OhGizmo! - Latest Comments in ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Wuffy — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:02:53 -0000

Hmmm. I wonder how many greenhouse gasses are produced during the manufacture and distribution of this energy-pulling, functionality-duplicating piece of plastic junk?

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

bpled — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:00:11 -0000

Use http://www.bpled.com instead of Google (Yahoo, Altavista whatever) and you'll save some precious energy. After all, it's up to us to care for the environment, right?

Do some more for the environment, Make bpled your homepage at your Work and Home

Remeber: You can make difference.

Thank you.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

snoopy — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:49:22 -0000

The eco-button software (from www.eco-button.com) can be used without the button.

The button simply types 'ecobutton' into Start | Run and executes

To do that without the button create a batch file with Notepad that contains:

@ECHO OFF
cmd /c ecobutton
cls
EXIT

and save it as *****.bat where **** is whatever you want. Then create a desktop shortcut for this file.

Despite the claims using the button does not appear to use less power than the normal S3 Standby mode. As far as I can see the only thing the software does is record how long the computer is suspended and calculate how much electricity has been saved based on the information entered during setup.

So really the only thing the button has going for it is the visual reminder. Not sure that is worth what they are charging.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Ric — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:34:42 -0000

I have been testing a Eco Button we got for free, like Jeff says it is a very convenient way to put your PC in to standby for when you walk away from it. However I almost fell off my chair when I found out this cheap piece of plastic with a geen LED will set you back £15, definately not worth that!!!! Even with the development of the software that tells you how much your saving, at the most it should only cost £5 max. Someone is making a lot of money of the whole greening thing.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Jeff — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:08:11 -0000

I have an Ecobuton and just to clarify, what the button does it re-introduces the 2 modes microsoft running gear disables when you plug a keyboard in for the first time. What Ecobutton button does is quickly and easily brings these back and will always use the most efficent mode available and puts the user in control of when they want the PC to save ££$$. It also shows the user how much they have saved both in money and CO2. See the website www.eco-button.com , don't under estimate it. We are all lazy, and this gadget makes it easy!! and its made from re-cycled plastic. My business has saved loads and has made my staff more aware and think green. Also it large offices it can save on the air conditioning bill as well.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Christopher — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:14:53 -0000

WOW! Cool, I can save the planet by buying crap! Neat, now I don't feel bad about my H2!

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Felix — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:22:27 -0000

I like the idea of adding another power-draining device to my PC to make it save energy. Great job! Most modern computers have stand-by keys on their keyboards that can be configured to put the computer into hibernation anyway. But maybe I'm just missing the whole genius idea.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

siliconchef — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:25:14 -0000

It's just a virtual power button attached via USB. Their software sends the OS a signal to go to suspend. If you have any "enhanced" keyboards from Microsoft or Logitech (with dozens of extra buttons) you might have a standby or suspend button (look for a key with a crescent moon on it).

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Darren — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:55:23 -0000

.. it could be USB flash memory that redirects the contents of the Hiberfile to itself. Pressing the ecobutton would trigger software (like media keys on a multimedia keyboard) that triggers Hibernation and then tells Windows to write the Hibernation data to X: (drive where the ecobutton flash memory is). At that point, the system shuts down quicker, and restarts almost as fast.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Andrew Liszewski — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:01:53 -0000

Anytime I've put my system into Standby mode, it dumps the contents of the system RAM into a temporary file on the hard drive, and then dumps it back into RAM when the system wakes up. It's much faster than closing all the running apps, shutting down the machine, powering it up later and reopening all the programs again, but in my experience going into Standby has never been an 'instant' process.

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

Grunwalski — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:52:46 -0000

I guess its something Windows assume that most PCs have, but in fact i've never seen on a single machine. The "Standby" Button. I can only assume that it will use the already on-board "Hibernation Mode"

Re: ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC

reply — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:21:52 -0000

This is required because... shutting down and starting up the computer takes up more energy?