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    Battery life half after switching to XP

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by manu08, Dec 24, 2008.

  1. manu08

    manu08 Notebook Geek

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    I have this notebook I bought from Fry's in summer 07. It's called Great Quality NX-L515. It's got an AMD Sempron 3200+ (1.6GHz) processor, 1GB RAM & has a 15.4" screen. The notebook came pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Basic but it was working way too slow so I downgraded to Windows XP Home Edition SP3. With Vista I used to get a good 2.5 - 3 hours of battery life but with XP I can barely squeeze out 1.5 hours of battery life. I've installed NHC & set it to 'battery optimized' & powerplay settings have been set to 'balanced' on high battery & 'optimal battery life' on low battery (which is when it drops below 30%). I should be able to get at least 2 hours of battery life without much tweaking, shouldn't I? Can someone help me understand why my battery life has degraded so much?
    I had to install the drivers from omegadrivers.net because the drivers from the ATI website didn't work & I've not been able to find any other drivers. Should I uninstall these drivers & try to get drivers off windows update instead?
    Thanks for all the help.
     
  2. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    No matter what, XP is crappy for battery life. Especially home edition. If anything, it was made for desktops in mind.

    Remember, this OS was made in like 2001, a time when everyone having laptops over desktops was unheard of.
     
  3. David

    David NBR Random Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    Unfortunately, that's the way it is. Vista has better power management than XP. It's like that for all laptop brands and models