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Power Conservation: Dell Inspiron 7500
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Power Conservation: Dell™ Inspiron™
7500
How to Conserve
Battery Power
- You automatically conserve battery
power each time you attach your computer to an electrical outlet. When the
AC adapter is attached, the battery is being charged while the computer uses
AC power. The life expectancy of your battery is determined largely by the
number of charges it receives, so use an AC power source to run the computer
if one is available.
- To adjust the way the computer
uses battery power, use the Windows 98 Power Management Properties
window or the Windows NT Power Management Control window.
- When the computer is using battery
power, remove PC Cards that you are not using.
- When possible, play CDs and DVDs
when the computer is attached to an electrical outlet. Playing a CD or DVD
uses a lot of battery power.
- Experiment with power conservation
features to achieve the optimum power conservation for your work environment.
- Place the computer into standby
mode when you leave the computer unattended for long periods of time.
Using Microsoft® Windows®
98 to Conserve Battery Power
To access the Power Management
Properties window (see Figure 1) and set the power management features in
Windows 98, perform the following steps:
- Click the Start
button, point to Settings, and click Control Panel.
- Double-click the Power
Management Properties icon.
The Power Management Properties window contains
the following tabs:
- Power Scheme
allows you to select one of three power mode settings.
- Alarms
allows you to set the Low battery and Critical
battery alarms to alert you when the system battery falls below
a certain percentage. When you received your computer, the Low battery
and Critical battery alarms check boxes
were not checked. Dell recommends that you do not select these options.
- Power Meter
allows you to view the percentage of battery life remaining when your system
is operating on battery power. When your computer is not operating on battery
power, it displays a message indicating that your computer is operating
on AC power.
- Advanced
allows you to display the Power Meter on the Windows 98
taskbar and to display a password prompt when the computer resumes from
standby mode.
Figure 1. Power Management Properties
Window
To access the Power Management
Control window (see Figure 2) and set the power management features in Windows
NT, perform the following steps:
- Click the Start button,
point to Settings, and click Control Panel.
- Double-click the Softex Power
Management icon.
The Softex Power Management Control
window contains the following tabs:
- Power Status tells you
if the computer is using battery power or AC power, the percent of battery
charge remaining, and how much battery operating time remains.
- Power Control allows you
to put the computer into save-to-disk suspend mode.
- Settings allows you to
select one of three power mode settings�Advanced, Standard, and Off.
This tab also allows you to enable the low-battery warning and to place the
Power Management icon on or remove it from the taskbar.
Click Advanced to let the
operating system and basic input/output system (BIOS) work together for maximum
power savings. You can use the Windows NT Power Management Control window
or the Power menu of the Setup program to change power management settings.
Click Standard to allow the
BIOS to control all power management settings. You must use the Power
menu of the Setup program to change power management settings.
Click Off to disable power
management features when you want the maximum performance from the computer.
Figure 2. Softex Power Management
Control Window
Experimenting
With Power Conservation
In general, the lower the value you
set for each time-out option, the longer your battery's charge lasts. On the
other hand, setting high time-out values tends to optimize the computer's performance.
For best results, experiment as follows:
- Use the computer with all the
options set at their default values.
- Use the computer with all the
time-out options disabled or set to Off.
- Use the computer with all the
time-out options set to their minimum values.
Evaluate the way that the different
time-out settings affect how long you can operate the computer on battery power
versus the relative efficiency of how your software performs.
Standby turns off
the display, stops the hard-disk drive, and turns off other internal devices
so that the computer uses less battery power. When the computer resumes operation
from standby mode, the desktop is restored exactly as it was before the computer
entered standby mode.
| NOTICE: On computers
using Windows NT, data loss from random access memory (RAM) may occur if
the battery discharges completely when the computer is in standby mode.
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Windows 98
Activate standby mode by pressing
  .
You can also activate standby mode by clicking Standby from the Shut
Down Windows window. To resume operation from standby mode, press the power
button.
Windows NT
Activate standby mode by pressing
.
You can also activate standby mode through the Power Management Control
window. To resume operation from standby mode, press the power button.
Save-to-Disk Suspend
Mode
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NOTES: Save-to-disk
suspend mode helps preserve system data by quickly saving it to the hard-disk
drive if you are about to run out of battery power.
Place the computer in save-to-disk
suspend mode if you do not intend to store the computer for longer than
40 days. Save-to-disk suspend mode preserves the configuration information
stored in nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM). The reserve battery
maintains this information, but may run out of energy after 40 days.
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To activate save-to-disk suspend
mode immediately, press 
(or 
on the French keyboard).
Save-to-disk suspend mode copies
all system data to a reserved area on the hard-disk drive and then turns off
all power to the computer. When you resume normal operation, the same programs
will be running and the same files will be open that were open before you activated
this mode.
To resume using the computer after
activating save-to-disk suspend mode, press the power button. It may take a
few seconds for the computer to return to its previous state.
Some PC Cards may not operate correctly
after exiting from save-to-disk suspend mode. If you encounter problems with
a card, remove and replace it.
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NOTE: Save-to-disk suspend
mode requires a special file on your hard-disk drive that sets aside enough
disk space to store the contents of the computer's memory. Dell creates
an appropriately sized save-to-disk suspend file before shipping the computer
to you. If you remove the file or add memory to the computer, or if your
hard-disk drive becomes corrupted, you must recreate the file before you
can again use save-to-disk suspend mode.
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