Use Power Schemes for the Tablet PC
Published: November 7, 2002
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Summary
To take full advantage of the mobility offered by your Tablet PC, you will want to manage your power schemes. A power scheme is a predefined collection of power settings.
Choose a power scheme that fits the way that you use your Tablet PC, or use one as a starting point for creating your own personalized power scheme. You can select one power scheme that works well in most situations, or you can select different power schemes as your computing environment changes to have more control over the power consumption of your Tablet PC.
If you want to select one power scheme that works well in most situations, we recommend using the Portable/Laptop power scheme as the default power scheme and making the following adjustments: Change the Turn off hard disks, System standby, and System hibernates settings for Plugged in to Never. These settings combined with the default settings for battery power give you optimum power performance for most situations, whether you are at your desk, in a meeting room, on the manufacturing floor, in a client's office, on an airplane, or anywhere you care to take your Tablet PC.
Although these power management settings for the Portable/Laptop are the recommended settings for most Tablet PC users in most situations, you may choose to select different power schemes throughout the day.
For example, if you are at your workstation all day, you could choose the Home/Office Desk power scheme. This power scheme is appropriate when you are plugged into AC power for long periods of time and conserving your battery power is not important.
If you are on the go, you could choose the Portable/Laptop power scheme. This power scheme minimizes the use of power to conserve your battery, but adjusts to your processing needs so that system speed is not sacrificed.
When conserving battery power is the highest priority, you could choose Max Battery Power. Keep in mind, however, that unlike the Portable/Laptop power scheme, the settings under Max Battery Power do not adjust as your processing demands change. The Max Battery Power settings will affect your computer's processing speeds, so reserve this setting for situations that require minimal processing, for example, reading documents and checking e-mail messages.
Power Scheme Settings
The following table shows the power schemes available on your Tablet PC and some scenarios where these power schemes are appropriate.
Home/Office Desk | Use when you are connected to AC power. |
Portable/Laptop | Use when you are working away from your desk, or when you want to select one power scheme that works well in most situations. |
Presentation | Use when you are giving a presentation or when you are watching a DVD. |
Always On | This setting has limited use for Tablet PC users. Turning off System Hibernates is not recommended. |
Minimal Power Management | Use if you have a fully charged battery and anticipate periods of time when your computer is idle but you are using it to view information. |
Max Battery | Use when you are doing tasks that require minimal amounts of CPU processing or when you are willing to sacrifice processing speed to conserve your battery power. |
The following table shows the power schemes available on your Tablet PC and the default settings for both AC and DC power.
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Home/Office Desk | After 20 minutes | After 5 minutes | Never | After 10 minutes | Never | After 5 minutes | Never | After 20 minutes |
Portable/Laptop | After 15 minutes | After 2 minutes | After 30 minutes | After 5 minutes | After 20 minutes | After 15 minutes | After 3 hours | After 2 hours |
Presentation | Never | Never | Never | After 5 minutes | Never | After 15 minutes | Never | After 2 hours |
Always On | After 20 minutes | After 15 minutes | Never | After 30 minutes | Never | Never | Never | Never |
Minimal Power Management | After 15 minutes | After 5 minutes | Never | After 15 minutes | Never | After 5 minutes | Never | After 3 hours |
Max Battery | After 15 minutes | After 1 minute | Never | After 3 minutes | After 20 minutes | After 2 minutes | After 45 minutes | After 1 hour |
Choosing a Power Scheme
How to choose a power scheme
1. | On the taskbar, tap the Start button, and then tap Control Panel. |
2. | Tap Performance and Maintenance, and then tap Power Options. |
3. | On the Power Schemes tab, under Power schemes, select the power scheme you want. The power settings you see will change depending on the power scheme you choose. |
If you change your power schemes frequently, you may want to put the power options icon on the taskbar. This gives you a shortcut to changing your power scheme.
How to put the power options icon on the taskbar
1. | On the taskbar, tap the Start button, and then tap Control Panel. |
2. | Tap Performance and Maintenance, and then tap Power Options. |
3. | Tap the Advanced tab. |
4. | Under Options, tap the Always show icon on the taskbar check box. Tap OK. The icon or the icon will appear depending on which power state you are in. |
5. | Tap the power options icon, and select the power scheme from the menu. |
Creating a Power Scheme
How to create a new power scheme
1. | On the taskbar, tap the Start button, and then tap Control Panel. |
2. | Tap Performance and Maintenance, and then tap Power Options. |
3. | On the Power Schemes tab, under Power schemes, select one of the power schemes. |
4. | Change the settings for your new power scheme. |
5. | Tap Save as and enter a name for your new power scheme. |
6. | Tap OK, and then tap OK again. |
