Conserving Power

Dell™ Inspiron™ 4100

Conservation Tips

You automatically conserve battery power each time you attach your computer to an electrical outlet. When the AC adapter is attached, the battery is charged while the computer uses AC power. Your battery's life expectancy is largely determined by the number of times it is charged, so use an AC power source to run the computer if one is available.
When the computer is using battery power, remove the PC Cards that you are not using.
When possible, attach your computer to an electrical outlet when you play CDs and DVDs. Playing a CD or DVD uses a lot of battery power.
Place the computer in standby mode or hibernate mode when you leave the computer unattended for long periods of time.

Standby mode conserves power by turning off the display and the hard drive after a predetermined period of inactivity (a time-out). When you exit standby mode, the desktop is restored to the same state that it was in before the computer entered standby mode.

To activate standby mode:

Click the Start button, click Shut down (Turn Off Computer in the Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition operating system), click Stand by, and then click OK.

Press the power button or the power conservation key combination, , that you can program via the Advanced tab.

HINT: You can use the Advanced tab to program the display-close option, the power button, and the power conservation key combination to activate standby mode.

To exit standby mode, press the power button, or if you activated standby mode by closing the display, open (raise) the display.

Hibernate Mode

Hibernate mode conserves power by copying system data to a reserved area on the hard drive and then completely turning off the computer. When you exit hibernate mode, the programs and files that were open before you activated hibernate mode are still open.

Your computer enters hibernate mode if the battery charge level becomes critically low, or if either the power button, the power conservation key combination, , or the display-close option are programmed to activate hibernate mode in the Advanced tab of the Power Options Properties window.

HINT: Some PC Cards may not operate correctly after exiting hibernate mode. If you encounter problems with a PC Card, reinsert the card or restart your computer.

To exit hibernate mode, press the power button. The computer may take a short time to exit hibernate mode. Pressing a key or touching the touch pad or track stick does not bring the computer out of hibernate mode.

Hibernate mode requires a special file on your hard drive with enough disk space to store the contents of the computer memory. Dell creates an appropriately sized hibernate mode file before shipping the computer to you.

Power Options Properties

To access the Windows Power Options Properties window:

Windows XP

Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
Click Performance and Maintenance.
Click the Power Options icon.

Windows 2000

Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Click the Power Options icon.

Power Schemes Tab

The Power schemes pull-down menu displays the selected preset power scheme:

Portable/Laptop (default)
Home/Office
Always On
Presentation (Windows XP and Windows 2000 only)
Minimal Power Management (Windows XP and Windows 2000 only)
Max Battery (Windows XP and Windows 2000 only)

HINT: Dell recommends that you continue to use the Portable/Laptop power scheme to maximize battery power conservation.

Each preset power scheme has different time-out settings for putting the computer into standby mode, turning off the display, and turning off the hard drive.

Alarms Tab

HINT: To enable audible alarms, click each Alarm Action button and select Sound alarm.

The Low battery alarm and Critical battery alarm settings alert you with a message when the battery charge falls below a certain percentage. When you receive your computer, the Lower battery alarm and Critical battery alarm check boxes are selected. Dell recommends that you continue to use these defaults.

Power Meter Tab

The Power Meter tab displays the current power source and amount of battery charge remaining.

Advanced Tab

The Advanced tab allows you to:

Set icon and standby password options.
Program the following functions:

Activate standby mode.
Activate hibernate mode.
Shut down Windows and turn off the computer.
No action (None).

HINT: If you are going to connect your computer to a docking device, click None when you program the display-close option. This setting ensures that your computer does not enter standby mode or hibernate mode when you close (lower) the display.

To program these functions, click an option from the corresponding pull-down menu, and then click OK.

Hibernate Tab

The Hibernate tab lets you enable hibernate mode by clicking the Enable hibernate support check box.

HINT: Windows XP automatically handles fluctuations in microprocessor performance during power source changes. Therefore, Intel SpeedStep technology is not included with computers running Windows XP.

Intel® SpeedStep™ Tab

If your computer has a Mobile Intel Pentium® III processor, the Power Options Properties window includes the Intel® SpeedStep™ tab.

To change the Intel SpeedStep options, click the Advanced button and then click one of the following options.

HINT: If you disable Intel SpeedStep, the processor operates at its minimum speed.

Disable Intel SpeedStep technology control.
Remove flag icon.
Disable audio notification when performance changes.

Click Apply to accept any changes, and then click OK to close the Intel SpeedStep technology window.

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