QOTW: Has Windows 7 Affected Your Battery Life?

[arowland]

I purchased a new HP Pavilion Laptop around 2 years ago. The laptop battery lasted around 3 - 3.5 hours. I only use it to surf the web, check my e-mail, do homework for class, write programs, and do run various tests (such as network tests and stuff) for my job. However, when I purchased Windows 7 and installed it on my laptop, I now only recieve around 1 hour of life (if I am lucky, usually I only get 30-50 mins) and my battery tells me that I need to replace it.

 

[nich0142]

Lenovo T61 went from 4 hours on XP to about 1.5 hours on Windows 7

 

[Guest]

Most likely a battery issue.
Batteries are made to have such large capacities, in mAh, that it doesn't surprise me that some compromises have to be made.

Sony sells a large capacity battery for my notebook for 400. From the web I found a $75 one, which lasted me 2 years. I'm sure Sony's would last longer, but I'm not willing to spend 400 on a battery that does not last at least 4x longer than the $75 offer.
So I'd rather buy 2x $75 batteries than 1x $400.

Windows 7 does use more battery than XP, making you use and wear out your battery faster. Common logic.

 

[ethanolson]

My battery life improved by about 20% in terms of actual run-time and the accuracy of the guage improved as well. I'm running an HP business notebook, so there may be some added secret sauce in there.

 

[Guest]

I ran into a no charge state on an HP DV6700. All through various betas and RC I didn't have any issues. One installing RTM the battery shows it's charging but doesn't actually charge anything. Due to this being only a two month old twelve cell and the battery is "good" per the HP support assistant and another battery check app it has to be the OS. HP Chat support had me disable power management, flash the bios, and told me to reinstall Vista .... Nice Useless Answer ! ! ! It's still stuck at 17% charge and it won't use the battery to keep the laptop on. I'm thinking it toasted my new battery somehow.

 

[j_85]

On my Asus 1000HE netbook, Windows 7 has increased my battery life compared to Windows XP. The reason being is that I now have control of the processor's multiplier via the processor power management in advanced power options. When the multiplier is locked at the minimum (x6 on an Atom N280), it consumes less power. The main benefit of locking the multiplier, however, is that it becomes more stable when UNDERclocking via the FSB. I have the FSB down to 425 MHz (from 667) completely stable. This results in an Atom running at 637 MHz.

Performance is lacking on websites like Youtube, where the video is a bit choppy, but for casual web browsing, typing, and even standard res divx movies (no dropped frames in VLC player) this speed works fine.

So, because of the better processor power management, Windows 7 has increased my battery life.

 

[Guest]

My battery is completely dead after 3 months on windows 7. Before I had vista and the battery was about 80% of original capacity but after I started using 7.. the battery deteriorated really fast to 40% of original capacity and then died..

 

[theirishboxer]

windows 7 pro x64 suggested that i replace the battery after installing it i replaced the battery and have had no problems with battery life since.

 

[Guest]

well, on Vista I used to have 5-6h battery tine and the icon has even showed 8h remaining. It took 4-5h to fully charge. I switched to 7 and ... icon shows max.4:30h remaining and actually i can barely squeeze 2:30h. I takes 2-3h to recharge. Few days ago I got pissed off and switched back to Vista and ... well, after two times fully charge discharge, this morning my battery says remaining 7:54h and i takes again ages to recharge (4-5h)
I like 7 very much, but until Microsoft fixes this I,ll stay with Vista

 

[Guest]

I own a 6month old Acer Timeline... on Vista it gave me 8hrs+ battery... after a week of Win7 on another partition.... all of a sudden my battery went dead, will not charge. This is definitely an OS problem that affects some laptop models. And there is enough evidence to merit such issue. I have 4 other laptops, 2 of w/c is running Win7 without issues.

 

[Guest]

My Lenovo Thinkpad T500 went from indicating 5 hrs with fresh battery with Vista to 2.42 hrs with Windows 7.