Results for the Connected Standby energy efficiency Assessment

  • Article

Applies To: Windows 8.1

Connected Standby energy efficiency assessment results show metrics and issues that highlight energy efficiency problems. Whenever possible, the cause of the energy efficiency problem is identified. For example, it could be drivers, processes, or services. Recommended solutions for these problems are provided.

This topic helps you interpret the results produced by a Battery life during connected standby job that uses the Connected Standby energy efficiency assessment. It also provides guidance on how to use the results to identify and resolve common issues that negatively impact computer battery life.

In this topic:

  • Goals File

  • Metrics

  • Issues

For more information about energy efficiency-related jobs, see Energy Efficiency.

Goals File

You can create custom goals to measure your improvements in the Results View. Goals files are a triage tool that can help you understand how a PC is performing and to compare PCs in your business.

For example, goals for a basic laptop might be different than the goals you set for a high end desktop computer, or market expectations might change in such a way that you want the flexibility to define different goals and key requirements as time passes and technology improves.

When a metric value is compared to the goal for that metric, the status is color coded in the Result View as follows:

  • Light purple means that the system has a great user experience and that there are no perceived problems.

  • Medium purple means that the user experience is tolerable and you can optimize the system. Review the recommendations and analysis to see what improvements can be made to the system. These can be software changes, configuration changes or hardware changes.

  • Dark purple means that the system has a poor user experience and that there is significant room for improvements. Review the recommendations and analysis to see the improvements that can be made to the system. These can be software changes, configuration changes or hardware changes. You might have to consider making tradeoffs to deliver a high quality Windows experience.

  • No color means that there are no goals defined for the metric.

Note

In the Windows Assessment Toolkit for Windows 8, some assessments include default goals files. The first time you view results using this version of the tools, the default goals file is used. However, you can also define custom goals for Windows 8 the same way that you can for Windows 8.1.

You can set the goals file location and add a goals file to that location before you can use the UI to apply the custom goals. Once a goals file is selected it will continue to be the goals file that is used for any results that are opened.

Only one goals file can be used at a time. Goals for all assessments are set in a single goals file. The assessment tools will search for goals in the following order:

  1. A custom goals file

  2. Goals that are defined in the results file

  3. Goals that are defined in the assessment manifest

You can use the sample goals file that is provided at %PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Kits\8.1\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Assessment Toolkit\SDK\Samples\Goals to create your own goals file.

Note

You cannot package a goals file with a job, but you can store it on a share for others to use.

Metrics

The following metrics are generated by the Connected Standby energy efficiency assessment:

Time spent in DRIPS

This metric represents the time that is spent in the Deepest Runtime Idle Power State (DRIPS) as a percentage of the time spent in resiliency.

In Quiet Hours

This metric represents the total time, in seconds, that the system was in Quiet Hours during the assessment run. Quiet Hours reduce background activity during Connected Standby, which may affect the results.

Resiliency/In Connected Standby

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that is spent in resiliency, during which devices are opportunistically allowed to enter deeper idle states to conserve power.

Sub-metrics

Devices

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that devices and components prevented the computer from entering DRIPS.

The devices sub-metric is further broken down into individual devices. Each device is listed separately along with the total time that the device prevented the computer from entering DRIPS.

Activators

This set of metrics represents the time, in seconds, that an activator prevented the computer from entering DRIPS. Each activator is represented as a separate metric. Some activators are further broken down into subtasks.

Activators that can prevent the computer from entering DRIPS are listed below:

  • WNS (Windows Notification Services)

  • IDM (Image Download Manager)

  • BI (Broker Infrastructure)

  • WU (Windows Update)

  • GP (Group Policy)

  • NCSI (Network Connectivity Status Indicator)

  • Toast Notifications

  • PLM (Process Lifetime Manager)

  • PDC internal activators

Resiliency phase not entered

This metric represents the total time, in seconds, that the computer was prevented from entering resiliency. This metric is further broken down into time while entering Connected Standby and time while exiting Connected Standby.

CPU Activity

This metric represents the total time, in seconds, that processors were active while the computer was in Connected Standby.

The CPU Activity sub-metric is further broken down into individual processes. Each process is listed separately along with the total time that the process was active during Connected Standby.

Enter/Exit Connected Standby

This metric represents the total time, in seconds, that the computer spends entering and leaving Connected Standby. Each phase is divided into six sub-phases.

Low-Power Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Low-Power phase, during which callback notifications for entering and leaving the low-power state are sent to registered drivers and services that were not suspended during the PLM phase or the DAM phase.

DAM Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Desktop Activity Moderator (DAM) phase, during which the DAM suspends or resumes the execution of user-session desktop processes.

PLM Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Process Lifetime Manger (PLM) phase, during which the PLM suspends or resumes the execution of Windows Store apps.

Resiliency Notification Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Resiliency Notification phase, during which the PDC sends power notification events indicating that it will transition to resiliency next.

Maintenance Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Maintenance phase, during which underlying maintenance activities are run.

Connection Phase

This metric represents the time, in seconds, that the computer spends in the Connection phase, during which Windows filters input and handles remote sessions.

Issues

The Connected Standby energy efficiency assessment performs advanced issue analysis and provides links to Windows® Performance Analyzer (WPA) to troubleshoot the issues that are identified. WPA might present additional details about disk activity or CPU activity depending on the types of issues that were identified. For more information about in-depth analysis issues and recommendations see, Common In-Depth Analysis Issues.

% time in lowest C-State is 0 for ARM-based devices

When running the Connected Standby energy efficiency assessment on an ARM-based device, the % time in lowest C-State metric is reported as 0. Data related to observed C-State values during the assessment run is available through the Idle States graph in Windows Performance Analyzer.

The assessment reports an exit code of 0x80050006

This error occurs when maintenance tasks have been registered on the PC but have not completed before the assessment run. This prevents the assessment from running, as maintenance tasks often impact assessment metrics.

To resolve this issue, do one of the following:

  1. Ensure that the computer is connected to a network and is running on AC power. Manually initiate pending maintenance tasks with the following command from an elevated prompt:

    rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

  2. Disable regular and idle maintenance tasks, and stop all maintenance tasks before running the assessment.

See Also

Tasks

Create and Run an Energy Efficiency Job

Concepts

Assessments
Energy Efficiency

Other Resources

Windows Assessment Toolkit Technical Reference
Windows Assessments Console Step-by-Step Guide
Windows Performance Toolkit Technical Reference