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BDwinsAlt Agurus's Posse

Age:34 Gender: Joined: Jun 16 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Alabama Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 2:47 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: Black screen saving power |
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Is a black screen really that significant over a white screen when it comes to saving power? I decided to use a black theme for my laptop because it looks a little cooler. I was wonder if it can add a few minutes to my battery life? I have a 6-cell lithium ion or something I thing. It came with the Dell 1501. I could have gotten the 9-cell, but I never carry my laptop around more than three hours without it being on charge. Anyway, will this black theme save me a few minutes or is all that just a bunch of bs? |
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CypherJF I gargle nitroglycerin

Gender: Joined: Aug 14 2003 Posts: 2582 Location: USA Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:10 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Just have the monitor/screen shut off. _________________ Performance is often the art of cheating carefully. - James Gosling |
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SamHughes Server Help Squatter

Joined: Jun 30 2004 Posts: 251 Location: Greenwich Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:45 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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It will save you nothing. In fact it will probably cost you. Black requires voltage, while white doesn't, on most displays ('every' display? Maybe.)
If you want to save power, dim the backlight. |
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BDwinsAlt Agurus's Posse

Age:34 Gender: Joined: Jun 16 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Alabama Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 6:17 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Thanks. I just keep seeing this black google stuff on TV.  |
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Animate Dreams Gotta buy them all! (Consumer whore)

Age:37 Gender: Joined: May 01 2004 Posts: 821 Location: Middle Tennessee Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:23 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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SamHughes wrote: | It will save you nothing. In fact it will probably cost you. Black requires voltage, while white doesn't, on most displays ('every' display? Maybe.)
If you want to save power, dim the backlight. |
I thought LCD screens just turned the pixel off for black? It's not a true black, anyway. |
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SamHughes Server Help Squatter

Joined: Jun 30 2004 Posts: 251 Location: Greenwich Offline
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Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 11:08 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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LCD screens work with a single backlight and an array of liquid crystals (and two polarized sheets). For each pixel, if the voltage is at the maximum level, the light is blocked off nearly completely, and if the voltage is at the minimum level, the light is allowed to pass through freely. How close you get to 'true' black depends on the precision and accuracy in voltage level. It also depends on how wide a spectrum the color filters let pass through, since the crystals have different refractive indexes at different wavelengths (it depends on that aspect of the crystals, too). The backlight is the major energy hog. Remember that when you set your screen to #FFFFFF white, that's much less bright than the actual backlight, since each color filter is cutting out a large amount of light. |
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Doc Flabby Server Help Squatter

Joined: Feb 26 2006 Posts: 636 Offline
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 3:08 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Nearly all laptops have a special turn off screen key. Thats the button to use to save power. _________________ Rediscover online gaming. Get Subspace | STF The future...prehaps |
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BDwinsAlt Agurus's Posse

Age:34 Gender: Joined: Jun 16 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Alabama Offline
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 3:33 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Yeah but how does that help you while you are using it.  |
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CypherJF I gargle nitroglycerin

Gender: Joined: Aug 14 2003 Posts: 2582 Location: USA Offline
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:15 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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To conserve power when the laptop is on, you'll have to adjust the contrast/brightness. |
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Smong Server Help Squatter

Joined: 1043048991 Posts: 0x91E Offline
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:35 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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What about disabling the network adapter? Will that save power? _________________ ss news  |
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BDwinsAlt Agurus's Posse

Age:34 Gender: Joined: Jun 16 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Alabama Offline
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 10:38 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Maybe they will find this awesome new technology to make laptops have smaller batteries with more time. Didn't they just find a new way to make processors like a 100 times faster? I would think as time goes on you could get a better battery without buying something based on 6 cells or 9.
"The processor performs 8 trillion operations per second, equivalent to a super-computer and 1,000 times faster than standard processors, with 256 lasers performing computations at light speed."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/10/31/israel.lenslet.reut/ |
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Maverick

Age:41 Gender: Joined: Feb 26 2005 Posts: 1521 Location: The Netherlands Offline
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 1:48 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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Black color only saves on a CRT monitor but it's so little that you won't get any advantage out of it. _________________
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Animate Dreams Gotta buy them all! (Consumer whore)

Age:37 Gender: Joined: May 01 2004 Posts: 821 Location: Middle Tennessee Offline
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 4:14 pm Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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BDwinsAlt wrote: | Maybe they will find this awesome new technology to make laptops have smaller batteries with more time. Didn't they just find a new way to make processors like a 100 times faster? |
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BDwinsAlt wrote: | I would think as time goes on you could get a better battery without buying something based on 6 cells or 9.
"The processor performs 8 trillion operations per second, equivalent to a super-computer and 1,000 times faster than standard processors, with 256 lasers performing computations at light speed."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/10/31/israel.lenslet.reut/ |
Oh. So someone made a supercomputer that was 1 000 times faster. That's completely different, you know. |
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Dr Brain Flip-flopping like a wind surfer

Age:39 Gender: Joined: Dec 01 2002 Posts: 3502 Location: Hyperspace Offline
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Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 2:34 am Post maybe stupid Post subject: |
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SamHughes wrote: | LCD screens work with a single backlight and an array of liquid crystals (and two polarized sheets). For each pixel, if the voltage is at the maximum level, the light is blocked off nearly completely, and if the voltage is at the minimum level, the light is allowed to pass through freely. How close you get to 'true' black depends on the precision and accuracy in voltage level. It also depends on how wide a spectrum the color filters let pass through, since the crystals have different refractive indexes at different wavelengths (it depends on that aspect of the crystals, too). The backlight is the major energy hog. Remember that when you set your screen to #FFFFFF white, that's much less bright than the actual backlight, since each color filter is cutting out a large amount of light. |
While all of this is probably true (I didn't bother verifying it), higher voltage on the liquid crystal doesn't necessarily mean higher power consumption. In some setups it may even be lower. It is, however, a very minor difference, and it's the backlight that consumes most of the power. _________________ Hyperspace Owner
Smong> so long as 99% deaths feel lame it will always be hyperspace to me |
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