QOTW: Has Windows 7 Affected Your Battery Life?

Today we're learned that Microsoft was investigating an issue concerning the battery life of notebooks running Windows 7.

Windows 7 users have been complaining about battery problems on Microsoft's official forums since June of last year, months before Redmond pushed out the full, public release Windows 7. Some complain that their battery life has dropped significantly, while others say the OS is suggesting they go as far as to replace their battery with a brand new one.

One user named tigger1962 says,

"Until yesterday it used [to] state that I had 7 hours battery life after a full charge; today after a full charge, it states that I have 4 hours left. I've only had it on now 15 minutes and my charge has now gone down to 2 hours 24 minutes."

Reverting to Windows XP or Vista doesn't work and neither does charging the laptop while it is off or booting to another OS to charge.

Has installing Windows 7 had a negative effect on your battery? Let us know in the comments below!

You need to be logged to post a comment

There are 7 Comments. B

Other Comments

3

Sewje , February 4, 2010 2:49 AM

My laptop batery is about 3 years old now it used to do 4+ hours now it only does 1+h, this is normal isn't it? with general web surfing. I did install RC W7 a few times but have since removed it.
I seriously doubt 7 hours is the accurate estimate as sometimes I saw I had 9h estimates sometimes on mine.
I think people just expect batteries to last forever. As to the new ones reporting this error, I will put my guess in user error, they are probably doing intensive stuff which they think don't use that much power, but in fact are chewing up more power than they think.
300 charge cycles isn't really much, its less than a year if charged every day.
0

anonymous@guest , February 4, 2010 3:38 AM

well you have to realise that the windows is known for lying with the time it says it will take you have to realise that when you usually check how much battery life you have left you usually are one the desktop if it says you have 5hours left it means if you use it as much as it is veing ussed at that time and if you play a game for instance it could run out of juice in 1-4hours depending on the game
1

Micropat , February 4, 2010 6:05 AM

I have an ageing lappy (2 yrs +) and had the win 7 RC on it for a few months. There was no sharp drop in battery life in that time. Don't really need battery much anyway for a desktop replacement.
0

plasmastorm , February 4, 2010 6:58 AM

I seem to have gone from around 2hours life to 15min just sitting on the desktop in balance power mode.
The battery meter even tells me to consider buying a new battery which is nonsense as it was working fine with XP less than a week before.
I expected a slight drop in life using a newer OS but it seems to be way over the top.

After a bios update i can squeeze out an extra 10min but it's still pretty useless.
1

N@n0 , February 4, 2010 10:27 AM

My average battery life acctualy went up 30 min from vista to 7 on my laptop...
Granted i fiddled with the power settings as i always do...
0

N.Broekhuijsen , February 4, 2010 11:26 AM

EEE PC 1005HA: Advertised: 10.5 hrs battery life

running linux: about 9hrs with full brightness
running xp: about 8.5hrs full brightness

WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE: 5HRS remaining

yes a significant drop indeed.

M$: DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
0

anonymous@guest , February 4, 2010 3:57 PM

My Lenovo S10 seemed to increase in battery life between XP Pro and Win7 Pro, although that is just a subjective opinion.
I wouldn't hesitate to say that it hasn't reduced battery life though!