Windows 7 slashes netbook battery life by a third

[Noreen]

Netbooks running Microsoft's new operating system Windows 7 will see their battery life slashed by a third, says a number of users.

Laptop magazine revealed that during a recent test, a Toshiba netbook lost 2.5 hours of battery life when running Windows 7 instead of XP, or about 30 percent (6:53 for Windows 7, versus 9:24 for XP).

Tom's Hardware also reported a similar finding when it tested an Acer Aspire One netbook running Windows 7 release candidate, only to find it lasted 2.5 hours less than when it ran Windows XP Service Pack 3 (5:54 versus 8:28, when both were at a low-power idle state).

Complaints have also surfaced on netbook user forums such as eeeuser.com for Asus Eee users, AspireOneUser.com for Acer netbook users and MSIWind.net for MSI fans.................

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3200372

[Rik]

Oh dear. 

[Simon]

Oops!

[Rik]

We'll all be using Macs in a year or two.

[Simon]

If they brought the price down, I'd be using one now! 

[Rik]

You are not alone. Increasingly, I feel that Windows may be entering its death throes.

[gizmo71]

We did observe snappier performance from Windows 7 on the NB205, particularly in the application open tests and hard drive speed. And the U123 saw an increase in energy efficiency.

So it's doing more for more power usage, and the headline grabbing loss of battery life could be a gain for some - perhaps most - laptops.

Journalistic integrity is dead.

[Rik]

Trust me, Giz, it was never alive.

[Gary]

I could not give a damn    which is an odd saying

[Rik]

You just can't get people to take them these days, Gary, they're an endangered species.

[Gary]

You just can't get people to take them these days, Gary, they're an endangered species.

[Glenn]

I'm not seeing any reduction in battery perfomance with Windows 7 on my Dell D630

[Glenn]

We'll all be using Macs in a year or two.

I have a Dell MiniMac9 running 10.5.8 already

[Rik]

I'm not seeing any reduction in battery perfomance with Windows 7 on my Dell D630

I think you have to install it first, Glenn, not just stick the CD to the lid.

[Rik]

I have a Dell MiniMac9 running 10.5.8 already

There's hope for us all then. 

[zappaDPJ]

When I read the article I was expecting to see a comparison between Windows 7 and Vista, not 7 and XP. It would be more interesting to know if Microsoft has achieved their aim of making 7 less power hungry than Vista.

[Steve]

Probably the comparison is with XP as it's currently the default OS for netbooks

[zappaDPJ]

Good point

[Den]

We'll all be using Macs in a year or two.

Why are you planning on winning the lottery 

[Rik]

It seemed a good idea at the time, Den.

[D-Dan]

Linux rules when it comes to battery life - and it's free

Steve

[Sebby]

If they brought the price down, I'd be using one now! 

Don't look at the upfront cost, look at the overall "cost".

[Simon]

Gertcha!     White! 

[Sebby]

Linux rules when it comes to battery life - and it's free

But in all other ways, it's a pain.

[Glenn]

Back on topic  with w7 installed on my D630, the battery lasted 5hrs today

[Rik]

Do you have a benchmark to compare that with, Glenn?

[Glenn]

It's never had XP on it, so no, but with Vista it was in the same region

[Rik]

Suggesting that 7 is no better or worse than Vista. OK, fancy do a clean install of XP? 

[Glenn]

Our Dell Latitude D630 included a nine-cell battery that extends one inch in front of the machine (a bit awkward, considering batteries usually extend off the back); a six-cell battery is available and would knock $29 off the price. The extended battery served the Latitude well in our taxing DVD battery-drain test, where it held out for 4 hours, 45 minutes, the longest life we've seen (to date) for a thin-and-light.

So it is little different to XP

[Rik]

You're no fun, Glenn.

[Glenn]

I do have 4 retail copies of XP sat on the shelf, with it only installed on 1 PC in the house.

[Glenn]

Each PC has a different OS installed;

XP
Vista Ultimate
Windows 7
OSX 10.5.8

[Rik]

I think you switch them around and compare. 

[Glenn]

You come down here, and I'll let you do it

[Rik]

Bring them here, you get to try Sue's cooking that way.

[Glenn]

3 are easy, but one is my game PC

[Rik]

Nae bother, use a low loader.

[Ted]

But in all other ways, it's a pain.

Oi, Macboy!     

[Rik]

You Unix people are all the same, Ted.

[Glenn]

Mac's run on unix too

[Rik]

Isn't that Unix runs on Macs too? 

[Sebby]

Mac OS is based on Unix.

[Rik]

Close enough.

[Ted]

Close enough.

Philistine!  

[Simon]

Glad I'm not a Unick. 

[Steve]

More info here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8232995.stm it would appear your netbook battery may last longer if you had a previous Vista install (uncommon I suppose)

[D-Dan]

Who's a eunuch?

[Simon]

Keep up, Steve! 

Mac OS is based on Unix.

OK, so it was a pretty feeble joke.   

[Steve]

Who's a eunuch?

I haven't got the balls to say 

[Rik]

[Steve]

Thanks Rik

[Technical Ben]

Um, that makes no sense there Stevethegas. As software should not change a future state of the hardware, if you replace the software (did I explain that badly?). I too would like to see a vista/7 comparison as they are quite different from XP. It's like running explorer and Crysis the game and saying the game uses more power to run.

So it sounds more like a driver bug on an unreleased candidate (hence it still being beta). Perhaps the vista rig had a better driver for running the laptop and it's power consumption.

It could be really simple like power settings turned off by default, power stepping in the processor not enabled, or just a processor/gpu hungry gui. Oh, or alot of HDD use. Should all be easily fixable.

[Sebby]

I can't imagine that W7 has a higher hard drive usage than Vista!

[Rik]

Play John Lennon, Seb, it might help.

[Sebby]

Vista is beyond help.

[Rik]

 

[Gary]

Vista is beyond help.

Vista works just fine   

[esh]

When SP2 for XP came out it made a huge dent in battery life because of a long-standing bug where it constantly gave max power to all USB devices instead of degrading the power class as per requested. It was fixed. Still, I imagine W7 will always use more power if you are using a non-GDI graphics rendering base, like Aero, as it requires some form of graphical acceleration.

[Glenn]

Microsoft says that extensive testing and conversations with OEMs indicate that Windows 7 is handling notebook batteries exactly as intended - despite user claims that upgrades to the new OS have caused significant degradation to battery life.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/08/microsoft_on_windows_7_battery_complaints/

[Technical Ben]

Shock! News just in.
Piling on the eye candy burns up your calorific stores!*



*The extra fancy effects in Windows 7 uses more processor power, and thus more battery power.