Registered: May 2002
Location: USA, w00t!
Posts: 7

How can I extend battery life?

I use my Prism daily, to type up reports and papers and other productive things(games!). Halfway thru the day, my battery gets low and I have to charge it(portable charger). Is there any way I can increase the time my battery lasts? Also, is it true that the more color an application uses, the more battery it will drain, lets say, Zap!2000 compared with MemoPad, for example? Help!

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

the easiest, quickest thing to do is to change your auto-off time to a lower period, say, 1 minute instead of the default 3.
and don't overclock, as that can also use up batteries faster.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 447

Energy Dimmer will automatically reduce your brightness level after a certain period of time, which reduces power usage.

Registered: May 2002
Location: USA, w00t!
Posts: 7

quote:

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Originally posted by Thunderbird291
Energy Dimmer will automatically reduce your brightness level after a certain period of time, which reduces power usage.

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If practice makes perfect, and there is no such thing as perfect, then why practice?

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

I would bet that screen redraws suck juice- scrolling games, animations, etc., especially compared to static screens and text.

I am sure you already know about dimming the screen as far as possible.

Otherwise, if I were using it all day at school, I would sure be using a portable charger intelligently!

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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Washburn University in Topeka, KS
Posts: 450

you can underclock your palm in the default apps to save battery juice...

turn off your IR.

games like zap, bejeweled that refresh the screen use more battery power.

leave it off when you don't need it...

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Macau
Posts: 52

Funngunn,
If you are keeping your brightness at 75%, that is probably one of the main reasons for battery drain. Try keeping it at around 25%. Indoors, 25% is usually more than bright enough, especially if you are just typing notes and memos. Games like Bejeweled and Zap also really do eat batteries as has been said. I even found that switching from the black and white version of Patience to the color version increased battery drain enough to notice.