Der kan være mange gode grunde til at opgradere fra XP eller Vista til Windows 7.
Men selvom længere batterilevetid skulle være en af dem, er det ikke ligefrem oplevelsen hos en lang række brugere, der raser over batteri-problemer på opgraderede maskiner.
Brugere af en lang række computer-mærker - heriblandt HP, Acer, Dell og selv Mac (med Windows 7) - oplever, at batteriindikatoren på den bærbare viser forkert, så der er længere tid tilbage, selvom indikatoren viser noget andet.
Andre oplever en reelt nedsat batterilevetid og andre igen, at computeren simpelthen går ud.
Alle er blevet mødt med beskeden "Consider replacing the battery" efter at have opgraderet til Windows 7, og selvom Microsoft allerede har erkendt, at der er et problem, lader en egentlig løsning endnu vente på sig.
Flere midlertidige løsninger
Nettet er dog et fantastisk sted til videndeling, og på diverse it-fora forsøger brugerne at hjælpe hinanden med en løsning på problemet, der har eksisteret siden RC-versionerne af Windows blev frigivet sidste år.
En Google-søgning på problemet understreger, at det er noget, en hel del brugere har stiftet bekendtskab med.
På Eksperten.dk forsøger flere danske brugere at hjælpe hinanden - indtil videre dog uden større held.
På siden IT Expert Voice, der sponseres af Dell, kommer man lidt nærmere på en mulig løsning.
"Indtil videre ser det ud til at den bedste løsning er en midlertidig løsning," forklarer it-skribent Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.
Han beretter i detaljer om, hvorledes man skal køre en kommandopromt som adminstrator, nemlig "powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0."
Den kommando medfører, at Windows 7 ikke slukker computeren, selvom OS'et fejlagtigt tror, at batteriet er ved at være fladt. Denne løsning hjælper naturligvis ikke, hvis systemet rent faktisk har ret.
På siden Windows 7 News bliver samme løsning fremhævet, men et råd lyder også, at batteriet helt skal aflades og fjernes fra maskinen - se nærmere forklaring på siden.
Flere steder tales der også om opdatering af batteridrivere, og på Microsofts eget Technet er der en række bud på løsninger på batteri-problemet.
Debattråden, der indtil videre er læst 38.124 gange og har flere hundrede besvarelser, indeholder blandt andet en række råd fra en Amit Tayal fra Microsoft Windows 7 Support Professional-team. Se svaret på næste side.
Her er Microsofts svar
Hello Paul, (debattør, red.)
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Windows Email technical Support. My name is Amit , and I would be happy to assist you.
I sincerely regret that you had to come across this situation. I understand how inconvenient this should be. Although I am not the right person to deal with a hardware issue, I will try my best to help you understand why this is happening and help you find a solution too.
And, I appreciate that you have contacted us for support.
First, the operating system can never affect the battery life of a computer; the system settings, however, may affect a battery's function. If you may think that Windows 7 being a high-end operating system is affecting the power consumption of the battery, I would like to inform you that its latest technology is not meant for any extra power consumption.
Even if you are using any high performance settings, it will not affect the power consumption, but, use of best appearance settings may affect it; so, we will check with the power plan settings and try to adjust it to a balanced setting.
However, there could also be some internal connection problem, which the manufacturer can help us identify. Or, may be the battery needs to be serviced. But, I should not suggest anything on that as I am not the expert. We deal with the operating system alone, and not with hardware. So, I will help you with a few steps on the operating system which might help increase the battery's performance.
Step 1: Change the power plan settings
1. Click on Start icon. In the search box, type Power Options and press Enter. A window will pop up which displays all power options.
2. Under the option Preferred Plans, select the option Balanced (Recommended)
3. Click the option Change plan settings.
4. Click on the option Restore default settings for this plan.
5. Click the option Save changes if it is highlights. If it is not highlighted, it means that the settings are saved automatically.
Once you are done with the above steps, check the results. If the issue persists, please perform the steps given below:
Step 2: Reinstall Power Management settings:
1. Click on Start.
2. Type Device Manager in the Start Search box.
3. Click on Device Manager.
4. Click the plus (+) sign next to System Devices.
5. Right-click the ACPI Fixed Features button and select Uninstall. In the Confirm Device Uninstall dialog box, click OK.
6. Restart the system.
On restarting the system, Windows will automatically detect and install Power Management on the computer.
If the issue still occurs please perform the below steps to resolve the issue.
Step 3: Perform hardware clean boot to isolate if the
battery is affected due to any hardware device:
1. Click on Start, type devmgmt.msc in start search box and press enter to open device manager window.
2. Click on + sign next to Sound, video and game controllers to get the devices listed. Right click on each device under Sound, video and game controllers and select disable.
3. In the same process, click on + sign next to the Network adapter, right click on the devices listed and select disable.
4. Disconnect the entire external hardware devices connected to the computer (leaving keyboard and mouse).
5. Restart the computer, login back to the windows and shutdown the computer to check if the blue screen appears.
Note: If a hardware clean boot helps, then you can enable the hardware devices one by one to find which device causes the problem. After you have found out which device is causing the problem, you can fix this situation by installing the updated drivers for the device.
Paul, I would really appreciate your time and patience in following the steps I have mentioned, because I know it will take a good amount of your time. I am afraid if adjusting the power plan settings does not help, you might need to contact the manufacturer to check with them. I shall wait eagerly to get an update from you. In order to ensure proper delivery of your response, please verify that the Email address in "To" field and the Subject are not modified or deleted.
If you may want to communicate with one of our managers, please feel free to email my manager, Vamsi at v-6vamk@mssupport.microsoft.com Or, you may also send us your preferred time window for a call from us, so that we can contact you if required regarding this issue.
Sincerely,
Amit Tayal
v-6amtay@mssupport.microsoft.com
Microsoft Windows 7 Support Professional
