Microsoft Chases Windows 7 Battery Drain Problems

Microsoft officials confirmed Friday that they are looking into reports of radically shortened battery life on some laptops after installing Windows 7.

Although a few users reported similar problems during Windows 7's beta test cycle last summer, particularly with some netbooks, wide availability of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) new OS following its October consumer release seems to have triggered significantly more cases.

"I upgraded my laptop from XP to Win 7 and my battery life went from about 2 hours to 30 minutes. The system shuts down (hibernates) without any warning. The powercfg-energy report shows the battery stored less than 40% of the Designed Capacity the last time the battery was fully charged," one frustrated user, going by the screen name "dabruton," said in a post on Microsoft's TechNet user forums on Jan. 1.

"The battery life dropped to almost nothing after doing a clean install of windows 7 (it was fine before that, about 1.5-2 hours)," echoed another poster with the screen name "jw98029."

How big the problem has become is unclear at this time. The TechNet forum dedicated to Windows client issues had 100 posts during January alone. Many received a Windows 7 error that said, "consider replacing your battery."

Quite a few complained that their laptop batteries were permanently damaged by the drainage problems after upgrading to Windows 7.

"Good job Microsoft, you just cost me (and almost all windows 7 laptop owners) their battery!! Now what are you going to do!!?" asked one annoyed user with the screen name "DanLee81."

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