Why is battery life so short?

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ander111
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Why is battery life so short?

Post by ander111 »

Hi guys,

I've been using Mint 11 since it came out, and I've really enjoyed it. It's fast, attractive, and easy to use.

Unfortunately, though, I'm back to dual-booting Mint with Windows 7 here on my notebook, and using Mint only when I'm connected to AC. Why? Because it's obvious that Mint's power management isn't as good as Windows's.

Mint gives me about 3 hours' running time per battery charge, and the notebook gets noticeably hot. (This is with Gnome's CPU applet set at "Powersave" and my display's brightness set to the minimum that's comfortably visible.)

By contrast (no pun intended), Win 7 gives me nearly 6 hours of use per charge, and the notebook never gets more than a bit warm.

Why is Mint—or Ubuntu, on which Mint is based—lagging so far behind in this department? Does anyone understand what the problem is—and if so, are there plans to fix it? Or does this possibly involve low-level technology the CPU companies aren't willing to share with anyone except Microsoft?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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