Low processing power on battery

We have a bunch of Dell D630 and D830 laptops and it seems somewhere along
the previous Dell laptop product releases - we think when Intel eliminated
the SpeedStep application - we lost the ability to run laptops at full
power while on battery.

To prove this we did a test where we timed a download of files from a
professional memory card via USB 2.0 interface and found while on battery
the download took twice as long. We used the same card and card reader,
SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF with SanDisk professional USB 2.0 reader, for
both tests. We also processed about 1000 RAW digital images using
Photoshop CS3 and doing a test on battery vs. using the AC adapter we found
it takes more than twice as long.

The laptop is configured using the "Quickset" application at "Maximum
performance" and also tried using the Screensaver advanced power setting of
"Always on". CPU on the test model is Core 2 Duo T7800 at 2.60Ghz with 3GB
of RAM running WindowsXP Pro Sp3.

Again, if I remember right, the older Dell laptops, going back to the D800
and previous models where SpeedStep was employed, we could force the
laptop to run at the same full processing power on battery as it ran on AC.

Please let me know if you think my findings are typical. I am open to
suggestions.

Thank you,
-Bob

"just bob" kilbyfan@aoldotcom wrote in message
m...
We have a bunch of Dell D630 and D830 laptops and it seems somewhere along
the previous Dell laptop product releases - we think when Intel
eliminated
the SpeedStep application - we lost the ability to run laptops at full
power while on battery.

To prove this we did a test where we timed a download of files from a
professional memory card via USB 2.0 interface and found while on battery
the download took twice as long. We used the same card and card reader,
SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF with SanDisk professional USB 2.0 reader, for
both tests. We also processed about 1000 RAW digital images using
Photoshop CS3 and doing a test on battery vs. using the AC adapter we
found
it takes more than twice as long.

The laptop is configured using the "Quickset" application at "Maximum
performance" and also tried using the Screensaver advanced power setting
of
"Always on". CPU on the test model is Core 2 Duo T7800 at 2.60Ghz with 3GB
of RAM running WindowsXP Pro Sp3.

Again, if I remember right, the older Dell laptops, going back to the D800
and previous models where SpeedStep was employed, we could force the
laptop to run at the same full processing power on battery as it ran on
AC.

Please let me know if you think my findings are typical. I am open to
suggestions.

Thank you,
-Bob






Bob,

No cross-posting please, due to the nearly guaranteed resulting flame wars.

I don't know if your findings are typical, but I would not be surprised.
I'd assume that you guys have disabled SpeedStep in the Dell BIOS prior to
testing?


Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...



Also, you might wish to toy with this SpeedStep XP utility if it would serve
any function in your testing:

http://findfiles.com/list.php?string...1&db=Mi rrors


Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...


I don't know if your findings are typical, but I would not be surprised.
I'd assume that you guys have disabled SpeedStep in the Dell BIOS prior to
testing?


Hi, The Dell BIOS states if the SpeedStep Enable is set to "OFF = Place the
system into the lowest performance state and prevent the IntenSpeedStep
applet or native operating system driver from adjusting the processors
performance."

I'll give it a try but it sounds like performance will be degraded.

But thanks for pointing to this because I had no idea Intel Speedstep still
existed - I assume because Dell stopped loading it that it was something
Intel discontinued.

just bob wrote:
We have a bunch of Dell D630 and D830 laptops and it seems somewhere along
the previous Dell laptop product releases - we think when Intel eliminated
the SpeedStep application - we lost the ability to run laptops at full
power while on battery.

To prove this we did a test where we timed a download of files from a
professional memory card via USB 2.0 interface and found while on battery
the download took twice as long. We used the same card and card reader,
SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF with SanDisk professional USB 2.0 reader, for
both tests. We also processed about 1000 RAW digital images using
Photoshop CS3 and doing a test on battery vs. using the AC adapter we found
it takes more than twice as long.

The laptop is configured using the "Quickset" application at "Maximum
performance" and also tried using the Screensaver advanced power setting of
"Always on". CPU on the test model is Core 2 Duo T7800 at 2.60Ghz with 3GB
of RAM running WindowsXP Pro Sp3.

Again, if I remember right, the older Dell laptops, going back to the D800
and previous models where SpeedStep was employed, we could force the
laptop to run at the same full processing power on battery as it ran on AC.

Please let me know if you think my findings are typical. I am open to
suggestions.

Thank you,
-Bob




speedswtichxp

"mike" wrote in message
news:z9omk.387$xv.363@trnddc02...
just bob wrote:
We have a bunch of Dell D630 and D830 laptops and it seems somewhere
along
the previous Dell laptop product releases - we think when Intel
eliminated
the SpeedStep application - we lost the ability to run laptops at full
power while on battery.

To prove this we did a test where we timed a download of files from a
professional memory card via USB 2.0 interface and found while on battery
the download took twice as long. We used the same card and card reader,
SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF with SanDisk professional USB 2.0 reader, for
both tests. We also processed about 1000 RAW digital images using
Photoshop CS3 and doing a test on battery vs. using the AC adapter we
found
it takes more than twice as long.

The laptop is configured using the "Quickset" application at "Maximum
performance" and also tried using the Screensaver advanced power setting
of
"Always on". CPU on the test model is Core 2 Duo T7800 at 2.60Ghz with
3GB
of RAM running WindowsXP Pro Sp3.

Again, if I remember right, the older Dell laptops, going back to the
D800
and previous models where SpeedStep was employed, we could force the
laptop to run at the same full processing power on battery as it ran on
AC.

Please let me know if you think my findings are typical. I am open to
suggestions.

Thank you,
-Bob




speedswtichxp


yep.

I have not tried speedswitchXP yet but just to give you an idea of what
happened when I disabled SpeedStep in the BIOS: the machine ran dog slow,
and took two hours to process 1,000 12MB Camera RAW files with Photoshop
CS3. After changing the BIOS setting it took only 20 minutes.

I'll try speedswitchxp now.


"just bob" kilbyfan@aoldotcom wrote in message
m...

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...


I don't know if your findings are typical, but I would not be surprised.
I'd assume that you guys have disabled SpeedStep in the Dell BIOS prior
to testing?


Hi, The Dell BIOS states if the SpeedStep Enable is set to "OFF = Place
the system into the lowest performance state and prevent the
IntenSpeedStep applet or native operating system driver from adjusting the
processors performance."

I'll give it a try but it sounds like performance will be degraded.

But thanks for pointing to this because I had no idea Intel Speedstep
still existed - I assume because Dell stopped loading it that it was
something Intel discontinued.

"just bob" kilbyfan@aoldotcom wrote in message
...
I have not tried speedswitchXP yet but just to give you an idea of what
happened when I disabled SpeedStep in the BIOS: the machine ran dog slow,
and took two hours to process 1,000 12MB Camera RAW files with Photoshop
CS3. After changing the BIOS setting it took only 20 minutes.

I'll try speedswitchxp now.




I'm using that application to force a Latitude C640 (WinXP Pro SP2) to run
at a full 2.0GHz on a continual basis.