Sub 1 hour battery life (9 cell) on Windows 8.1

Hi all,
A few months ago I installed Windows 8.1 on my T400 (Type 6475) and ever since have experienced abysmal battery life. I have a 9 cell battery in good condition that gave me at least 5 hours of moderate usage when I was running Windows 7 on this machine. Now I'm lucky to get an hour running Windows 8.1 which just isn't really viable. I've checked the battery on my backup T61 running Windows 7 and still achive perfectly acceptable lifespan with that - so the battery's not the problem.
This is my second clean reinstall of Windows 8.1. I've checked all of my drivers are up to date and are Windows 8.1 versions where they exist. My T400 doesn't have switchable graphics so I don't think it's that causing the issue. Bluetooth is off. I've got Power Manager 6.32 installed and working flawlessly. All settings are as they were when I was running Windows 7 (optimised for battery life when off of AC).
Before I give up on Windows 8.1 and return to Windows 7 is there anything else I've missed?Is there any way I can check what's using the battery?
I'm not a massive tech-head so be gentle if possible...
Thanks in advance!

Hi,
Welcome to Lenovo Community Forums!
I’m sorry to hear that you are getting a poor battery backup in your Lenovo ThinkPad T400 after upgrading to Windows 8.1.
May I know which power plan you are using in your system?
What Lenovo software dependency package is installed?
Have you updated all the Lenovo resources (firmware, BIOS, drivers, software)?
Refer this document and see if it helps!
Best regards,
Mithun.
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Please read the terms of use here about discussing policy on the link on the right hand side.
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Ok,
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Retired Engineer wrote:
They did not say the battery life is 7 hours, they said it is UP TO 7 hours. You will only achieve that with a very light processing load and the screen turned down to one notch above off and bluetooth and wireless turned off.
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Message was edited by: jay77hkbr

I too have been experiencing worse battery life.
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Wifi enabled
Bluetooth enabled
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Macbook Air is not giving me 12 hours battery life!

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          8 GB RAM
Video Information:
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System Software:
          OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 23:51:10
Disk Information:
          APPLE SSD SD0128F disk0 : (121,33 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB
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USB Information:
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          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
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Kernel Extensions:
Problem System Launch Daemons:
          [System] com.wibu.CodeMeter.Server.plist 3rd-Party support link
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [System] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [invalid] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist
          [System] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist 3rd-Party support link
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4 hour battery life surfing internet?

am i missing something here or is this normal? i was expecting 4 hours when watching movies or doing more processor-heavy tasks.. but im getting around 4 hours, 5 at best, on the internet not at full brightness. this is the 2nd charge and i got it two days ago..
any thoughts?

Using gmail for instance forces the use of the nvidia graphicscard and the change back to intel is only made if you shut down the program, at best. Sometimes the release of the lock to nvidia doesn't work and you have to log out. This misuse of graphics card and together with flash on web pages makes the battery time very short indeed. Software update please Apple.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=904425
Message was edited by: pepparkaka

S10 3T Battery Life 8 Cell.

Just curious to see how long the battery lasts for you guys and gals.
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Love the Forum.

Hi this could be helpful
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W520 - Battery Life Under 2 Hours!

Hello there!
I've been experiencing the problem where my Nvidia Graphics card does not automatically switch to the Intel Graphics card --- or if it does --- it does not allow me to have the 5 hours + of battery life that I use to have when I was using Windows 7 (right now I am using Windows 8).
I also don't have the Lenovo Power Manager program installed because I can't seem to find it anywhere on the installation pages for my particular laptop with Windows 8. I wonder if this is the problem since its using Windows Power Manager -- even though I have installed the Power Driver multiple times.
Even when I get it so I make sure that no applications are using the Nvidia Graphics card (confirmed by the Nvidia GPU Activity icon), I still get the under 2 hours battery life. I am using the 9v battery -- the larger one.
Any help would be greatly appriciated so I can get the full battery life out of this laptop, as when I had Windows 7 installed. Thank you :-)

Hi brooklotzkar
1. Go to Control Panel (Small icons)> Lenovo - Update and Drivers > Install all critical and recommended updates. Optional - Up to you to decide as you may not be using all the functions. If this options is not available, Download here and install.
2. Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Check Power saver. Power Plan make a big difference on both battery life and performance.
From what I tested on my W520 - Core i7 2720QM
Maximum Battery Life or Power saver: CPU clock speed at 800MHz constantly, but performance decrease. You wouldn't want to multitask too much when on battery.
Maximum Performance or High Performance: CPU clock speed will go up from 3 - 3.2GHz (Depending on how many core / thread the program will utilize)
3. Battery will vary depend on how many / what kind of apps are opened. I have tried using 5+h on 6-cell battery without any problem. (Battery Stretch, only running Microsoft Word and 1 tab of Internet Explorer) It is recommended to run Internet Explorer on battery as it requires less resource, hence battery life will not run out as fast.
http://lifehacker.com/5566020/how-to-maximize-the-battery-life-of-your-windows-laptop
Hope this helps.
Peter
W520 (4284-A99)
Give kudos to reward people for their assistance | Mark the thread solved if the solution works | Direct e-mail regarding technical problems will be ignored
=====================================
Dolby ; IdeaPad Slate Tablet ; Equalizer APO

Battery life, only 3 hours?

Hello everyone I come to you tonight with a question regarding my Macbook Pro's battery life.
This computer is fairly new, it was purchased in September of 2011. At the time I was getting the advertised 6-7 hour battery life.
As time goes on, I do understand that the battery, will wind down. As of right now, I'm at 147 battery cycles and my batters "hp" (whatever that means, I don't know how that's measured.) is at 95%.
So with that, I'm now only getting 3-3.5 hours of total battery life, with my bluetooth off, and I'm only doing minor web browsing, with no flash. I'm writing this, with the only other application open being iTunes, and my timer is at 3:35 minutes @ 97% battery. My keyboard backlight is off, and my screen is only on 3 dots of the total possible. (Sorry that's very poorly described, I'm not sure of the proper way to go about it.)
So I'm wondering, is there anything that I could or should do to fix this?
The specifications for my computer are as follows, for those interested.
Mac OSX 1.7.2
2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7
8 gigabytes of ram
Thank you.

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Model Information:
Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Manufacturer:          SMP
Device Name:          bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:          0
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          201
Hardware Revision:          000a
Cell Revision:          158
Charge Information:
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Fully Charged:          No
Charging:          No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          5477
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Amperage (mA):          -1443
Voltage (mV):          11920
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Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          60
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Wake on LAN:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:          0
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          157680000
Standby Delay:          4200
Standby Enabled:          0
Battery Power:
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Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          2
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Current Power Source:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
Reduce Brightness:          Yes
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          157680000
Standby Delay:          4200
Standby Enabled:          0
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AC Charger Information:
Connected:          No
Charging:          No

I have the 13 inch macbook pro bought in august 2011,the battery life instead of 7 hours lasts only for 3-4 hours why is this so

i was very impressed when i saw the 7 hour battery life of the macbook 13 in the store . but after using the system it only lasted 3-4 hours completely , same was the case for windows 7 pro. all the other functions of my mac are working fine.I buyed the system pin packed in front of me.I questioned the retailer about this but he had no clue what was happenig which caused this.I think this has something to do with china as my mac has been assembled in china and designed by apple californiahttp://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/apple-macbook-pro-13-inch-2011-versio n these are the specs and the review of the system.but remove the phenominal battery life from the pros.I'm new to apple so please also provide me a location where i can get apple support in Pakistan

The 7 hour battery life is maximum that can be expected with minimal drain, but 3-4 hours either means you are using it very, very hard or the battery is bad. OR the gauge needs calibration, see below.
Turn off WiFi if you are not using it, and dim the display to also save battery power. It also depends on the applications that you are using.
One months is awfully fast for you to lose that much battery time. If the laptop was new, then I would talk to the seller about an exchange, at least exchanging the battery.
Have you tried calibrating the battery? See
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/9036.html
for how. Please note, this only calibrates when the MBP charges the battery and resets the calibration of time or percentage of battery charge left. The lithium battery does not have a memory.

Battery life in windows 8

There have been many questions posted recently regarding a noticeable change in battery life after installing/upgrading Windows 8. I would like to provide some tips which may help you extend the life of your battery.
1. Ensure that your battery is properly calibrated.
To begin you should make sure your battery is properly calibrated. This makes sure that the battery is able to determine the correct points which represent 0% charge and 100% charge. This is a good step to take as it, along with the battery check, will rule out most hardware issues. This document will walk you through a manual battery calibration. The next step is to test the battery, which requires HP Support Assistant.
2. Use HP’s Battery Check to ensure your battery is in proper working condition.
After you know that the battery is calibrated it is a good idea to ensure there are no other problems with the battery by running a battery check. This is a feature included in HP Support Assistant. Visit this site to download the notebook version of HP Support Assistant. After installing this software select the “Troubleshoot” section and then “Power, Thermal, and Mechanical.” The battery check is located there. Here is more information on HP Battery Check.
If the battery passes this check move on to step 3.
3. Use HP Support Assistant to download all the needed software for your machine.
The most common cause of the change in battery life is going to be that all of the drivers, software, and other utilities which HP and the hardware manufacturers use to maximize battery life are missing. HP is currently expecting to support most notebooks which were purchased after October 1, 2011. This site can tell you if your notebook has been tested with Windows 8 by HP. However, not all of the utilities and drivers have been released. If HP Support Assistant is unable to locate some of the software you will want to keep a close eye on support assistant for updates as well as your product's page on HP’s Technical Support Site.
Once you have installed the suggested updates, make sure to reboot the PC.
4. Ensure that you have all of the Windows Updates.
Windows 8 has only been out for a week so it is likely you will see updates come out soon. Make sure you have Windows Update properly configured and that you currently have all updates. Here is a great article on About.com which covers how to check your Windows Update settings.
5. Use Windows to optimize battery usage.
Windows has a very feature rich system which allows you to control how power is consumed by the notebook. From either the Desktop view or Metro use the key combination Windows+X and select “Power Options.” This will open the Power Plan window. I suggest using the “Power Saver” power plan. However, if you’d like you are able to create your own power plan. Use the “change advanced power settings” option to customize it for your purposes. Here is more information from Microsoft on saving battery power.
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Sub 1 hour battery life (9 cell) on Windows 8.1

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