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    Terrible W7 Battery Life

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by koreo, Feb 23, 2010.

  1. koreo

    koreo Notebook Consultant

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    I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit from Windows Vista (same version), and noticed a HUGE reduction in battery life. I went from five brightness, wi-fi on, multiple Chrome windows, MS Word Windows on Vista that gave about 5.5-6.0 hours of battery life. Now on Windows 7, I have no windows up, wireless off, brightness at five, and I cannot even get 3.0 hours of battery life. These are both on integrated graphics.

    Anyone know what the deal is?
     
    koreo, Feb 23, 2010
    #1
  2. realwarder

    realwarder Notebook Evangelist

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    realwarder, Feb 23, 2010
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  3. sr1650nx

    sr1650nx Notebook Consultant

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    When you come out of standby, there's a glitch that causes windows 7 to run both of your graphics cards (dedicated and integrated) at the same time- thus increasing power usage.

    It's been like this for quite awhile now- which is the reason why I mainly use vista.

    A quick fix would be switching from integrated to dedicated and back to integrated again when you come out of sleep- or disabling switchable graphics and setting it to integrated in the BIOS.
     
    sr1650nx, Feb 23, 2010
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  4. cn_habs

    cn_habs Notebook Deity

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    I also noticed a slight drop in battery life after switching to Windows 7 but my laptop is integrated only.
     
    cn_habs, Feb 24, 2010
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  5. hkseo100

    hkseo100 Notebook Evangelist

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    I never had Vista in my laptop. If it does increase battery life, then I'll be switching to Vista lol. (This comment is so bad in many ways)
     
    hkseo100, Feb 24, 2010
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  6. sr1650nx

    sr1650nx Notebook Consultant

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    haha...

    On Vista- I use around 10 W when typing up notes on OneNote and do some surfing on firefox- on integrated. I get around 8 hours of battery life.

    On 7- I use around 11-12 W(after doing the graphics switching when coming out of sleep)- 18-20W if I don't switch them... I get around 5-6 hours of battery life.

    All of these are with the 9 cell. =/
    I find it a hassle to switch my cards each time I come out of sleep- which is mainly why I use Vista.
     
    sr1650nx, Feb 24, 2010
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  7. koreo

    koreo Notebook Consultant

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    Thank you! This solved my battery issue. I am now getting maybe 20-25 minutes of lost battery life, but still well over five hours.
     
    koreo, Mar 4, 2010
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