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[Hardware] [SOLVED] Different hardware power consumption issues

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sche91
Posts: 3
Joined: 2022-05-30 11:53
Location: Rostov-on-Don, RF
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[Hardware] [SOLVED] Different hardware power consumption issues

#1 Post by sche91 »

Hello.

Recently I have started monitoring my laptop power consumption with powertop and tuning it with tlp. My laptop is a big and bulky Dell Precision M4800, but anyway I was able to reach 15-18W consumption in a typing/reading mode, which gives me 5-6 hours of working with 97 Wh battery which is GOOD! 90% of time I use it on docked and plugged to AC.
I use Debian Sid and did full upgrade/dist-upgrade a couple of days ago.

Straight to the problem. Since I look at powertop quite often now I see some strange things there.
1. eno1 ethernet adapter. Consumes around 20W, when docked on AC and still consumes from 1-2 to 10-12 W when undocked on battery, even if I am connected using wlan card. I turn it off using ifconfig, but I guess I need some kind of script or combining it with tlp, because for me in 99.99% cases using battery = not docked = not using ethernet, so it better be automatically turned off when not on AC.
2. wlp3s0 wlan adapter. Turned OFF with hardware switch atm, but consumes 1.3W when I am writing this. And may consume up to 20W still being turned off. When on battery and connected to my home wifi (2-4 meters away) it may consume from 1-3 W when idle (which is okay) and up to 10-11 W when loading sites.
3. ExpressCard triple USB 3.0 controller is warm too, so it obviously consumes 2-3 W (lspci output for it 09:00.0 USB controller: Fresco Logic FL1100 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 10)). My left palm is right upon it and I feel it being warm when on AC, it's cold when on battery. but I really wanted to discover it and its consumption or power control in the system.

I run Debian Sid and did full upgrade couple of days ago.

Code: Select all

uname -a
Linux sche91-dell-m4800 6.0.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.0.8-1 (2022-11-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Last edited by sche91 on 2022-12-11 21:59, edited 1 time in total.

sche91
Posts: 3
Joined: 2022-05-30 11:53
Location: Rostov-on-Don, RF
Contact:

Re: [Hardware] Different hardware power consumption issues

#2 Post by sche91 »

Okay. I think the problem may be marked as solved.
1. Powertop requires calibration. And a lot of it, both on battery and AC. Anyway it may show funny numbers like 1kW...
2. I have done some configuration according to this manual and it seems that my wlan card now asks for less power when working and heats less when laptop is on the dock and the wireless switch is turned OFF. It shouldnt heat at all, I know.
3. Problem with ExpressCard is soved. Powertop tunable puts it into D3hot when not used, anyway it demands around 2W even in D3Hot and around 4W in D0.

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