x200s high power consumption (12-16w) after Windows 7 Ultimate 64 install

Hi,

I bought an x200s with Windows Vista with 6-cell battery, and can easily reach 5-6 hours with 8-9W power consumption. After some time, I did fresh install of Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit and all Lenovo tidbits, but my power consumption increased to 12-16W, and my battery life decreased to 3-4 hours. Anyone can help me or give me pointer? Thanks!

My configuration:
Prosesor: Intel SU9400
Memory: 1GB x 2
HDD: 160GB 5400RPM
Display: 1280x800 CCFL

Idle power consumption: 12W, LCD 4/15

UPDATE:

Previous threads about this topic:

1. There is also an 17-page thread of the same topic in Lenovo forums here. From November 2009, apparently still no response from Lenovo whatsoever.
2. Help! X200 with Windows 7 x64 and battery life blows!

if you have same problem, would you report your experience (along with ASPM state in your powercfg /energy readings) in this thread also?

Users experienced notable power consumption increase / battery life decrease after windows 7 clean install in this thread and previous thread @ NBR:

1. ismailfaruqi / Windows 7 Ultimate x64 / x200s
2. Commander Wold / Windows 7 Professional / x200t
3. Iron Eagle / Windows 7 x64 / x200
4. cloud nine / Windows 7 x64 / x200
5. wwjjd / Windows 7 Professional x64 / x200s

 

Have you run Lenovo's system update? Are there any missing drivers in device manager? Do you have anything connected to your laptop? (USB, sd card slot etc)

 

I haven't run system update when I wrote the OP. After I completed system update, playing with power management and BIOS, power consumption reduced to 10.5-13W. A reduction but still tad high. No missing driver and nothing attached. WiFi is on.

update: when it's doing nothing, it can reach ~8.5w but mostly it's 10w

 

Also keep in mind that a 'brand new' NT6 OS is going to have some processes running for the first few days / weeks that won't show up on a 'finished' OS. Probably the biggest is disk indexing -- which may seem trivial in Win7 because they've done a much better job at reducing it's overhead, but it's still doing 'stuff'.

Here's something else you can try: from an administrative command line, type the following: powercfg /energy. This will give you a very detailed report of what's going on, to include things that may not be just right.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the tips. I just ran powercfg /energy and there was one error:

Platform Power Management CapabilitiesCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) Disabled
PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) has been disabled due to a known incompatibility with the hardware in this computer.

What does that mean?

BTW I've just ran into 17-page thread of Lenovo laptop battery decrease in Windows 7, but it seems no response from Lenovo even it's in their own forum?!!

 

That reads like you need an updated chipset driver, or else the firmware in the Lenovo is 'glitched' somehow -- specifically with how it handles the northbridge. Two things you can try: download Intel's chipset driver directly from their website, and/or look to see if there's an updated firmware for your machine.

I'm assuming you're using the newest firmware though, so I guess the chipset driver is the last option before you send it back.

 

I saw this thread, and I just wanted to add that I actually had been having the same problem on the x200t I bought. Idle power consumption hovers around 10 to 11 watts on a clean install of 7 Pro. Puttered around with it for a couple days uninstalling this and turning off that... and gave up.

Installed XP tablet and idle power now floats around 6 to 7 watts - where it should be.

Do tell if you find a solution; I suppose I'd prefer to be running 7 if possible.

 

@Commander Wolf: I wonder how much the power consumption of factory installed Windows 7 Lenovo laptops. It seems there is no problem... I feel something missing when we did clean install.

@axis01: you can try Battery Bar software from Osiris Development. I much prefer it to Lenovo's battery meter.

 

Same here. Clean 7 x64 install and drivers and my X200 idles around 15 degrees. If I turn down the CPU and some other things it can get around 10. Gave up on trying to figure it out as well.

 

ok, three people here plus that 17-page thread on Lenovo's forum.

Let's investigate the difference between factory-installed and clean-installed ones first would be glad if someone with factory-installed windows 7 on x200(vanilla/s/tablet) series report the power consumption here and report their powercfg /energy readings, particularly whether ASPM is disabled or not?

 

I wonder does it have something with driver installation order? wwjjd seems able to pull 7-9w, his suggested solution was: