Dell Inspiron 7500 System Reference Manual page 99

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Power Conservation: Dell™ Inspiron™ 7500
How to Conserve Battery Power
Using Microsoft Windows 98 to Conserve Battery Power
Using Windows NT to Conserve Battery Power
How to Conserve Battery Power
You automatically conserve battery power each time you attach your computer to an electrical outlet. When the AC adapter is attached, the
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battery is being charged while the computer uses AC power. The life expectancy of your battery is determined largely by the number of
charges it receives, so use an AC power source to run the computer if one is available.
To adjust the way the computer uses battery power, use the Windows 98 Power Management Properties window or the Windows NT
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Power Management Control window.
When the computer is using battery power, remove PC Cards that you are not using.
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When possible, play CDs and DVDs when the computer is attached to an electrical outlet. Playing a CD or DVD uses a lot of battery power.
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Experiment with power conservation features to achieve the optimum power conservation for your work environment.
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Place the computer into standby mode when you leave the computer unattended for long periods of time.
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Using Microsoft® Windows® 98 to Conserve Battery Power
To access the Power Management Properties window (see Figure 1) and set the power management features in Windows 98, perform the
following steps:
1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Power Management Properties icon.
The Power Management Properties window contains the following tabs:
Power Scheme allows you to select one of three power mode settings.
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Alarms allows you to set the Low battery and Critical battery alarms to alert you when the system battery falls below a certain
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percentage. When you received your computer, the Low battery and Critical battery alarms check boxes were not checked.
Dell recommends that you do not select these options.
Power Meter allows you to view the percentage of battery life remaining when your system is operating on battery power. When
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your computer is not operating on battery power, it displays a message indicating that your computer is operating on AC power.
Advanced allows you to display the Power Meter on the Windows 98 taskbar and to display a password prompt when the
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computer resumes from standby mode
Figure 1. Power Management Properties Window
Experimenting with Power Conservation
Standby Mode
Save-to-Disk Suspend Mode
.