TIP: Air Travel Gaming with a Gaming Laptop

[Mize]

This is just a tip to pass along a trick I figured out yesterday on my way to Beijing.
I recently bought an Asus G46VW (i5 with GTX 660M) and intended to use it to game on long flights when AC power outlets are available.

Well it turns out that the power supply for this thing draws more current than the outlet will provide and the outlet will automatically turn off. I noticed it did this whether or not the laptop was connected and figured it must be an initial high current draw to charge up capacitors. With this theory I proceeded to plug in the power supply and then unplug and quickly re-plug it back in as soon as the outlet active light went off. After about a dozen or so repetitions the caps were charged and the outlet remained active.

Suffice it to say it worked and I proceeded to play about 8 hours of CivV and another 2 of CitiesXL.
Whew.

(of course I had my iPad and Kindle for fall-back entertainment but nothing passes hours faster than gaming IMHO)

 

[homerdog]

Did it make any difference if the laptop was on or off?

Also, what was the person sitting next to you doing while you were raping the electrical outlet?

 

[Malo]

They probably were thinking "well that's a new fetish"

On a side note, what do you think of CitiesXL?

 

[orangpelupa]

when laptop charger is completely empty, it will make sparks and popping sound when plugged for the 1st time.

Doesnt that make the passanger beside you got scared?

 

[swaaye]

I should try bringing my Laserjet 4p and see if I can make the cabin lights flicker while it prints.....

 

[Mize]

LOL. The middle seat was empty and the guy by the window was focused on excel. I didn't worry too much about him Cities XL isn't bad - it's graphically quite good other than not being able to arbitrarily rotate and angle the camera like you can in SimCity 5. It also has a memory leak issue so it's best to save it every hour or so, exit, then relaunch.

Also I didn't notice any difference in cap charge-up with the computer on or off. At one point I had to re-charge it for some reason (it was late in CivV so maybe that i5 started sucking down too much juice?) and it took longer that time...that's also when I switched to CitiesXL for fear it was CivV's fault. I know CitiesXL only uses a single core...

I'm sure I'll get to learn even more interesting bits on my return flight while causing my fellow passengers a raised eyebrow or two.

 

[Kyyla]

With this theory I proceeded to plug in the power supply and then unplug and quickly re-plug it back in as soon as the outlet active light went off. After about a dozen or so repetitions the caps were charged and the outlet remained active.

Suffice it to say it worked and I proceeded to play about 8 hours of CivV and another 2 of CitiesXL.
Whew.

Science in action ladies and gentlemen!

 

[orangpelupa]

When will you return? Im interested in your return fligh story. Hopefully there no vacant seat and tell us what the other passager expression when you started doing that

 

[Mize]

When will you return? Im interested in your return fligh story. Hopefully there no vacant seat and tell us what the other passager expression when you started doing that

Heading back tonight Beijing time. As of now the middle seat is still empty...

 

[Mize]

Heading back tonight Beijing time. As of now the middle seat is still empty...

Had an empty middle again and this socket only required 4 replugs

 

[orangpelupa]

does any flight crew notice?
on future flight, the flight attendant maybe put additional "Safety demonstration" when going to take off.

"use this plastic thing to make you float on water"
"blah blah blah"
"turn off your cellphone on takeoff"
"And dont rape the power plug *wink*"

 

[Mize]

does any flight crew notice?
on future flight, the flight attendant maybe put additional "Safety demonstration" when going to take off.

"use this plastic thing to make you float on water"
"blah blah blah"
"turn off your cellphone on takeoff"
"And dont rape the power plug *wink*"

This is what it takes to run a GTX 660M on a plane!

 

[orangpelupa]

What if all of the passenger use Ho performance laptop and start a LAN session.

Mayday mayday. Flight number AK three two niner requesting for emergency landing. We are on low battery

 

[Mize]

What if all of the passenger use Ho performance laptop and start a LAN session.

Mayday mayday. Flight number AK three two niner requesting for emergency landing. We are on low battery

There's power aplenty on these aircraft. Typically at least two apus and two generators....37,000 ft LANparty,

 

[orangpelupa]

generators!

when im super rich, i can safely book a private jet and do LAN party

 

[Grall]

generators!

Coupled to the turbine shafts of the engines. You could probably pull several hundred kilowatts out of them without too much issue...

The dreamliner in particular has tons of electrical generation capability since everything typically run by bleed air from the compressor stages is electrified. That means air conditioning, wing defrosting, hydraulic pumps and so on. That's why that plane has such bigass, fireprone batteries onboard; they're used to spin up a megasized APU, which in turn starts the main engines.

 

[Malo]

I thought of this thread when I noticed this feature on my Lenovo Helix. It has an Airplane Power Mode which limits the battery charging speed, cpu performance and power consumption for plane AC outlets.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Is this just for first-class seats?

I just flew to NY with Iberia and back to Europe through American Airlines and I didn't find any of this. No power outlets, no internets, nothing.
Not even individual screens for media consumption. Just random low-quality LCDs and even CRTs throughout the ceiling of the middle rows.
I found zero difference between those flights and the cheap charters they use to fly european tourists to latin america.


I was okay with that because I had a tablet for movies/series and my Vita with Uncharted, but every flight for me seems to be exactly the same as when I was a kid 20 years ago.
It's like the whole world moved on but the plane travels froze in time.

Except for the flight attendants. Boy did those age quickly..
But it's not all bad. The ones who don't act like senile old hags and are actually nice, make us feel like she's a friend's grandma treating us to milk and cookies. It's a warm feeling.

 

[Mize]

Is this just for first-class seats?

I just flew to NY with Iberia and back to Europe through American Airlines and I didn't find any of this. No power outlets, no internets, nothing.
Not even individual screens for media consumption. Just random low-quality LCDs and even CRTs throughout the ceiling of the middle rows.
I found zero difference between those flights and the cheap charters they use to fly european tourists to latin america.


I was okay with that because I had a tablet for movies/series and my Vita with Uncharted, but every flight for me seems to be exactly the same as when I was a kid 20 years ago.
It's like the whole world moved on but the plane travels froze in time.

Except for the flight attendants. Boy did those age quickly..
But it's not all bad. The ones who don't act like senile old hags and are actually nice, make us feel like she's a friend's grandma treating us to milk and cookies. It's a warm feeling.

Depends on the aircraft. Use seatguru.com to pick aircraft. Most newer planes or recently retrofitted plans have AC power in the first half of economy, especially if it's a 777. When I fly on business I always fly economy (other than when I get upgraded for free) as it's my company and my money and I'm not tall. I have one employee that I fly business class on international because his femur doesn't fit in coach and his head doesn't touch the back of the seat (he's about 6'7'" tall).

 

[eastmen]

last trip to florida I just played half life 2 on my surface. I'm going back in sept and will most likely play batman on it