Battery life blues

I just buy a Gateway MX6750H which have T2300, Ati x1400 and 8 cells lithium battery. I was doing about 4-4.5 hours most of the time doing ligh-medium task. That was doing it for me. But I had to exchange the unit because of a stupid keyboard malfunction.

Now, with my new MX6750, exact same material and software configs, light to medium usage, i get 3.5 to 4 hours. It is really a drastic change! It seems I had to gives some batt. life to get a workin keyboard. But ... why ? Ok it is not the end of the world. But let's says i am pretty much disapointed and... a bit confused.

What in the world could make this happen? Other than the battery itself, what are the other vectors that could ruin battery life?

 

I can't speak from recent experience since Gateway stopped trading in Australia quite a few years back, but back then they weren't renowned for their outstanding build quality.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it was manufacturing variances in your supplied battery. In your experience, does the battery on your new machine get significantly hotter during charging/use than your old machine?

 

Battery seems to as cold as the first one. I went to 3 full conditionning cycles like i did with my first unit. Readings in NHC for the capacity:

My first batt was giving me : 72801 mWh
My actual batt is giving me : 73452 mWh

I am confused...
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did they just replace the keyboard or give your a refurb replacement? if it was a refurb replacement, maybe the battery already lost some life from the previous owner.

too bad you couldn't just have them send you a keyboard so you could replace it yourself.

 

Thanks Drumfu. However, the unit I got was a brand new unit, sealed in a box, from futureshop. I didn't knew that batt. life could differ that much from unit to unit, so that's why i choosed a full replacement. Now i'm starting to think i was lucky to have over 4 hours of batt. life with my previous laptop who had keyboard arthritis.

But the thing I know is that my actual laptop have an equal, if not better in terms of capacity, battery. Checking in NHC had already confirmed me that. I also did a battery conditionning when I received the laptop to ensure full performance.

Now I am asking myself what is so different between this laptop and my first one to loose .5 hours of battery life in the process?
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First I'm sorry to reply to my OWN post!!

But do someone have an idea which variable can affect as much as this a laptop batt. life, other the battery itself? Should i return the unit or is this happen all the time?
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truthfully, 30 mins difference doesn't sound too bad. you won't get exact performance even with identical brand new machines.

i think your only options are to use all the power saving tricks that you can, which include....

1. wifi off
2. screen brightness down
3. no USB devices plugged in
4. no disc in your CD/DVD drive
5. undervolt your cpu

good luck

 

I can't tell for the battery being hotter... but CPU is running 5-10° hotter than before. That's not a good sign! Can my autonomy decrease be related to that?

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