Difference between revisions of "How to reduce power consumption"

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(Optical drive: - update wikilink)
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Reducing system power consumption will extend battery life, reduce system temperature and (on some models) reduce system fan noise. This page summarizes the known techniques for reducing power consumption on ThinkPad laptops under Linux.
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Reducing system power consumption will extend battery life, reduce system temperature and (on some models) reduce system fan noise. This page summarizes the known techniques for reducing power consumption on ThinkPad laptops under Linux. The power numbers given (in Watt) are very rough and model-specific.
  
 
===System power states===
 
===System power states===
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* [[Problem with high power drain in ACPI sleep]]
 
* [[Problem with high power drain in ACPI sleep]]
 
* [[Rovclock]]
 
* [[Rovclock]]
* Reduce LCD brightness
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* Reduce LCD brightness (~1-4W difference)
* Disable CRT output
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* Disable CRT output (~0.5W difference)
  
 
===Hard disk===
 
===Hard disk===
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Spinning down the disk saves about 1W.
 
* [[Laptop-mode]]
 
* [[Laptop-mode]]
 
* [[How to make use of Harddisk Power Management features]]
 
* [[How to make use of Harddisk Power Management features]]
  
 
===Optical drive===
 
===Optical drive===
* [[How to hotswap UltraBay devices|Eject the UltraBay optical drive]], or just turn off its power supply (i.e., run the appropriate eject script but leave the drive inserted). This saves close to 1W.
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The optical drive consumes about 1W even when not accessed.
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* [[How to hotswap UltraBay devices|Eject the UltraBay optical drive]], or just turn off its power supply (i.e., run the appropriate eject script but leave the drive inserted).
  
 
===System fan===
 
===System fan===
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Consumes about 0.5W when running.
 
* [[ACPI fan control script]]
 
* [[ACPI fan control script]]
  
 
===Wireless network===
 
===Wireless network===
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Consumes up to ~4W.
 
* Activate power saving on the wireless network card
 
* Activate power saving on the wireless network card
 
** For [[Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter]] and [[Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter]], see instructions for the [[ipw2200]] driver.
 
** For [[Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter]] and [[Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter]], see instructions for the [[ipw2200]] driver.

Revision as of 04:12, 11 May 2006

Reducing system power consumption will extend battery life, reduce system temperature and (on some models) reduce system fan noise. This page summarizes the known techniques for reducing power consumption on ThinkPad laptops under Linux. The power numbers given (in Watt) are very rough and model-specific.

System power states

CPU

Graphics

Hard disk

Spinning down the disk saves about 1W.

Optical drive

The optical drive consumes about 1W even when not accessed.

System fan

Consumes about 0.5W when running.

Wireless network

Consumes up to ~4W.

Related toptics

External resources