Scope of this Support Bulletin: Troubleshooting tips for Toshiba's Power Saver / Power Management utility, following a general explanation of its features.

See also Support Bulletin 98082402 Power management features of Windows Vista.

Toshiba power management – an introduction

The Toshiba power management software manages the power consumption of various components of Toshiba portable computers. Its primary purpose is to extend the amount of time that your computer can run from its battery.

The power consumption of a computer depends upon the total power consumption of all of its components. This power consumption varies depending upon several factors, including the brightness level of the display screen, whether or not the hard drive and optical drive are spinning, and various settings that can be adjusted in the power management software of the Windows Control Panel. 

Follow these steps to start the power management software:

For Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows: Click the Windows Start button, then click Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, and finally Toshiba Power Saver.

For Windows Vista: Click the Windows Start button, then click Control Panel, Mobile PC, and finally Power Options.

See your computer's User's Guide for more detailed instructions for adjusting power saving options. For Windows Vista, be sure to investigate the Advanced Settings (available when editing a Power Plan) for important options including the timeout for the hard disk drive and battery charge notifications.

There are two primary power management modes: one with settings for running from the battery, and one with settings for running from the AC adapter.

The default settings for running from the battery are designed to yield long battery life with reasonable performance. If, for example, the computer is left unused for a minute or two, the backlight for the screen (LCD panel) would turn off, thereby significantly reducing the energy drain on the battery. By adjusting various settings and timeout values you can optimize the power management settings more toward saving power, or more toward enhancing performance.

Following is a list of typical power management settings . The specific options will vary somewhat from one model to another. Consult the computer's User's Guide for model-specific details.

• Processor Speed  This setting controls the processor (CPU) clock speed. Reducing the processor speed can significantly reduce the demand for power from the battery. Increasing the processor speed can significantly improve the performance of 'CPU-intensive' applications -- video-editing software, for example.
  
  
• Display Brightness  This setting controls the brightness of the LCD screen's backlight, which is a significant component of any portable computer's total power consumption. Reducing the screen's brightness may ease eyestrain in low-light environments -- during air travel, for example.
  
  
• Display Power Off  This timer-based setting will turn off the display backlight after a specified time interval (two minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). Its operation is similar to that of a screen saver, but it offers a power-saving benefit as well as a privacy benefit.
  
  
• Hard Drive Power Off  This timer-based setting will turn off the hard drive's motor (stop it from spinning) after a specified time interval (five minutes, for example) of hard-drive inactivity. Selecting a low timeout value will cause the drive to be powered off relatively soon, for a quick reduction in power consumption. The disadvantage of having the hard drive powered off is the second-or-two delay required to "spin up" the hard drive for the next access -- when, for example, you wish to open a new file, or when the operating system needs to write some data to the disk.
  
  
• System Standby This timer-based setting causes the computer to enter Standby mode (sometimes called Suspend or Suspend/Resume) after a specified period (30 minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). On the way into Standby mode, the computer saves its operating state to a dedicated area of memory, and then enters the low-power Standby mode, in which most components are completely powered off, including the CPU, screen, hard drive, and most internal circuitry except for the power supply and the main memory. The memory is continuously refreshed, keeping its contents (the operating system, any running programs, and open documents and other data files) 'alive', so that when the power button is later pressed, the computer "resumes" to the same state it was in before it was powered off automatically. Whatever applications and documents were open before will now re-appear, after a delay of just a few seconds -- rather then the longer delay when emerging from Hibernation mode -- or the delay of several minutes necessary for re-starting Windows, re-launching the applications, and re-opening the documents. The computer can remain in standby mode indefinitely if it is being powered by the AC adapter, but if it is running from the battery it can stay in Standby mode only as long as there is enough energy in the battery to keep the memory powered (no more than two or three days, and much less with an aging battery). Once the battery's energy is exhausted, the computer will simply turn off, at which point the contents of memory will disappear, including any open documents of other data files. Therefore, always frequently save the contents of your open files to the hard drive, so that you may retrieve them from there regardless of the status of the copy of the file in the computer's memory.
  
  
• System Hibernate  This timer-based setting causes the computer to enter Hibernate mode after a specified period (30 minutes, for example) of inactivity (no input from the keyboard or the pointing device). Hibernation mode is roughly similar to Standby mode: the state of the computer, the operating system, any running programs, and open documents and other data files are all saved -- but to a dedicated area on the hard drive, rather than to memory. The computer is then turned off. Since everything has been saved to the hard drive, the computer can 'Hibernate' indefinitely, whether running from the AC adapter or from the battery. Since the computer's memory is powered-off, along with almost everything else, power consumption from the battery is at a minimum, so its charge will last longer than it would if the computer were in Standby mode. When the computer is later powered-on, it reloads its previous state from the hard drive, which takes considerably longer than resuming from Standby mode, but much less time than it takes to re-start Windows, re-launch the applications, and re-open the documents. Hibernation is not a substitute for, or an alternative to, explicitly and frequently saving documents and other data files to disk, using the Save commands built into each application. 
  
  
• Intel SpeedStep This allows the CPU clock speed to be dynamically adjusted according to the changing requirements of the operating system and application software.
  

Troubleshooting

If power management does not seem to be working correctly, first verify that the various settings correspond to your preferences, and that you understand the function of the settings and what triggers them (a specific time-period of mouse and keyboard activity, for example).

One commonly misunderstood power saving feature is the operation of the cooling fan. When the cooling method is set to Performance, the fan turns on when the processor (CPU) reaches a sufficiently elevated temperature. Typically, the computer can seem quite warm to the touch well before the processor's temperature rises enough to trigger the fan. It may seem that the fan should spin up, considering how warm the case of the computer has become, but the CPU may still be operating within its normal temperature range.

If the hard disk drive rarely shuts down, despite a low timeout value, this may well be because Windows and application software access the hard drive from time to time. Windows routinely accesses the hard drive for 'housekeeping' chores, and applications may be configured to automatically save your documents or other files at intervals. Any hard drive access, including these automatic processes, will reset the countdown timer value for the hard drive power-off feature.

Another common source of confusion is for the active Power Usage Mode (sometimes labeled Long Life / Normal / High Power) to be different than the one expected. On many models, you may use the Fn+F2 Hotkey combination to easily select the desired Power Usage Mode.

If the Toshiba power management functions are not working correctly, or if parts of the user interface for them are missing, you may wish to re-install the Power Saver software, after removing it according to the following procedure (here described for Windows XP, though the sequence is similar for earlier versions of Windows).

1. From the Windows Start menu, click Control Panel.

2. Click Add or Remove Programs, then "Remove a program".

The "Currently installed programs and updates" list will appear.

3. For each of the following software components, click the name of the component, and then click the Remove button:

           Toshiba Power Saver
           Toshiba Tbiosdrv Driver
           Toshiba Utilities

Not all of these component will be listed for every computer model; just Remove whichever components are listed.

4. Close the Add or Remove Programs window, then click the Back button at the top of the window.

5. Click Performance and Maintenance, then System.

6. Click the Hardware tab, and then click the Device Manager button.

7. In the menu bar, click View. If there is no checkmark to the left of the Show Hidden Devices menu item, then click it. A checkmark should then appear.

8. Download the Toshiba Power Saver utility for your model from the Toshiba Support website, at support.toshiba.com.

CAUTION: It's very important to select and install the correct Toshiba Power Saver utility for your model. If the wrong version of this utility (for a different model) is installed, it may be necessary to restore the software image on the hard disk drive by using the Toshiba Recovery CD/DVD -- which first deletes all programs and all data from the drive.

For detailed website navigation instructions, see Obtaining downloads and documents from the Toshiba Support website.

9. Re-install the Power Saver utility, per the instructions that come with it.

Other power management options

Depending on the version of Windows running on your computer, there may be other power management options available to you. In the Windows XP Control Panel, for example, the Power Options utility offers many settings similar to those offered by the Toshiba Power Management utilities.

Windows Vista includes its own set of comprehensive power management features and controls. See also Support Bulletin 98082402 Power management features of Windows Vista.

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