Optical Drives and Battery Life

[grimlockPH]

Well, I've been wondering if turning off the DVD Drive of a laptop would improve battery life. I know at some points it can but I just don't know how much. If there's a way to completely turn off the optical drive (powered off not just disabled) without opening the chassis, that'd be really great. I can't find any infos about how to do it on my own laptop, many don't have the software or the options prebuilt on their system, so if someone knows how, please speak here for everybody's sake. Some people don't need their optical drives just yet and maybe turning it off wouldn't hurt that much.

I have an Acer V 15 Nitro, it has a DVD-RW DL, and I don't need it yet so I wan't to power it off completely.

 

[Archaic59]

Maybe this can help. It has a few tips-
http/www.cnet.com/how-to/battery-saving-tips-for-windows-laptops/

 

[McHenryB]

The optical drive will only use any significant amount of power whilst it is reading from a disk or writing to one.

 

[grimlockPH]

Maybe this can help. It has a few tips-
http/www.cnet.com/how-to/battery-saving-tips-for-windows-laptops/

Thanks mate. But, does disabling the optical drive from the Device Manager cuts off its power consumption? I have done that already but I still am able to eject the tray. I think disabling the drive only renders it unusable by the OS.

 

[grimlockPH]

The optical drive will only use any significant amount of power whilst it is reading from a disk or writing to one.

So it wouldn't make a difference from being idle even if I completely power it off?

 

[McHenryB]

The only way to know for sure, with your particular configuration is to remove the drive, or the power to it, and test the battery life, then do the same with the drive connected. You would have to ensure that everything else remained exactly the same. I would be extremely surprised if you noticed any difference (but I'm always ready to be surprised).

PS: This thread: http/www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=104384 discusses this.

 

[grimlockPH]

The only way to know for sure, with your particular configuration is to remove the drive, or the power to it, and test the battery life, then do the same with the drive connected. You would have to ensure that everything else remained exactly the same. I would be extremely surprised if you noticed any difference (but I'm always ready to be surprised).

PS: This thread: http/www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=104384 discusses this.

Okay, so my conclusion is that it does not matter at all even if I power it off because that won't be giving any noticable benefits for the battery life of the laptop. Best solution is to keep it the way it is. Even if we disable it from the device manager, it will be still be consuming power, the only way to power it off is by manually removing it's connection, but it's an extreme pain in the ass. Many thanks for the help mate.