is one little thingy which is kinda surprising to me:

The laptop has only 1 ethernet connection (It does have a modem though).

So lan+internet = nono. unless maybe use a router...

Yeah that is kinda ****y...

The laptop would have been better with two ethernet adapters !

It does have 4 usb ports ? hmmm bit unbalanced it seems

Oh well it's a laptop from 2005 I guess... not sure about that.

Video playback was ok... sound was ok I guess for a laptop...

dvd/cd drive reading was ok.

Haven't tried burning...

Wireless network worked ok at 100 kbyte/sec.

That kinda surprised me... I was expecting lower rates because of
interference or so..

Also don't keep laptop against pacemaker or medical equipment that could be
dangerous !

Actualy I haven't yet looked on the inside... maybe I'll do that tomorrow
just for kicks... just to have seen it... how the thing looks on the
inside... via the little slots on the back side... where drive and memory
is...

I don't have to see the battery though... gonna leave that one alone acid
is scary...

I don't understand the acer boys though... why did they make two partitions
?

It's weird... I just made one big 120 GB drive... nice and simple...

The acer boys also had some private little parition or something... strange
guys those acer salesmen hehe

I was thinking about making the background black... to see energy or so...
but that's probably bullshit... since the light shines through the crystals
anyway... and the black looked too much like death I didn't like it.

Then I tried a custom blue but I didn't like that as welll... because the
icon's mostly looked weird... and I didn't like the blue as well...

So finally I switched to xp-classic theme look.. which has a little funny
trick up it's sleave... it makes the icon's background and the windows
background the same color see it seems like the icons are transparent but in
reality they aren't not ?

Anyway that looks best I think the blue is also a little bit special...
it's not the blue/greenish from the color table... it's a custom blue. It's
nice looking.

Something else was kinda strange... I choose to disable fast user
switching... I know this causes a login screen... the password is blank...
so he still has to press enter... at first this kinda annoyed me a bit.. but
then I got used to it pretty quickly... I think it has a little adventage
probably too since shutdown can be done immediatly..

There was something strange though... when I tried to turn it back on again
it said that first offline working mode must be on or something... and
personal storage...

I didn't like the work offline mode so much... it's weird... it has images
missing etc.. and it is just stupid because then the user has to re-enable
online again.

And this guy seems a little bit like a newby... who didn't even know he
could get rid of the toolbar's...

Nowadays all these software developers go crazy with toolbars... google
toolbar, acro toolbar, search toolbar, etc, etc, etc STOP THE ****ING
TOOLBAR MADNESS HAHA, it's bad for newbies I guess.. it clutters the screen
!

Well don't worry... no toolbars installed... I dechecked those during
installs.

Yeah I had to make some other minor adjustments for more enjoyment:

1. Turn off personalized menu's. (this gets rid of the stupid
collapse/arrows bah).
2. Use classic menu.
3. Decheck remove unused icon's.

I just like to see everything that's on the pc... not just some stupid
personalized bullshit based on usage.. bleh.. so now it's nice... everything
can be seen instantously. Even those programs which are rarely used... but
still used !

Norton Ghost 14 disappointed me a bit at the start though.

It doesn't seem backwards compatible with it's previous versions ? but I
could be wrong... but I couldn't open old system backup files ?

Also it has multiple services running in the background.

(I didn't install it on the laptop though)

I am wondering if I should make a new backup of the laptop too...

But this ghost is like in the tray... even when it's disabled and such...
maybe I just make a backup... and then remove ghost again... or maybe I just
disable it... in the services...the dude probably doesn't need it and it's
overkill anyway... making backups all the time like that... it's also an
illegal version... so I have my doubts about installing it... maybe it's
trojaned who knows

But then again if the dude does manage to screw up his machine maybe norton
can be faster... but then again he'll loose data etc... so that's kinda
sucky...

Took me like one full day to backup vista, and install windows xp sp1, to
sp3 with all extra's. Still not done though see above.

So only thing I am worried about is:

Do I ghost ? or Do I not ghost ?

Bye,
Skybuck =D

 

[Skybuck Flying]

What do the power management drivers do ?

So what are you hinting at ?

The laptop I am taking care of it... has some eTechnology...

like emporing stuff... I am not sure if it's really necessary for windows...

It seems some reporting stuff.. but the manual also mentioned some
configuring stuff...

So I am not sure if this e-stuff is to be considered drivers as welll I'l
have to look into that tomorrow.

I am guessing it's probably redundant stuff and is not really necessary.
(acer specific stuff me thinks <- yeah )

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Yeah this is the song lol:

BYE VISTA LOL.

Bye,
Skybuck

 

[Dave]

What do the power management drivers do ?

So what are you hinting at ?

Drivers will decide when the disk has not been used much and so it can
save power by spinning it down. They will determine when you are not
using much CPU and so reduce the clock speed. They might dim the screen
a bit more on battery than they do on mains. There are a lot of things
that can be done to reduce power. If intelligent drives exist for Vista,
but not XP, then XP's power consumption could be higher than Vista. But
assuming the drivers have similar performance for each, then I would
expect Vista to run batteries down quicker.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

I also noticed how installing the graphics driver improved the
web-performance a lot.

So I also installed the graphics drivers onto my Pentium 3 which I
completely forgot to do

So it's probably a bit faster now.

Today the new case will probably arrive so I can start re-building my Dream
Pc

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

Today I shall report on my experience with Norton Ghost which I played with
yesterday on the laptop. Here is what happened:

1. The vista installation had two paritions of each 60 GB.

These were backed up to two different files.

2. The disk was then formatted into one parition and windows xp pro was
installed on it.

3. The xp installation was then backed up to one file.

4. Then I tried to restore the vista installation directly to the drive.

It only restored on drive... the c drive, it did not automatically restore
the d drive.

The result was a mismatch in parition sizes compared to the original.

The vista drive was now 120 GB instead of the original 60 GB... so that's
bad !.

5. Then I tried to restore vista by booting to the cd myself.

6. This time I selected both drives.

The tool started restoring but then half way it stopped with an error it
could not read/write the sector... probably for drive d which didn't exist.

So I figured it's a partion size/layout issue.

7. Unfortunately the tool has a very crude partition table tool... I didn't
know how to make two partitions of 60 GB... I could only delete a partition
which didn't help.

The tool is apperently unable to make the necessary partition sizes itself.

This is a very big shortcoming in Norton Ghost 14.

8. I also tried the command prompt but FDISK was missing... I could not find
any other tool to partition with.

9. I hoped windows xp setup disk might be of help. It has partitioning
during the setup... I didn't know what would happen if I cancelled the
installation after partitioning it. Was it just a setup up or did it do it ?

Fortunately for me... windows xp's setup cd does do the paritioning even if
the install is cancelled.

Hoorah for that !

10. So finally I made two paritions myself each of 60 GB.

11. Then I restored both vista disks... and low and behold it worked.

The tool is pretty simple... but this partitioning thingy makes it bad for
newbs

Anyway...

It has some other interesting capabilities like:

Turning a backup file into a virtual disk... Gonna try mounting such a
virtual disk later when my Dream PC is back online

Using an external usb harddisk to store/restore backups was quite easy....
no dvd/cd swapping necessary which is nice... I could just walk up and take
a nap

I got dizzy from the napping though I think but anyway

Having to switch hundreds of dvd's sound horrible... oh well.

But the usb harddisk has a little disadventage too..

It requires extra power adapters... and thus extra power wall sockets or
extension cords/devices !

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Also:

The laptop was busy doing something.

I plugged the power cable into the power socket.

But I did not know the power extension box was not attached to the wall
socket.

So the laptop started working with it's battery.

After only two hours or so xp said: better plug in or you might start losing
work or something like that...

I was like: "wow ? It was fully charge... is it already running low ?!?"

Wow such crap ! Glad I don't have a laptop for main work.

Anyway I also noticed the hd is a bit slow in it's response not sure why
that is...

That kinda annoyed me a bit

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Also yesterday I played BF2 Demo on the laptop under vista...

The laptop got hot after a while.

It was able to play BF2 at all high... it played pretty well... except when
I flew near the carrier.. then it started to slow down... probably because
of too few pixel shaders etc.

Then I had to stop, laptop was getting to hot me thinks.

Also the sound made the laptop keys shake a bit... unpleasant.

Also I worry about dangerous radiation from wireless stuff.

Now vista has been replaced with xp backup once again

So no more vista from now on...

Tomorrow... actually today the laptop will probably go back to it's owner


It was fun and interesting... but I am glad when it's out of my house.

Only thing I still wanna do is change some colors of my own software so it
looks better on Vista... but I can probably do that with a virtual disk
image of it.

Which I still gotta make and transfer to my computer.

Right now it's transferring a xp image... just in case I need/want that too


Nice and clean.. oh yeah that reminds of a little dll replacement experiment
I want to do with my own pc/p3.

I also ordered 4 pin extension for dream pc... at pcsilent or something...
those boys pretty fast as well.. cable will probably arrive today or
tomorrow... nice !

Fingers crossed with all other cable lengths

I also probably didn't need splitters... since fan mulox things can be
extended by itself.

Bye,
Skybuck =D

 

[krw]

For a laptop "doing something" two hours is a pretty typical battery life.


Plenty of people use laptops for their "main work" -- they just keep them
plugged in.

Mine sits in a docking station, connected to a 24" monitor. ;-)