Vista draining laptop batteries, patience

[morpheusv6]

Some of Microsoft's most important customers aren't happy with the battery life offered by notebooks running Windows Vista.

"It's a little scary," said John Wozniak, a distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard's notebook engineering department, referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable for notebooks.

Vista, while touted as having improved power management capabilities that would make it easier for users to extend battery life, isn't to some living up to that promise. The main culprit appears to be the Aero Glass interface, a spiffy new user interface that makes Vista more pleasing to the eye with transparent windows and animated transitions when moving from one application to another.

When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP.

Microsoft made some important changes in Vista that do improve some aspects of battery life, such as smarter hibernation modes that override applications that want to keep running, and simpler options for choosing a power management setting. But laptop users who spent extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery life.

HP decided it wasn't going to use the power management settings that shipped with Vista, Wozniak said. The company came up with its own set of power management settings for Vista laptops, allowing users to select different power settings, such as "power saver" or "high performance," that strike a balance between processing power and battery life. Lenovo is likewise using its own power management technologies honed over several years, said Howard Locker, director of new technology at Lenovo.

Read more @ ZDnet

[mediator]

Not surprising!

[gxsaurav]

Oh comon, what do u expect. It uses GPU to show the aero UI so whats the problem. Doesn't the laptops with proper nvidia GPU eat battery?

[mediator]

It all depends on hardware/resource usage and Vista is a known resource/energy hog. So nvidia with proper Gpu wont drain that much if the resources rn't being used which is what has been said in the article that it will not drain battery power like hell if aero is turned off i.e GPU utilization decreased. The drainage of the battery also takes place becoz of the services that have been initiated (i.e more CPU usage) and AFAIK VISTA eats a huge amount of RAM and CPU power too.
Even on the tweaked XP, mah lappy shows 2.5 hours remaining, where as on my primary OS it shows 3.5 hrs remaining. So its quite obvious that more the resources a system uses the shorter is the battery life. And thats y I'm not surprised!

[Kiran.dks]

All Vista loaded Lappy's will disable Aero mode in power saving mode. That is very well done so. Aero is a graphical interface and like all other such graphical interfaces will utilize gfx more. More use of gfx means more utilization of power. Nothing there to tear head and think about it.

[gxsaurav]

@ mediator

U R right about more CPU usage resulting in Higher battery drain, however you are forgeting that anything using GPU will eat battery. If you say that a good nvidia GPU with a CPU will not eat battery then you are wrong. Even beryl using Linux on such Laptops will increse the battery usage too.

[freebird]

^ but not as with Vista,right?

[mediator]

Aero is a graphical interface and like all other such graphical interfaces will utilize gfx more. More use of gfx means more utilization of power. Nothing there to tear head and think about it.

Korrect!

however you are forgeting that anything using GPU will eat battery. If you say that a good nvidia GPU with a CPU will not eat battery then you are wrong.

I also implemented an "if" condition! Please read again what I wrote.

The point is "using GPU"! LIKE @KTM said "All Vista loaded Lappy's will disable Aero mode in power saving mode" i.e quite obviously means that GPU is relieved and therefore power saving is enhanced! So Even a good nvidia GPU will not eat battery much if the hardware/GPU isn't being used, in this case for aero, which is what I said before too.

Even beryl may be draining battery. I don't doubt it and won't be surprised by that. But excluding GPU also, VISTA eats a lotta RAM and CPU usage, atleast thats what I have been reading in lotta forums and reviews. And that certainly means lower battery life.

[Sourabh]

Edited the first post. Please take note that when you post a news, take the pains for providing a proper layout. Make it a habit to copy the text from the website, paste it in notepad and then save the file. Copy the contents of the txt file, and use that for posting the news. This process ensures the formatting of the news from source doesn't screw the layout on the forum.

Vista's battery drain is all thanks to Aero and that is something which everyone expected. If leading notebook designers get worried all of a sudden, it is really a shame. They like their non so tech savvy consumers to remain in the dark while they give them 'gem' of a software to handle power management better. How can they just ask their notebook consumers to disable Aero for better battery life.? That is just too unprofessional, isn't it?

In all this, no one ever blames it on the battery technology. Decades have passed but Li-ion batteries are the only solution. We've yet to come with a better & affordable replacement for it. Spending some time focusing on it than blaming a graphical interface would be a lot better for their own good.

[mediator]

In all this, no one ever blames it on the battery technology. Decades have passed but Li-ion batteries are the only solution. We've yet to come with a better & affordable replacement for it. Spending some time focusing on it than blaming a graphical interface would be a lot better for their own good.

Korrect! But I think thats possible on the side of hardware/chip/battery developers only after they see how much VISTA demands. I read somewhere that chip developers r working on it.

[gxsaurav]

I just don't get it. How is vista asking for more resources?

Every new OS runs on older hardware better then the previous OS. I am runing Vista here on a 3.5 years old computer better then XP used to run.

It is all a myth that you will need a high end or new computer to run Windows Vista, well you don't require anything new. If you want to use aero then only you need either Intel GMA 950 or Geforce FX 5200 or Radeon X300 or above GPU.

[mediator]

Well u r quite used to VISTA, why don't u tell how it "isn't" asking for more resources!

And r u sure about 2nd para? If "Every new OS runs on older hardware better then the previous OS" then whats the need for hardware upgrade? We shud just sit and relax and wait for the next OS everytime, so that it runs better on the existing/older hardware"...isn't it? Why do people upgrade their hardware when next windows OS version releases? Does it run slow on older hardware?

I heard from almost everyone in various forums who don't have a partial attitude towards an OS that it suffers from driver problems,wifi connectivity problems,runs slower etc. So if it runs perfectly or "better than xp" on ur existing hardware then y is the rest of the world complaining that it runs slower even on a 10 month old hardware?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...ry&btnG=Search
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4754462.stm and search for "resource" and corresponding lines associated with it!
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...?sub=techmaven
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34268
+Many more links!

So read all these links and tell me if its all a myth!

[Kiran.dks]

Without Aero, Vista will give more battery time than Windows XP. The source itself says it. As sourabh said, it's important that manufacturers develop battery technology in sync with chip technology rather than just saying Vista's aero consumes more power. That's a lame statement.

[amitava82]

Now vista users start blaming Battery Technology.... what a lame excuse.

[great_manish]

what crap...i used to get an avg battery life of 3 hrs with windows xp pro sp2...now with vista+aero graphics the avg battery life has definitely increased...i m getting a battery life of upto 3 n half hrs consistently...hav core2duo with speedstep technology...

[mediator]

^OMFG, thats news!