Power usage, PCMCIA cards for Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

According to an electronics sales person, Windows allows for the disabling
of Wi-Fi cards, which ensures that it draws no power. I suspect that as
long as the card is inserted, there will always be some power, and the most
sure way of eliminating power drainage is remove the card.

Is the power difference between disabling and removing a card neglegible?
What about the ease with which disabling can be done from Windows 2000?
Is it a pain, or is there a system tray item to do this?

Is there a difference in power consumption between cards for 802.11b and
802.11g? Or is the difference overshadowed by power differences between
card models for the same standard, or between different manufacturers for
the same standard?

Thanks,

Bernie

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Andrew wrote:

>In comp.sys.laptops Bernie <Urt@bunnybuns.com> wrote:
>: According to an electronics sales person, Windows allows for the disabling
>: of Wi-Fi cards, which ensures that it draws no power. I suspect that as
>: long as the card is inserted, there will always be some power, and the most
>: sure way of eliminating power drainage is remove the card.
>
>Some cards have a little toggle switch that allows you to disable the
>card. I've seen them, although I have a laptop with an "internal"
>mini-PCI card (the laptop has a toggle switch on it for the card). In
>any case, I suspect turning the toggle switch OFF prevents most of the
>power drain from the card.
>

Thanks, Andrew, for a heads-up on the feature of a hardware switch.
Whether it makes much difference from a software switch depends on
the card design.

Bernie