disable ReadyBoost while on battery?

[Jan Wagner]

Hi, got a Lenovo X61t laptop/tablet with built-in SD card reader and
I'm using the reader mainly with a 4G sdhc for readyboost.

Often readyboost decides to reorder/refresh the cache with lots of
SATA drive activity for 5 minutes or so. On AC this is fine. But it
also happens on battery which is drains the battery faster.

So is there any method (say, even some 3rd party prog) to
conditionally tell readyboost not to refresh cache while on battery?

Thanks!

 

[Bill Daggett]

Hi, got a Lenovo X61t laptop/tablet with built-in SD card reader and
I'm using the reader mainly with a 4G sdhc for readyboost.

If your system has 2GB of RAM, you're not getting any "boost" from
Readyboost so you can pull the card out.

 

[Jan Wagner]

Bill Daggett kirjoitti:

If your system has 2GB of RAM, you're not getting any "boost" from
Readyboost so you can pull the card out.

Thanks, well I got 4GB RAM + 4GB SDHC.

But I don't agree about there not being any "boost". Certainly
during boot even after just hibernation Vista fetches data in
parallel from sdhc and disk, it shaves off about 6 seconds. My usual
applications start faster too (Matlab, Xilinx ISE, VStudio, Eclipse,
....) and Vista does the same parallel fetch.

So I'd like at one hand to keep readyboost active and save battery
power thanks to parallel and shorter-duration use of more efficient
sdhc and powerhungry drive seeks.

And at the other hand prevent Vista from updating the readyboost
cache at the wrong time - it should do it only on AC/plugged-in.

Any method for that?

- Jan

 

[Bill Daggett]

Bill Daggett kirjoitti:

Thanks, well I got 4GB RAM + 4GB SDHC.

But I don't agree about there not being any "boost".

Google your arse off and you'll find that you are probably the only
person with over 2GB of RAM that feels that way.

Readyboost is useless with that much RAM, so this discussion has ended
and you can - or should - move on.

 

[Jan Wagner]

Bill Daggett kirjoitti:

Google your arse off and you'll find that you are probably the only
person with over 2GB of RAM that feels that way.

"Probably" is a good guess, though a quick google limited to the
past year shows many posts from people that use or used readyboost
with 4GB of RAM.

With varying degree of subjective success or disappointment. Only
thing I can say is, WFM, with my use pattern, running virtualbox and
other unfortunately big footprint apps.

Also some weeks ago when I checked the pros/cons of "readyboost with
lots of memory" (apparently for some 4GB is already lots!?), and
AnandTech or winsupersite or some other such site (i forget which)
did recommend readyboost in addition to lots of RAM on laptops to
get some degree of power saving.

But of course with the superfetch cache write that kicks in while on
battery, totally counterproductive to power saving, this ...

Readyboost is useless with that much RAM, so this discussion has ended
and you can - or should - move on.

.... can unfortunately be the right thing to do.

The minutes long disk activity drains shortens about as much battery
time as there is battery saving through idle disk + active sdhc when
multitasking.

So yep if or since the readyboost can't be made read-only while on
battery then its useless also in the sense of extending battery life :-(

Thanks for your input.

- Jan

 

[Al and Darlene]

Jan - ignore information from such posts. On of the most misunderstood
aspects is ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost is not an adjunct of RAM. Ready Boost
performance depends upon the type of HD read/write activity hand in hand
with "Superfetch" (XP Prefetch). Non-sequential read/writes are directed to
the ReadyBoost device and sequential to the HD.

This action is performed without regard to the amount of RAM. Use of a
device as ReadyBoost depends upon the read/write specs of the HD - newer
drives preclude use of ReadyBoost - except for laptops.

Readyboost reduces HD activity - most devices have a LED activity
indicator - note during this activity there is n o HD activity.