By When I first migrated to Windows 7 in it’s early BETA days, I was all too excited by the new stability, UI, features and quoted Battery life improvement. But, all this came with a bad [practical] news: I saw serious reduction in battery life.
The battery backup reduced from 2.5hrs to merely 1hr. I believed this was due to the the heavy Nvidia GT m230 GPU (Windows 7 doesn’t support NVIDIA Powermizer which reduces battery usage by lowering the clock). But very soon, all other Operating Systems started to mimic Windows 7.
This didn’t end here.
Recently, it became worse from bad when Laptop battery was totally dead. The battery backup went literally down to zero. After couple of days, [I don’t know why] battery came back to life but with reduced life. The same battery that used to have 1hr of juice, started giving me no more than 10 minutes.
I tried Ubuntu, XP, everything, it was all the same, max battery backup was 15 minutes. I thought it could be manufacturer’s fault, but I was so wrong, the fact is: Windows 7 destroys your battery, permanently.
Best comptia A+ Training, Comptia A+ Certification at Certkingdom.com
A very long thread on Microsoft’s support site dedicated to Windows 7 battery problems kicked off in early June 2009.
Microsoft claimed that the problem was in the Windows 7 tool that decided when the battery had been drained, or was unable to hold a charge.
“We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners, which appears to be related to system firmware (BIOS), The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed.”
While some users on that thread agree with Microsoft that the warnings are spurious, others believe that the new operating system has permanently crippled their batteries.
“I have tried charging the battery while the computer is off or in another OS, and it does not work,” said someone identified as “DanLee81″ today. “It will charge for a few minutes, then stop. The battery will say it’s full when it actually only has a few minutes of charge, and when you take out the A/C, it will either last for a few minutes, or completely shut off your laptop. This behavior happens in all [OSes] after Windows 7 damages the battery, not just within Windows 7.”
Another one, from Russ Latham claims:
It seems that after Windows 7 has damaged your battery, it doesn’t matter what OS you use. The solution is, obviously, don’t use Windows 7 at all. Not even once, unless you’re prepared to shell out money for a new battery. What a shame. I really liked Windows 7 but now I’m using Linux on my new laptop (with 2nd battery!). I can’t afford to buy a new laptop batteries all the time.
Clearly, 100s of users can’t be wrong. The damages are indeed permanent- batteries underperformed, even after they abandoned Windows 7 and returned their notebooks to running Windows XP or Vista, or switched to Linux.
“Rolling back does not work either,in another message on Tuesday. I feel rip[ped] off!”
Situation is much more complex than What Microsoft thinks it is.
Almost all users using Notebooks from Acer, Dell, HP, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba have reported problems. Most have seen battery-life reduction 66%. That means 1/3rd the battery life.
I hope they do something about it fast, or it won’t be far when people get their say in consumer courts, suing the company for billions.
Update: Why windows 7 Appears to kill Battery?
In my case, The battery didn’t even meet it’s recharge cycles. It’s hardly 1 year old with < 80 Full discharges and <30 half discharges and a typical battery has 200-300 charge cycles (minimum). Even on brand new laptops life reduced to 1/3rd within 6 months.
The problem is Win 7 uses twice the power from the battery and hence twice the current (I). It’s said that when you deplete a Li-Ion battery at twice the Current (I), life cycle decreases by more than 2x times.
So if a battery had 300 charges, it would come down to 150 or so. But to make it worse, Win7 reports battery inaccurately, which reduces it further.
The reason for double the battery usage is Aero + Windows 7 SuperFetch.
Have you faced a similar issue? Let us know.
No Comment