Microsoft has been investigating user complaints related to the battery life of laptops running Windows 7, a problem that's apparently been drifting around since the widespread beta version was released into the wild. While there don't seem to be exact figures for the number of users affected, the issue does seem to occur for those users upgrading their laptops to Windows 7 from either Windows Vista or Windows XP.
I queried Microsoft about the battery issue Feb. 3, and a spokesperson responded with: "Microsoft has been made aware that some computers running Windows 7 receive a warning that battery needs to be replaced when the battery is new or in good health. In conjunction with our hardware partners, we are investigating this issue."
Good thing, too, because if the comments left over the previous few months on the Microsoft TechNet discussion forum are any indication, the battery life for some users experiencing the issue is as short as 15 minutes.
A number of readers commented on my original eWEEK story, and I've printed a selection below:
"I have a Dell Latitude D830 and I'm experiencing the exact problem since I installed Windows 7."
"One year old, 6cell battery does not last an hour with win 7."
"YES, I am having similar issues with Win 7!! I have a Dell XPS 16 that is less than a year old, upgraded from Vista to Win 7 and now get 1.5hrs of battery life if I am lucky!!"
"I agree that Win7 is probably not using up batteries much, if any, faster than XP or Vista. Based on nothing but the anecdotal data available, I would opine that there is some error in the way Win7 is interpreting the battery information provided by the hardware. Yes, this IS a problem with Win7. It doesn't take rocket science to determine that, given the same power management settings, batteries should yield about the same charge endurance under XP, Vista or Win7."
"For those doubters, did you check out the link to the TechNet forum? I have personally experienced a problem after upgrading a Dell laptop from Vista to 7 - incessant warnings to replace the battery until I disabled the feature. Hopefully MS will work with the manufacturers and figure out what is wrong."
Others have upgraded but don't seem to be experiencing any issues:
"I updated my Packard Bell from Vista to Windows 7: my battery is working without problems. Why are people so irrational about Microsoft?"
"Considering the extra horsepower required by Win7 (especially compared to XP) why is this a surprise? Win 7 is burning thru cpu and graphics cycles compared to older versions of Windows. Did anyone think the battery life would not be affected?"
Right now I'm interested in whether this is truly a widespread problem, or an affliction of a relatively small minority. If you have your own story to share, feel free to post a comment below.
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