games run slow on batt. power

[kileak]

Hello, I have a new compaq presario, and when I try to play games on a fully charged battery, the game runs real slow. Is this normal? The games run fine with the ac cord plugged in. Thanks.

 

[ThirtySixBelow]

Sometimes laptops will underclock themselves a little when not plugged in to save battery life. Try going into the power options and turning off all the power saving options, this might help to tell the computer that you dont want any of that. My dell underclocked to 1.6 ghz from 3.0 when i didnt have it plugged in. Thats a pretty huge difference and I cant exactly remember what I did to fix it, but I imagine that is your problem.

 

[aye29]

Yes, that is normal. Your graphics card and (in some cases) your CPU are both running slower when on battery power to save battery life. What kind of video card do you have? For nVidia cards, go to Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> (tab with name of card). In the right hand column, click on PowerMizer and move the slider for Batter Power to Maximum Performance. The settings for ATI cards should be similar.

As for the CPU, I dont know how to disable power saving. I beleive Power Options only allows you to set after how long you want the computer to go into Standby/Hibernation and does not determine CPU performance on battery.

If you do this, your battery life will suffer. My sugestion is to play plugged in. Or play something that isn't as graphically intensive so you don't lose battery life.

 

[Apokalipse]

true, my Laptop has like the first P4. it's 1.6GHZ when plugged in, and 1.2GHZ when not plugged in