Notebook Power Management - Toshiba Power Saver

Posted on Monday, 1st June 2009 by admin

Toshiba Power Management – an introduction

The Toshiba Power Saver / Power Management utility manages the power consumption of various devices on Toshiba notebook computers. Its primary purpose is to extend the amount of time that your machine can run from its battery or batteries.

There are two primary power management modes: settings for running from the battery, and settings for running from the AC adapter.

The default settings for running from the battery are designed to yield long battery life with reasonable performance. If, for example, the computer is left unused for a minute or two, the backlight for the screen (LCD panel) would turn off, thereby significantly reducing the power drain on the laptop battery. By adjusting various settings and timeout values you can optimize the power management scheme more toward saving power, or more toward enhancing performance.

Following is a list of typical Power Management features. The specific options and settings will vary somewhat from one model to another. Consult your User’s Guide for further details for your model.

Processor Speed This setting controls the processor (CPU) clock speed. Reducing the processor speed can significantly reduce the demand for power from the battery. Increasing the processor speed can significantly improve the performance of ‘CPU-intensive’ applications — video-editing software, for example.
Display Brightness This setting controls the backlight brightness for the LCD, which is a significant component of any portable computer’s total power consumption. Setting this to a low brightness value my ease eyestrain in low-light environments — during air travel, for example.
Display Power Off This timer-based setting will turn off the display backlight after a specified time interval (two minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). Its operation is similar to that of a screen saver, but it offers a power-saving benefit as well as a privacy benefit.
Hard Drive Power Off This timer-based setting will turn off the hard drive’s motor (stop it from spinning) after a specified time interval (five minutes, for example) of hard-drive inactivity. Selecting a low timeout value will cause the drive to be powered off relatively soon, dropping the power consumption. The disadvantage of having the hard drive powered off is the second-or-two delay required to “spin up” the hard drive for the next access — when, for example, you wish to open a new file, or when the operating system needs to write some data to the disk.
System Standby This timer-based setting causes the computer to enter Standby mode (sometimes called Suspend or Suspend/Resume) after a specified period (30 minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). On the way into Standby mode, the computer saves its operating state to a dedicated area of memory, and then enters a special low-power mode in which almost all components are completely powered off, including the CPU, screen, hard drive, and most internal circuitry except for the power supply and the main memory (RAM). The memory is continuously refreshed, keeping its contents (the operating system, any running programs, and open documents and other data files) ‘alive’, so that when the power button is later pressed, the computer “resumes” from the same state it was in before it was powered off automatically. Whatever applications and documents you had open before will now re-appear, after a delay of just a few seconds — rather then the longer delay when emerging from Hibernation mode – or the delay of a few minutes necessary for re-starting Windows, re-launching the applications, and re-opening the documents. The computer can remain in standby mode indefinitely if it is being powered by the AC adapter, but if it is running from the battery it can stay in Standby mode only as long as there is enough energy in the battery to keep the memory powered (no more than two or three days, and much less with an aging battery). Once the battery’s energy is exhausted, the computer will simply turn off, at which point the contents of memory will disappear, including any open documents of other data files. Therefore, always frequently save the contents of your open files to the hard drive, so that you may retrieve them from there regardless of the status of the copy of the file in the computer’s memory.
System Hibernate This timer-based setting causes the computer to enter Hibernate mode after a specified period (30 minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). Hibernation mode is roughly similar to Standby mode: the state of the computer, the operating system, any running programs, and open documents and other data files are all saved — but to a dedicated area on the hard drive, rather than to memory. The computer is then turned off. Since everything has been saved to the hard drive, the computer can ‘Hibernate’ indefinitely, whether running from the AC adapter or from the battery. Since the computer’s memory is powered-off, along with almost everything else, power consumption from the battery is at a minimum, so its charge will last longer than it would if the computer were in Standby mode. When the computer is later powered-on, it reloads its previous state from the hard drive, which takes considerably longer than resuming from Standby mode, but much less time than it takes to re-start Windows, re-launch the applications, and re-open the documents. Hibernation is not a substitute for, or an alternative to, explicitly and frequently saving documents and other data files to disk, using the Save commands built into each application.
Intel SpeedStep This allows the CPU clock speed to be dynamically adjusted according to the changing requirements of the operating system and application software.

Troubleshooting

If Power Management does not seem to be working correctly, first verify that the various settings correspond to your preferences, and that you understand the function of the settings and what triggers them (a specific time-period of mouse and keyboard activity, for example).

One commonly misunderstood power saving feature is the operation of the cooling fan. When the cooling method is set to Performance, the fan turns on when the processor (CPU) reaches a sufficiently elevated temperature. Typically, the computer can seem quite warm to the touch well before the processor’s temperature rises enough to trigger the fan. It may seem that the fan should spin up, considering how warm the case of the computer has become, but the CPU may still be operating within its normal temperature range.

If the hard drive rarely shuts down, despite a low timeout value, this may well be because Windows and application software access the hard drive from time to time. Windows routinely accesses the hard drive for ‘housekeeping’ chores, and applications may be configured to automatically save your documents or other files at intervals. Any hard drive access, including these automatic processes, will reset the countdown timer value for the hard drive power-off feature.

Another common source of confusion is for the active Power Usage Mode (sometimes labeled Long Life / Normal / High Power) to be different than the one expected. On many models, you may use the Fn+F2 Hotkey combination to easily select the desired Power Usage Mode.

If the Toshiba Power Management functions are not working correctly, or if parts of the user interface for them are missing, you may wish to re-install the Power Saver software, after carefully removing it according to the following procedure (here described for Windows XP, though the sequence is similar for other versions of Windows):

1. Turn the computer OFF by clicking Start, then Shut Down.

2. Turn the computer ON, while tapping the F8 key repeatedly. A menu of startup options should appear. If the menu does not appear, try shutting down and restarting again, tapping the F8 key until the startup menu appears.

3. From the Start menu, select Control Panel.

4. If you see a setting for “Switch to Classic View” at the left side of Control Panel, select it.

5. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.

6. From the “Currently installed software” list, select and then click the Change/Remove button for whichever of the following utility programs are present. The list of utilities will vary from model to model.

           Toshiba Tbiosdrv Driver
           Toshiba Utilities
           Toshiba Power Saver
           Toshiba Common Modules

7. Close the Add or Remove Programs window.

8. Double-click on the System icon in Control Panel. Click the Hardware tab, and then click the Device Manager button.

9. In the menu bar, click View. If there is no checkmark to the left of the Show Hidden Devices menu item, then click it. A checkmark should then appear.

10. Locate the Toshiba Logical Device entry. Select each of its sub-entries in turn, and then press the Delete key to uninstall that sub-entry. The list of items will vary from model to model, but typical entries include the following:

           Toshiba ACPI-Compliant Value Added Local Device
           Toshiba ACPI-Compliant Value Added Local Device Extension
           Toshiba Value Added Logical and General Purpose Device

11. Download the Toshiba Power Saver utility for your model from this website. For detailed website navigation instructions, see Obtaining downloads and documents from the Toshiba Support website.

12. Re-install the Power Saver utility, per the instructions that come with it.

Other power management options

Depending on the version of Windows running on your computer, there may be other Power Management options available to you. In the Windows XP Control Panel, for example, the Power Options utility offers many settings similar to those offered by the Toshiba Power Management utilities.

Data From: www.toshiba.com

Tags: laptop power manage software, notebook management, power management
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