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Is Windows 7 causing battery problems in laptops?
A growing contingent of new laptop users are experiencing extremely poor battery performance, and complaining about it loudly online. The thing is, the problem doesn't seem limited to be any one laptop manufacturer, or even any one battery manufacturer. It's starting to look like the only common denominator for the users experiencing problems is Windows 7.
While it's still too early to say with any certainty that Microsoft's latest version of Windows is the culprit, Computerworld is reporting that Microsoft has said that it is looking into the battery problems.
Microsoft's support forum has a thread dedicated to reports of battery problems under Windows 7 that started in early June 2009, and it's still going strong! Some users on the thread are simply reporting decreased battery life when running Windows 7 vs. Windows XP, while others claim they believe Windows 7 has actually reduced their battery's capacities. If that claim turns out to be true, it could be a landmark situation: a software bug that damages hardware could lead to lawsuits, though it's extremely unlikely that Microsoft will let this situation get to that stage.
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsLuis CaminoFeb 8th 2010 10:36AM
the situation HAS gotten to that stage. i had been running windows 7RC in my dell precision m6400 for more than a year without problems, and 3 days into a clean RTM install i started receiving the "consider changing your battery" message, plus diagnostics reporting that the last full charges managed only to fill the battery to a 38% of its design capacity.
like i said on that forum, i am a strong windows 7 evangelist, but i'm prepared to stop recommending it.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 8th 2010 10:53AM
Sadly, I think my laptop battery has actually suffered the same fate.
But it could just be 'old age', I'm not sure. But the red flashing light only started appearing after I installed Windows 7, I think...
blasztaFeb 8th 2010 12:20PM
@Luis & Sebastian
I think you should calibrate you laptop battery first before making any conclusion. Reboot, go to your BIOS and do battery calibration there. If it fail there, probably your battery actually need to be replaced.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 8th 2010 12:21PM
Sure, I'll give that a go :) Cheers!
Annoying PosterFeb 8th 2010 10:53AM
this is such bullshit fud, obviously if someone has aero enabled their battery is going to run out quicker, but an OS affecting hardware is just absurd
Lee MathewsFeb 8th 2010 11:26AM
Have you tested? It actually doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference on my systems.
Related: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/05/14/aero-and-battery-life.aspx
Rocket RaccoonFeb 8th 2010 11:00AM
I haven't really noticed anything with my Acer Netbook. It doesn't seem to have any less battery life from XP to 7.
Genius of the CrowdFeb 8th 2010 12:06PM
My Lenovo U330 has the worst possible battery management driver for Windows 7. There's also an issue with the switchable graphics leaving both video cards on, my battery will fully drain in about an hour and 10 minutes. Not really Windows 7 fault but Lenovo killing off the U330 and support for its customers.
AemonyFeb 8th 2010 12:38PM
Haven't happen to me at least, and I've been running Windows 7 from the Public Beta to the RC and now finally the RTM without any problems at all.
JonathanFeb 8th 2010 1:06PM
Odd, I don't notice this at all. My Inspiron 6400 with both RTM and RC are getting much better battery life than with XP - about 5 hours or more. I wonder if it's a chipset problem?
ArnieFeb 8th 2010 1:10PM
I bought an XPS13 with Win7 so cant confirm whether I get less battery life than Vista but I get expected battery life with Win7. (Use a SSD if you can afford it) The job gets done so much faster that you would not need the extra juice.
cmsb55Feb 8th 2010 1:22PM
I haven't noticed much of a change in battery life from Vista Home x64 to 7 Home x64 on my Vaio Z690. If anything, my battery life is slightly better.
TrevFeb 8th 2010 4:47PM
I have same prob win win7-64 on a dell1330. Worked fine since Aug 09. In Jan 2010, i got the 'consider replacing your battery' message and it would only keep a charge for 30 mins at best. My buddy has the same laptop and he didn't upgrade to win7...his battery is still fine...
jai mesaMar 24th 2010 10:33AM
samsung R60 plus, on its second battery (so less than a year old battery) and apparently I am at 60 percent wear, except for two days ago when after calibraiting the battery in the bios out of desperation I dropped to 59 percent then shot up to 70 percent wear...
upgraded to win7 from installed vista late last year...and for the last few weeks...this.
watching my battery drain at a rate of something like 5 percent every 5 minutes, with it set to a powersaving mode. Regretting plugging my partners battery in from her machine to test it yesterday, hope the few seconds it was in my machine wasn't enough for Win7 to frak that up too.
Sad thing is..for a while it really did improve battery life...till it norked it right up.
And as the samsung r60plus isn't a supported win7 machine (comes with vista) I am unlikely to see a BIOS update...MS need to sort this out stat, I cannot afford to be dropping 50-70 quid on new batteries every few months, and need to use my laptop out and about.
I posted this because I am sick of hearing people give the 'never happened to me, you lot must be dreaming' or 'buy a mac' posts.
We aren't all made of cash, appleseeds.
james.comminsMar 24th 2010 10:35AM
oh and the 'fix' doesn't do anything apart from prvent you seeing your battery life or charging status at all...sometimes disable/enable will persuade the machine to start charging for a few percent...but very very slowly and usually not charging at all.