The battery in this laptop is over two years old, so I can't rule out the possiblity that this is battery induced. I am just trying to avoid laying out the money (about $125) it will cost to find out.
What I was thinking, though, was that apm(d) would track this internally by measuring the state of the battery and then using changes in battery charge between measurements as a way to forecast remaining time on the charge measured. I don't know anything about the relationship between the BIOS, the battery and apm(d) though, so I can't tell which plays what role. Might be time to dig out the apm(d) source and see what information is included with it. I didn't see this issue expressly addressed in the man pages (or I missed it). Thanks, Sean On Sat, Sep 07, 2002 at 01:13:13PM +0000, pa3gcu hunted and pecked out: > On Friday 06 September 2002 17:32, Theo. Sean Schulze wrote: > > Hello, > > > > Is there a way to make apm's or apmd's estimates of the time left on a > > battery charge more accurate? > > > > I just booted my laptop (a Sony VAIO PCG-C1XS with the stock hardware) > > after several days of not having used it. APM reported as I logged in that > > I had 39% battery charge left and 136 minutes of use remaining. I wish > > that were true, but based on experience, with this older battery I can > > expect about 20 to 25 minutes charge. Since I am using a wireless card, > > the usable time is actually significantly lower, and I acknowledge and > > accept that. That is not the issue. > > > > The problem is, that as the charge decreases, the time remaining on the > > charge becomes more and more unrealistic. For example, I know have 21% > > charge remaining and that equates out to 89 minutes, according to apm. I > > have gone from 136 minutes remaining to 89 minutes remaining in the space > > of about 7 minutes. Is there any way to get apm to accurately calculate > > the rate of discharge? To what extent does this depend on my laptop's > > BIOS? > > On my laptop a Compaq Armada i get relatively accurate readings, altho' to be > honest i dont take a lot of notice of its messages. > > Now APM(d) works with the BIOS, so could it be that your BIOS is giving > unacurate data to apm. > IMHO it could happen when a battery is nearing the end of its life, internal > resistance lowers causing all sorts of strange effects on older batterys. > > Now i am not saying that is the problem, but i wonder if you could get hold > of another battery and then see if apm gives different details.. > > Thats just my thoughts and my not reflect your actual problem. > > > > > > Cheers, > > Sean > > -- > Regards Richard > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/ > -- Theo. Sean Schulze [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
