Tag Archives: power management

Tips for Travelling with Laptops

Technical Tips,

An increasingly popular type of computer, laptops have seen a surge in demand over the last few years. Did you know that in 2008 and for the first time ever, the number of new laptops sold surpassed the number of new desktop computers sold? and now with the even lighter version of portable computers, the netbook, they are becoming more and more popular.

All trivia aside, since more and more people are jumping on the laptop bandwagon, I figured it’d be a good idea to write a couple of tips about how to go about them when one is on the go.

Since when you’re mobile you mostly depend on the laptop’s battery life, it’s a good idea to economize in what uses power the most. For example, if you are just using a word processor or watching a movie, you can turn off the wireless adapter. Also try to use a lower-than-maximum screen brightness when depending on battery power.

There are four main power states the laptop (or any computer for that matter) can be on. These are, in descending order when considering power consumption (1) Fully on, (2) Suspend/sleep, (3) Hibernation, (4) powered off. In sleep mode, several parts of the computer are turned off, but the computer is still capable of responding to user input, such as a key stroke or mouse click/motion. In hibernation, it’s a different story. All the running programs and opened files at the moment of starting hibernation are saved to the hard disk and the computer is effectively shut down. But while it is necessary to press the power button to resume normal operation, coming back from hibernation is much faster than starting the computer from scratch. This is therefore the preferred state in which a laptop should be transported – hibernating. The power consumption is at its minimum, the hard disk is not operating (important since moving a laptop around with its hard disk on can lead to damage to the hard disk) and yet turning it back on takes a minimum amount of time.

Since it is usual to close the lid of a laptop when carrying it around, you should know that what the laptop does when you close its lid is something you can change. The range of actions (when closing the lid) go from doing nothing, to putting the laptop to sleep, to hibernation, to shutting down. It is also possible to have different actions occur depending of whether or not the laptop is plugged in to a power supply when the lid closes. For example, you can set the laptop to go to sleep if the lid is closed when plugged in, but hibernate if the lid is closed when powered by the laptop’s battery.

One more thing you should also know in regards to the subject is about rechargeable batteries: They have a limited number of recharges before its ability to hold charge degrades.  After about the 60th recharge the battery will start to wear progressively and perceptibly, to the point where it holds only a few minutes worth of charge or no charge at all. So try to use the laptop’s battery power only when it’s needed.

Proper use of a laptop’s power settings will increase the time you can use it while on the go.

“Should I Turn Off my Computer at Night?”

Computer Security, Technical Tips

If I had a penny for every time I have been asked that question… I’d be writing this article from a bungalow in the Bahamas.

But I don’t. So, to the question at hand.

People in favor of turning the computer off at night bring up valid points, the main one being power consumption. But did you know that properly set power management settings reduces idle power consumption around 70%?

Others reason that with the computer off when not in use during the night the possibility of a hacker intrusion attack is reduced. True but if that is the concern, you can disconnect the computer from the internet (through disabling the network adapter, or a switch for many laptops with wireless, or disconnecting the network cable, or turning off the router, or…). And the truth is, it is relatively easy to repel hacker attacks if you have a sound computer security setup in place.

So now that we have those out of the way, let me tell you what is good about leaving your computer on at night.

There are several routines that traditionally computers are scheduled to perform after hours, when the computer is idle. These include: virus scans, hard disk defragmentation, system restore points, Windows updates, system backups, among others. When you turn your computer off at night, all these routines are not performed and to that degree your system is running in a non-optimum state.

And did you know that over time, it is more taxing for the electronic components of the computer to go from room temperature to operating temperature to room temperature to operating temperature than to remain in the same relative temperature range?

One last thing. Just about the only thing that is good about shutting your computer down at night and restarting it in the morning is that all memory errors and such are cleared up. The maxim “when in doubt, restart” applies here. So if you are one of those users that turned your computer off at night and decided to change to leaving it on, I recommend a restart at least every few days, to clear such errors accumulated over time. It will do for a smoother operating computer.

This subject has people that advocate for either of both possible answers and thus I expect some percentage of people to disagree with my position. If so it is your prerogative and I respect it. But the above is my take on the subject, based on over 25 years of experience with computers. Up to you to follow it or not.