Batteries and Power Management Managing Power Consumption Managing Power Consumption When you’re running your notebook on battery power, you will want to maximize operating time without compromising performance. Your notebook is designed to help you reduce power consumption and extend battery life without needing to turn it off. ?? During idle periods, the notebook automatically enters power-saving modes after specified timeout periods. You can adjust these timeouts to suit your working habits. ?? You can manually send the notebook into a power-saving mode at any time by pressing the appropriate key— see “To manage power manually” on page 48.
How the notebook manages power automatically Your notebook automatically goes on standby or into hibernation and standby, and turns off the hard disk and display based on values set in Power Options in Control Panel. 46 Reference Guide Automatic action Occurs after… To resume… Turns off hard disk. Turns off the hard disk drive. This is usually set to occur shortly after the display is turned off. The hard disk is not accessed for the specified interval. Begin using the notebook: the hard disk turns on when needed. Turns off display. Turns off the display to conserve battery power and extend the life of the display.
No keyboard, pointing device, or other input activity occurs for the specified interval. Press any key or move a pointing device to turn on the display. Enters standby. Maintains your current session in RAM, and turns off the display and other components to conserve battery power. No pointing devices are used, no disk drive is accessed, and no port is active for the specified interval. Press the power button to resume your session. Enters hibernation. Saves your current session to the hard disk, then turns off the notebook. The notebook stays on standby for the specified interval. Press the power button to resume your session. Lowers CPU speed (Pentium models only).
Switches to the lower CPU speed to use power more efficiently. See below. The AC adapter is unplugged. Plug in the AC adapter.