QOTW: Has Windows 7 Affected Your Battery Life?

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

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!

Jane McEntegart
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theuerkorn
    Don't know, computer came pre-installed with Win7 x64. (Acer) Battery life seems normal, but not great. (certainly not the rated 3.5 hours, but that could be marketing)
    Reply
  • graymen
    After installing Win 7 on my Acer Aspire 5920 my battery life went from ~2 hours to about 20 minutes. wtf? Now Win 7 recommends that I replace my battery. Seems a bit fishy to me but I typically dont go far from a power outlet when using it so its not usually a big deal.
    Reply
  • tethoma
    So your suggesting in that last sentence that Windows 7 has some how physically hurt the battery life even if you installed a different OS? I have a feeling that last sentence is a typo or something.

    Yes windows 7 has lowered my battery life by roughly 10% on an Compaq 2510P when coming from XP. I am sure if I put XP back on, that I could get that 10% back, but since I get 7 hours of life its more than enough still.
    Reply
  • kittle
    no battery issues on my laptop (Lenovo T500).

    It came with vista, and I got a copy of win7 to replace that. I can still get 2-4hrs of use and the battery life gauge frequently reads 6-7hrs.

    Interesting that the 2 posters above me both have Acer laptops.
    Reply
  • rembo666
    Huh, I haven't seen that. I installed Win7 on several laptops and no complaints so far.
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    So what is this suggesting that windows 7 causes a battery to loose capacity to hold a charge? Ridiculous sounding imo.
    Reply
  • jerreece
    Ever since I installed Windows 7 on my PCs, I've noticed all my batteries have gotten worse too! The AA batteries in my TV Remote (which are rechargeable) and the AA and AAA batteries in my 2 year old's toys need constant recharging. :(

    Obviously I'm being sarcastic. I'm not thinking the OS itself can have some sort of physical and permanent affect on a laptop battery's ability to hold and keep a charge. That just doesn't make any sense.
    Reply
  • jerreece
    LOL ON second thought, maybe Win 7 partitions the laptop battery and stores the original battery life in the backup partition. Just like it does when you install over XP or Vista. :)
    Reply
  • zelannii
    It hasn't hurt the battery that I can tell, but I can say my wife's MacBook Pro runs for well over 6 hours, even with the 9600GPU active and WiFi enabled, under OS 10.6. With Win 7 running in a VM, it runs about 5 hours (much heavier RAM and disk IO lolad running 2 OS concurrently, so that's not surprising). However, that VM is actually a boot camp partition, and if I boot into it directly, the machine won't last 3 hours on a full charge. It's not recommending battery replacement, but it runs it down way faster... I can confirm, it;s not just a bad sensor, as once Windows 7 goes down, booting into OS X confirms the battery only has a few minutes left in it.

    Win 7 is recommending battery replacement on another older notebook i have, but I can't say that's a problem as it won't run 5 minutes anyway on a charge, that battery's long since passed it's usable life... i use it exclusively while plugged in. i only keep the battery in it as it gives me a cushion on usabiltiy if I have to change seats in the living room (and thus outlets) or if our 2yrold gets a hold of it...
    Reply
  • datawrecker
    I have installed Win 7 on three Dell laptops and have not seen any changes in battery life. One of the laptops has seen installs from XP and Vista as well, none of which decreased battery life.
    Reply