Comment 32 for bug 877560

It's been a while since I reported this, now this machine has received kernel/BIOS/RAM/rest of ubuntu package upgrades, and I cannot reproduce the apparent audio codec power hog with powertop. OTOH, now it's fixated on unused ethernet card, reporting that it is taking 15-16W. Of course all powertop suggestions were followed.

I run powerstat anyway:
Running for 300 seconds (30 samples at 10 second intervals).
ACPI battery power measurments will start in 180 seconds time

  Time User Nice Sys Idle IO Run Ctxt/s IRQ/s Fork Exec Exit Watts
18:51:50 2.7 0.1 0.2 97.0 0.0 1 432 363 0 0 0 13.45
18:52:00 2.5 0.0 0.1 96.8 0.6 1 430 361 0 0 0 13.14
18:52:10 2.8 0.1 0.2 97.0 0.0 2 437 368 0 0 0 13.10
18:52:20 2.4 0.0 0.2 97.1 0.4 1 424 365 0 0 0 13.08
18:52:30 2.5 0.0 0.2 97.3 0.0 1 440 374 0 0 0 13.02
18:52:40 2.1 0.0 0.2 96.8 0.9 1 389 331 0 0 0 12.95
18:52:50 2.8 0.0 0.2 96.7 0.1 1 462 389 2 2 2 13.08
18:53:00 2.6 0.0 0.3 96.8 0.3 2 465 382 4 4 4 13.57
18:53:10 2.7 0.0 0.2 97.1 0.0 1 418 345 0 0 0 13.90
18:53:20 2.3 0.0 0.2 97.6 0.0 1 399 337 0 0 0 14.34
18:53:30 2.8 0.1 0.2 96.2 0.8 2 454 385 0 0 0 14.73
18:53:40 2.1 0.0 0.2 97.7 0.0 1 374 309 0 0 0 15.09
18:53:50 2.4 0.1 0.2 97.4 0.0 1 429 369 1 0 0 15.48
18:54:00 2.0 0.0 0.2 97.1 0.8 2 412 355 0 0 0 15.11
18:54:10 2.8 0.0 0.2 96.8 0.2 2 437 366 0 0 0 14.56
18:54:20 2.4 0.0 0.1 97.6 0.0 2 408 344 0 0 0 14.13
18:54:30 2.7 0.0 0.3 96.3 0.8 1 435 353 0 0 0 13.82
18:54:40 2.3 0.0 0.2 97.3 0.2 1 394 338 0 0 0 13.58
18:54:50 2.8 0.1 0.3 96.7 0.2 1 439 385 0 0 0 13.76
18:55:00 2.4 0.0 0.1 96.8 0.8 1 433 375 0 0 0 14.33
18:55:10 4.4 0.0 0.2 95.4 0.0 3 447 400 0 0 0 14.95
18:55:20 2.2 0.0 0.3 97.4 0.2 1 391 333 0 0 0 15.56
18:55:30 2.8 0.0 0.3 96.9 0.1 1 465 401 0 0 0 15.87
18:55:40 2.0 0.0 0.1 97.9 0.0 2 411 353 0 0 0 15.63
18:55:50 3.0 0.1 0.3 96.7 0.0 1 512 431 2 2 5 15.34
18:56:00 2.5 0.0 0.3 96.3 0.9 1 461 376 4 4 5 15.22
18:56:10 2.7 0.1 0.3 97.0 0.0 2 406 325 0 0 0 14.59
18:56:20 2.4 0.0 0.2 97.5 0.0 1 371 303 0 0 0 14.08
18:56:30 3.0 0.0 0.3 95.4 1.3 2 439 353 0 0 1 13.68
18:56:40 2.1 0.0 0.3 97.6 0.0 1 388 316 1 0 0 13.34
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Average 2.6 0.0 0.2 96.9 0.3 1.4 426.7 359.5 0.5 0.4 0.6 14.22
  StdDev 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.6 0.4 0.5 30.5 28.3 1.1 1.1 1.4 0.90
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Minimum 2.0 0.0 0.1 95.4 0.0 1.0 370.7 303.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.95
 Maximum 4.4 0.1 0.3 97.9 1.3 3.0 512.4 431.4 4.0 4.0 5.0 15.87
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Summary:
 14.22 Watts on Average with Standard Deviation 0.90

I think it supports the theory that powertop is on crack, as powerstat reports as much usage for the whole system as powertop for the ethernet card only.

I will keep an eye if the audio codec issue reoccurs and will post info if it does.

Thank you