Windows 7: Huge battery drain on FZ38M

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ38M with the default battery, a VGP-BPS8. On Vista 32bit I could get a couple of hours on the battery on power saver, but on Windows builds 7000 and 7100 64 bit I'm only getting a maximum of 40 minutes! When I mouse over the battery logo in the Notification Area it says I have a few hours but it drains much quicker than that! Is this a driver issue, a 64bit issue or a 7 issue, and is there any way to fix it?

Thank you in advance.

Hi,

I recently installed Windows7 on my FZ38M and I didn't notice any problem with it (yet). I haven't used it a lot with battery but I will try it.
During the install I remember that it didn't find the drivers for Vaio Power Management. Maybe that's your problem.

Anyway, please check that you are using the appropriate "power profile" like battery mode or something like that. It should reduce the frequency of the CPU and therefore increase your battery life. WiFi takes an important slice of your battery as well.

I find the same with my Asus EEE PC901 Netbook.
I could get close to 4 1/2 hours with XP but im lucky to get 3 with Windows 7.
I guess its just working a lot harder.

Hey all welcome to sevenforums

I think you should check the power options in control panels. Win 7 could use slightly more power than XP but more likely its set to performance instead of balanced. I like the performance power because I run my lap brick on ac about have the time

Hopes this helps and again welcome to SF. keep on asking questions we learn from the answers too.

Ken

Well I checked and double checked and it's definitely on Power Saver. If it's on High Performance I barely get five minutes.

Yeah, mine on power save as well. Even the CPU fan is on passive while running on battery.

Hi on my Vaio i experienced the exact same problem despite the laptop being less than a year old. Sont stated batteries are not covered under warrenty but i could buy a new one for a special price of £160???!!
I said no thanks but i have seen some decent replacements with guarantees for about the £70 mark.

Recently my battery suffered further problems: It didn't say how much charge it had left at all. Taking it out and putting it back in again solved the problem, but although I haven't had time to check on Vista yet I suspect the problem is in the batteries, not the OS. Speaking of which, I really need to actually buy a copy soon - I'm still on 7100!