Improve battery life on a Linux laptop

Often I find that one of the key things that matters in a laptop that you plan to lug around, especially at school, is it's battery life. Without electricity the laptop is as good as a brick, although it might be more shinier. Most laptops sold in the market today usually have good battery life. However, the big question is: what can you do if you already have a laptop with a good battery life... but want to INCREASE the battery life? Also, let assume that you are running Linux on the laptop... since right now I am running Ubuntu on my laptop and I love every moment of it.

Improving battery life for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu etc.

The first things that you can do to improve your battery life are pretty obvious, but I'll mention them here anyway:

• Lower the display brightness to the lowest possible level to make sure that the screen doesn't sip your battery power.
• Close any applications that you are not using and unplug any usb/external deviceees that you might not be using as well. This saves some memory from being used (and also makes the hard drive work a little less) and ensures that no power is taken for ports that you aren't really using. See below for information on how to disable the USB ports as well to improve more battery life.
  
• Disable all Linux eye candy (Do this by going to System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects Tab > Choose 'None') . This means - No Beryl/Compiz Fusion, no wobbly windows and no fancy revolving cubes. It also means a couple of extra minutes of battery power - So choose wisely.
• Turn off wireless and bluetooth if you don't need it.

Now, for the more technical stuff that's going to improve your battery life. As always, you might want to make sure that you back up your data before you try this, because most of the tips stated below can in fact cause your system to hang and in the worst case scenario - cause it to be inoperable. But on the other hand, if it works fine for your laptop then you might be able to improve the battery power by 20 - 30%.

Step 1: Enable Laptop Mode

This uses the 'laptop' policies that are in ubuntu to ensure that the computer uses only the resources it really needs. As a result, it'll be able to cut down on the resources it doesn't need and save you some battery power. To do so... I did the following:

First, I pressed Alt + F2, which brought up the run application command, and typed in the command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

And checked the box beside 'Run in terminal' and clicked Run.

Then, I typed in my password when Terminal asked me to type it and pressed enter... and Gedit opened with the file.

Then I changed ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true. And saved the file. And finally I restarted the computer... just to let the changes take effect (but I guess there must be some command out there that I don't know of that will make the changes take effect automatically).

Step 2: Make your CPU run slower by enabling CPU frequency scaling

I opened a terminal window, (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and typed in :

sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector

If it asks you for you password... then type it in and press enter. Then, right click on the menubar and click Add to Panel. Then click on the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor and click Add. From the CPU Scaling Monitor, choose the lowest possible Speed (in my case 1GHz) or choose the "Powersave" option.

Doing so will make the laptop run at a much slower CPU speed and save you a LOT of power.

Step 3: Disabling unused ports on your computer and throttling the wireless card's power

By disabling the unused USB ports etc. on your laptop, and decreasing the power used by your wireless card, you can save even more battery power. Obviously, if you're using a USB mouse or a necessary external USB device, you don't want to disable the ports. But if you're not using then then you can safely disable them.

To disable USB ports, open a terminal window and type:

sudo rmmod uhci_hcd
and then type in your password if necessary and press enter. This should disable the USB ports.

To put your wireless card (sorry... this only works for intel wireless cards) into power saving mode do what i did:
I pressed Alt + F2 like stated above, which brought up the run application command, and typed in the command:

sudo gedit /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/wireless-ipw-power.conf

And checked the box beside 'Run in terminal' and clicked Run.

Then, I typed in my password when Terminal asked me to type it and pressed enter... and Gedit opened with the file.

Then I changed the 0 to 1 for CONTROL_IPW_POWER. Saved the file and quit Gedit. Of course, you could have changed the other parameters as well... but I didn't bother doing that, since the default looked good enough for me.

Step 4: Enjoy the newly gained battery power

That's it... the "hacks" mentioned above are about the only things you can do (with the exception of restarting Ubuntu in shell mode and using only the text interface.) to boost your battery life.

If you know any other ways of improving battery life or battery performance, do state them in the comments below!

Windows or Mac Laptop Running Really Slow? Speed it up for free!

I often hear people complaining that their laptops run really slow, whilst their desktops are usually blazing fast. For them, it seems as though there is something wrong with the laptop, because if they have the exact same software installed on both the laptop and the desktop, both with similar hardware configurations, shouldn’t the laptop be just as fast as the desktop? To be honest, most people don’t take into account the various innumerable differences between the two different kind of computers both in terms of software and hardware.

In this post, I shall attempt to explain how you can ‘speed up your laptop’. Most tips apply to all laptop, including macs, however some tips apply to only specific laptop. Please bear in mind though that implementing some of these tips might mean less batter life, so do check beforehand with the ‘how to improve laptop battery life’ article on this website.Here’s how you can make your laptop run really fast.

How to Make All Laptops Run Faster

(doesn’t matter if its windows, mac or linux)

Prevent your laptop from overheating

What you shouldn’t do:

I often see people placing their laptops on their beds, carpets and couches. This is bad! First of not only does it help in heating your laptop to a non-functional state (and sometimes even causes it to crash) it also aids in ruining the fabric on your furniture. When you place your laptop on your couch, for example, the fabric does a good job of blocking any vents that might be (and often are) on the bottom of your laptop. Doing so, prevents the circulation of air in the laptop, causing it to heat up. And of course, if you know a thing or two about computers – they don’t like heat. This is because the processor, which in the first place generates a lot of heat, cannot function if there is excess heat. That’s one of the reasons cell phones done come equipped with 5 GHz processors, yet.

What you should be doing:

If you plan to use your laptop on your lap, do so sparingly – as this too can heat up your laptop. Instead, place it on a table if possible. Although this defies the purpose of being a ‘laptop’, it will help your processor and computer as a whole work more efficiently. If you find that your laptop heats up a lot, especially if it is a couple of years old, you might want to invest in a laptop cooling stand. This will help cool the laptop and ensure its well being, making it run faster. You might want to refrain from using any “homemade” laptop cooling stands like this one.

Doing the above will also prevent any abrupt crashes when using the laptop to do processor intensive tasks.

Use the correct power settings

More often than not, laptops automatically switch to the ‘power saver’ mode when you remove your plug. Especially if you’re using a new operating system like Windows Vista or Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 So, the best thing you can do here is to change those settings. On Windows Vista or Leopard, you’ll have to click on the battery icon on your taskbar (for windows) or menubar (for mac) respectively and choose ‘Maximum/High Performance’ or ‘Better Performance’ in order to let your processor run at full speed and let your computer work faster. A word of caution though: your computer WILL HEAT UP significantly! So keep an eye on the temperature, you don’t want your computer to crash or burn something.

Free up Hard Drive Space'

Freeing up some valuable hard drive space (use the free up hard drive space guide here) will definitely allow your operating system to run faster because it won’t be clogged up as much. On a mac, consider transferring your songs elsewhere or storing them on your MP3 player. You might also want to drag unused applications to your dock. Likewise, you can get rid of unnecessary languages no your mac if you only use 1 primary language with monoligual. Also keep in mind that laptops usually have slower hard drives, so you might want to consider adding some more RAM to your hard drive. TIP: If you’re using Windows Vista and you’re using a laptop that has a all in one media card reader, you might want to use those SD cards for cameras to improve your computer’s responsiveness with Windows Readyboost. It won’t do much, but it will definitely improve your computer’s  You don’t need Windows Readyboost drives to help increase the RAM of your computer.

Operating System ‘Hacks’ for Windows

Please keep in mind that use these hacks on Windows only if you’re desperately in need for some speed. If not, I’d just let windows be the way it is.

 

That’s all for now. There aren’t any other laptop tweaks that I am aware of for now… if you have anything else to share, please let me know!

The 5 Dollar DIY Laptop Cooling Stand

You won't find a cheaper laptop stand anywhere.

Yup, you guessed it. It's actually a stapler. But guess what? It works! Although it might be a bit dangerous, because the laptop might just slide off the stapler without any warning. No incidents have occurred so far though, but it seems to work pretty well.

As for the speed of the laptop, I don't really notice much of a difference. Except the fans don't come on anymore so I guess it must be really working.

Instructions on how to make your own laptop stand with a stapler.

1. Find a stapler that long and made of a tough material. Steel/Aluminum works pretty well. It'll suck the heat out of the laptop and provide some ventilation.
2. Place it under a laptop. In my case I was lucky that a ventilation slit and the rubber feet of the laptop were enough to keep it from sliding from the stapler. If you have a laptop that has a flat bottom, you might want to get yourself a proper cooling stand and save the money (that you might have to spend on a new laptop otherwise).
   

That's it! Enjoy.