battery monitor

[Scot L. Harris]

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 12:22, jim lawrence wrote:
> Hi, 
> i have a notebook and i use the battery monitor applet to well monitor
> the battery life.  I have 2 questions.
> 
> 1. if I try to suspend I get the following error
>         The Suspend command '/usr/bin/apm -s' was unsuccessful

You need to sort out if your laptop uses apm or acpi.  Personally I have
never gotten suspend to work on any laptop.  Gave up and shutdown when I
need to.

> 2. it seems that the battery life drains really fast if I run just on
> the battery. Is there a setting I can change so the battery won't get
> drained so fast?

How old is your battery?  Batteries are doing good to have a life span
of a year or two before you start seeing a decline is battery life.  If
you keep the laptop plugged in to a docking station or on AC power most
of the time the battery can decline even faster.  

I try to run my laptop on battery only at least once or twice a day
until it is down to 12 or 15 percent at least.  It seems that by doing
that I get longer up time when on battery.  Currently I get anywhere
from 2.5 to 3 hours or more when on battery.

I think there are some power management features that you can tweak but
I am not convinced it will really save you that much.

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

I just ate a whole package of Sweet Tarts and a can of Coke. I think I saw God.
		-- B. Hathrume Duk