Hey, I have got 2 questions.... Thought I can post them together....

1) I just bought a Laptop from Office Depot, Toshiba which has 4 cell battery. When I was using it yesterday on battery life, it will use about 1% every 1 minute. The manual said that it is supposed to last about 1.5 hours. After calculating and adjusting the monitor brightness, which actually is the main power consumer, I see that it uses about 1% every 1.2 minutes.... However, I still left the processor and fan to work at its full power. Is the battery level and power normal?

2)I have another laptop, which I have already mentioned, and its monitor about 4 month had this problem. Sometimes its brightness will go dimmer, and up again bright. However, I never thought that this could actually turn into a problem. Last 2 weeks, the monitor brightness will go off completely, I think it shuts off and there won't be anything seen. I will have to restart the computer and monitor works again, then in an hour it will do the same and I will have to restart it in order for it to work. Now is this a software or hardware problem. The laptop is about 300 dollar worth, however, Jetta (the manufacturer) sells the monitor for 675 dollars. :)... Now, that is CRAZYYYYYYY.
So what can I do?

Lider

Hey killer,

I went to Office Depot & custom ordered that HP that I told you about. Athlon 64 3200+, 512MB, 60GB HDD, DVD/CDRW combo, 15.4" BriteView, 12-cell battery, & upgraded to a better HP printer...all for about $750 after rebate (tax & shipping included). 2-3 weeks for delivery. The shipping charge was $45...I wasn't too pleased about that but it was still a good deal. I was told I'd get about 3hr on the 12-cell...standard offer was 8-cell, 12-cell only cost $15 more

Circuit City has an Acer Travelmate for $750 as part of it's Labor Day sale. Similar specs to above except it has a Pentium M 725 (1.6GHz). Plus you can get a "free" printer, router, notebook bag to go with it (after $145 rebate)

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Jam, Sounds like a great deal to me. I went to Office Depot and they told me that they don't have that offer, so I decided that I would go with Toshiba. I thought that it was a good name brand. This laptop is not for my personal use, it is going to be my brother's, so, you know, I didn't need that much of fancy stuff.
The PC that you ordered, HP, is as fast as my eMachines with the same processor. Great deal Jam. Congratulations!

Hey Jam, the battery life question that I posted earlier, is it normal with 4 cell battery?

P.S. 12 cell battery on HP, you surely got the best deal out there man!

Lider

what CPU is in the Toshiba?

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Celeron M, (not very good) 1.4GHZ, 1MB L2 Cache.

Lider

I asked because the power consumption varies on the different CPUs. I figured the A64 would need the 12-cell, plus it was worth it for $15. The Pentium M is probably the best CPU in terms of battery life...the Celeron M is totally different. Here's a clip from Tom's Hardware:

"The Celeron M always runs at maximum clock speed, in contrast to the Pentium M. In addition, its power loss in the "Sleep" and "Deep Sleep" sleep modes is approximately 30% higher compared to a corresponding Pentium M CPU."

There's a lot of good info in this article...especially the battery life comparisons:

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040309/

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Some very good info here on the Pentium M:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_M

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

So, I understand that the power consumption of Celeron M is very high, therefore, I come to conclusion, using 1% of battery life every 1 minute is normal. Is that right? Especially on 4 cell battery, which is not supposed to last that long anyway. The laptop is going to be used on adapter most of the time, so I don't really worry about the battery life. I was just curious, if it was more than it is supposed to use, and that I should go and return the laptop.

Do I have right conclusion Jam?

Thank you for your support...
Sincerely,

Killer

Lider

To be honest, I'm just becoming "enlightened" into laptop technology, but I would say that your conclusion is pretty much correct. One of the big complaints I'd seen about certain Toshiba Satellite models is the poor performance of the 4-cell battery....about 1.5 hrs. That would work out to be about 1% loss per minute.

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Appreciate that Jam,

Your friend...
Killer

Lider

Jam, what about that other question about dying LCD?

Lider

The issue with your LCD going blank after an hour is likely just a setting in your Power Management program. If you go to Contro Panel and click on Power Management, you will see many adjustments that can be made. One of the settings is to turn off the monitor after a certain amount of time. There is probably a certain key or key combination that will also turn it back on. Nonetheless, find this setting and adjust to meet your needs. Let me know if this works.