I got 2 hours of battery life!?

[Liam2349]

It's a media player program that I use on my other laptop that I'm used to so I really don't want to change. Here's the link for it.

http://player.gomlab.com/eng/

I just checked with their site for the versions and it does say it's compatible with Win 8.1. It also says there is a windows tablet version. I suppose that version uses less battery? That will be the first thing that I'll try I guess...

I tried using Chrome at first but everything seemed to be blurry compared to IE. People were saying that all I need to do was install Chrome Beta? I think I might have done that step but I'm not too sure as all the text remains blurry and seems to be at a different aspect ratio compared to IE. The current Chrome version installed on the Surface is Version 40.0.2214.10 beta-m (64-bit).

I use MuTorrent, and it was not running at the time. I made sure I just didn't exit the program but also went to the system tray and manually exited the program.

I did not install any anti virus program yet but I do plan on running AVG.

How in the world do you get 6.5 to 9??? Please do share your settings! I wouldn't mind sacrificing some performance if I were to get 9 hours of battery life!!





Where do I go to check updates? I ran windows update and it says everything is up to date. Is there some other place that I need to go to intall updates?

Also some people have mentioned that there were firmware updates and the graphics card update as well? I'm not sure how to do this. Please advise




I just checked now and Chrome Browser seems to be using the most CPU%. That's because I have it set up to open 16 tabs when I first launch it. But yesterday Chrome was closed and was not running. If I set it up as yesterday, the one on the top when sorted by CPU% is ...

ah ok. It shows that the media player is running a 32 bit program. Could this be the issue?

Anyway here is the top list:

1. Gom Player (32 bit) CPU 9 - 14% Memory 180MB
2. Windows audio device graph isolation CPU 1% Memory 7.6 MB
3. Windows desktop manager CPU 0.5% Memory 16.7MB

I put the list in alphabetical, but I do not see Windows Modules Installer Worker currently running.

I went to App History, and the ones that useed the most CPU time are
1. Host Processes for Windows Services
2. Google Chrome
3. Gom Player
4. Internet Explorer
5. COM Surrogate




Yes this is probably good advice. I'll try that out this time. Thank you.



The only reason I want to use Chrome is that it seems to sync better with Google and you can sync your tabs and history with other devices. Also, I usually have my PC setup so that Chrome loads all the tabs I read every day on boot up. That's 16 tabs, and IE only allows to load 7 or 8 on bootup.



Anyway thanks for the information people. Hope to hear more from you all very soon. Thanks!

If you use Chrome, you will not reach 9 hours of battery life. Chrome is horribly inefficient, and that's something Google needs to fix. They acknowledged it being a problem a few months back, and are apparently working on it.

As for playing videos, I highly recommend using the Video app where you can, as you will probably see much better battery life.

I also recommend turning off automatic Windows updates to prevent it from downloading them when you don't want it to, and also if you use antivirus, scan when you are plugged in. AV scans eat batteries.

There's no way anyone's getting 9 hours on the SP3 unless they have like 1 browser tab open, no other programs open, and they spend multiple hours on the one tab before powering down... I've gone through 5 SP3's, always got between 3 and ~4.5 hours of battery life while browsing with brightness set at 80%.

The battery blows, as it does on most of these hybrid devices (just look at the Yoga 3 Pro, it's even worse). Unless you want to minimize your user experience and squint at 5% screen brightness, do yourself a favor and buy the power cover. It doesn't fit the SP3 perfectly as it was made for the SP1/2 form factor, but it'll bump you up to around 7-8 hours of battery life which is acceptable.

If you want decent battery life the power cover is your only option, either that, or get another hybrid like the Dell Venue Pro 11 with Core M that has a legit keyboard battery and gives you ~ 15 hours worth. Probably the best hybrid on the market so far regarding battery life.

I've hit 9 hours, and even 10. Most days I get 8.5, at 40% brightness. I couldn't use the device at 80% brightness without using sunglasses, and I'm not even kidding.

I have about 20 PDFs open at all times, which is lecture notes from my different modules and homework sheets. I use OneNote all the time, mostly MUI, and I've found that opening a Word document has very little, if any effect on my regular battery life. Opening 7 spreadsheets is a different thing, as I found that to knock it down to about 6.5 hours battery life.

I have the regular apps open all the time - IE with a few tabs, Mail, Skype..

Ah finally, all the updates are done via Windows Update. Is there anything else that I need to update?

To clarify things, the main reason I chose this device was because of OneNote. I want to use the pen more than any other function, and is also the reason why I chose this device over the MBA with its true all day battery life. Also, I chose this device because I didn't want to carry around a 1000 page text book, another 200 page workbook, a note pad for notes that need constant rewriting, and an ipad or laptop to watch recorded lectures.

This would be the ideal scenario for me

9 AM - maybe watch a few youtube videos while eating breakfast (in highest resolution youtube has to offer, but I'm not sure if this matters?)
10 AM - 1 PM - split screen with a lecture recording on and OneNote on the other half of the screen constantly taking notes
2PM - watch an hour long 720/1080p show with headphones on
3Pm - 5PM - OneNote organizing and summarzing notes.
9PM - 12AM - one more hour of video with headphones on, and the rest on OneNote constantly writing.
1AM - 8AM - charge all night in dock

would you consider this to be a power user? it's not like I want to game on this or constantly watch videos.

Also, when you mention that one use must have only one tab open on his browser, do you mean that having multiple tabs open drains the battery even more?

Also, for those who are getting more than 6 hours, please share your settings as I would love to try them out even if it sacrifices some performance from the Surface.

BTW, my specs are i5 256GB

Thank you

This device is great for the pen - I use it all the time in lectures, and if all I use is OneNote at 40% brightness I can get 10 hours of battery life. Being a Physics student the pen is very important to me, as it's the easiest way to take notes in Physics lectures, so I use it a lot. I also use the pen to write out most of my homework.

We also have some big textbooks but I don't use them - my SP3 is my textbook.

I also have the i5/256.

can someome please explain what MUI stands for?

After doing all the updates, I'm testing out the same situation as yesterday:
1. 100% fully charged
2. around 35-40% brightness
3. 1080p movie playing on 32bit desktop version video playing software
4. headphones plugged in
5. keyboard plugged in with backlight off (does the keyboard itself when plugged in drain battery as well?)
6. all other programs/apps turned off

About an hour into the movie, and I'm down to 70% remaining battery.

So if one hour of movies is 30% battery life, 2 hours would be 60%, 3 hours would be 90% of the battery. I guess if the battery drain is linear, I've gained about a little over an hour in battery life. I suppose it is somewhat of an improvement, considering the surface shutoff before the movie was even over (movie is approx 2:30:00).

After the movie is over, I will report the remaining battery percentage.

After that I will recharge it to 100% again, then run my ideal scenario to see how long it will last.

You need to condition the battery still. Charge to 100%, drain until the device shuts down. Plug in, charge to 100%, drain to shutdown. Then you should be fine. Two or three of these cycles should sort your battery readings, however it is possible that this desktop app is horribly inefficient. If you must use a desktop app to view videos, then use Windows Media Player as it's the most energy efficient desktop video player to my knowledge.

Office is also pretty good with preserving your battery life, even Outlook.

I also use AVG Internet Security 2015 and find that it doesn't effect my battery life.

MUI = Modern User Interface. All Windows Store apps run in the MUI. Desktop apps are also commonly called Legacy software.

 

[riggi]

I also find that using the pen seems to drain the battery faster than if I don't use the pen.
Maybe it just seems that way as time seems to go quicker or something. Or, maybe having the digitizer layer turn on whenever the pen is in proximity draws more power.

 

[Liam2349]

I also find that using the pen seems to drain the battery faster than if I don't use the pen.
Maybe it just seems that way as time seems to go quicker or something. Or, maybe having the digitizer layer turn on whenever the pen is in proximity draws more power.

I don't think so. In my experience, when using nothing but pen and OneNote, I've had my best battery life.

 

[Gerke]

So it looks like your movieplayer is the most probable cause. Try Mobile.HD (it has a free trial version) with the same movie. I bet you wil use about 5 or 6 % per hour in stead of 30% an hour

 

[JackieInCo]

I'm pretty impressed with my battery life. I've been using it with IE and Firefox. After exactly one week after purchase, I've been online for about 3 hours with 68% left. This is the second time I've used it on battery power. First time was on purchase and barely got 3 hours while using the type keyboard and wired mouse. That might be normal for that usage too.

 

[GreyFox7]

There's no way anyone's getting 9 hours on the SP3 unless they have like 1 browser tab open, no other programs open, and they spend multiple hours on the one tab before powering down... I've gone through 5 SP3's, always got between 3 and ~4.5 hours of battery life while browsing with brightness set at 80%.

The battery blows, as it does on most of these hybrid devices (just look at the Yoga 3 Pro, it's even worse). Unless you want to minimize your user experience and squint at 5% screen brightness, do yourself a favor and buy the power cover. It doesn't fit the SP3 perfectly as it was made for the SP1/2 form factor, but it'll bump you up to around 7-8 hours of battery life which is acceptable.

If you want decent battery life the power cover is your only option, either that, or get another hybrid like the Dell Venue Pro 11 with Core M that has a legit keyboard battery and gives you ~ 15 hours worth. Probably the best hybrid on the market so far regarding battery life.

Hi my name is "anyone" and I get 9 hours of battery life as do many others. Much has been discussed on this forum about it for everyone to read. If someone doesn't that doesn't mean everyone can't.

 

[JackieInCo]

I'm still using mine on battery. I posted above two hours ago and BatteryBar still shows I can go 2:46 with 45.8% remaining. If this is accurate, that means I got about eight hours.

 

[jnjroach]

I also find that using the pen seems to drain the battery faster than if I don't use the pen.
Maybe it just seems that way as time seems to go quicker or something. Or, maybe having the digitizer layer turn on whenever the pen is in proximity draws more power.

The power for the Digitizer is in the Pen, the N-Trig Digitizer Layer is passive and the Pen is Active (this is the opposite of Wacom, though they are developing or have developed an equivalent solution).

 

[wookiee2cu]

Only other tip I can think of (if it wasn't already mentioned) is to disable unnecessary programs at start up.

 

[leeshor]

It's all about the Live Tiles,

 

[Liam2349]

It's all about the Live Tiles,

I haven't tested them, but I get 8.5 hours with live tiles. Weather, Verge, Anandtech, News and a few others.

 

[tony8154]

Quick update...

After listening to some advice, I tried conditioning the battery with a few drain cycles.

I tested the same video player app and watched an entire movie with only about 20% battery usage. That's not too bad

I'll try a full run tomorrow to see how it copes with heavy OneNote usage.

Thanks!