power management problems

[Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@researchut.com>]

Hi,

I'm using Debian on my laptop.

The machine is a Dell XPS M1210 laptop which has:
* Intel Core Duo 2.0Ghz Processor
* 2 GB RAM
* 60 GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
* nVIDIA GPU

While I'm using 2.6.22 with HI-RES Timers, I hardly get around 5-10 minutes
of power when running on battery. Where as Windows makes it run for 1.5 hrs
approx.

I've tried to make sure that no such process is running which could consume
my power. AFAIK the machine is in idle state but still can't survive for
more than 10 minutes.

And it is not that the power management app (kpowersaved) gets the wrong
information about the battery information and goes to sleep. When on
battery, immediately within minutes the warning LED for the battery starts
blinking and kpowersave warns me. So I think it is clear that both are
reading the batter properly.

But:
Linux => 5-10 minutes
Windows => 1.5 hrs

looks very very different.

Any ideas what could be going wrong ?

PS: I did try powertop but couldn't find any serious offenders.

Ritesh
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