Windows 10 and laptop battery life

[jd7]

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a huge drop in battery life with Windows 10? My laptop battery is down to about 30% or even less compared to what I got on Windows 8 or Windows 7 before that. My ASUS laptop uses an older Intel i5 CPU with an Nvidia GT520M graphics chip as well as the Intel graphics incorporated in the CPU. I know it's old but one of the reasons I've held on to it so long is the battery life has been great. Ever since I installed Windows 10 though, it's been a whole different story.

One theory I have read is that the drain has to do with updates installing in the background. That seems unlikely to be my issue though - my laptop runs on mains power a lot so when I am running on battery I reckon I would be unlucky if it was installing updates.

To be clear, I am not talking about the Windows 10 bug which was causing laptops to drain power while hibernating or in sleep mode. I am talking about battery life while the computer is in use.

From what I have read on the internet, I am far from the only person having trouble with battery life on Windows 10. Anyone here experience the same problem? Anyone found any solutions?

On a side note, the forced updates thing on Windows 10 is absurd. The other morning I switched on my computer to do some work and it was over 45 minutes before I could start work because it had installed updates and something seems to have gone wrong and I had to force to reboot and then wait will it installed updates (more of them? reinstalled ones which had had a problem?) and then rebooted again. Luckily I was not under immediate time pressure on this occasion, but if I had been it would have been a disaster. Anyway, between the forced updates and the battery life issue, I couldn't recommend anyone update to Windows 10 even though the interface is a big step up from Windows 8 (not that that would have been hard!).

It's looking like I am going to have to find the time to roll back to Windows 8.1.

 

[NWPhil]

Start here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rczgCmoNSSE&feature=youtu.be

and then do some extra research on windows 10 privacy and such....

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I tried upgrading from my windows 7 ultimate, but rolled back. I'll be trying again, but I never seem to find the time to fool with it.

Turning off the privacy controls is easy, You can schedule restarts from updates, set them for a time you are not usually using the computer. Its a bigger deal with a laptop than a desktop.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-lets-you-schedule-windows-update-restarts/

 

[dhr90]

I had been thinking of finally upgrading from 8.1 to 10, but this review alone is enough to put me off for another few weeks/months. I still have until June I think to upgrade so its no rush.

 

[rfdesigner]

I tried upgrading from my windows 7 ultimate, but rolled back. I'll be trying again, but I never seem to find the time to fool with it.

Turning off the privacy controls is easy, You can schedule restarts from updates, set them for a time you are not usually using the computer. Its a bigger deal with a laptop than a desktop.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-lets-you-schedule-windows-update-restarts/

Can we turn off the ability for windows to just reboot your machine..?

I'm thinking unattended astro-imaging where you don't want M$ screwing up your nights imaging session by killing your machine 10 minutes after you've gone to bed.

 

[jd7]

I tried upgrading from my windows 7 ultimate, but rolled back. I'll be trying again, but I never seem to find the time to fool with it.

Turning off the privacy controls is easy, You can schedule restarts from updates, set them for a time you are not usually using the computer. Its a bigger deal with a laptop than a desktop.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-lets-you-schedule-windows-update-restarts/

Can we turn off the ability for windows to just reboot your machine..?

I'm thinking unattended astro-imaging where you don't want M$ screwing up your nights imaging session by killing your machine 10 minutes after you've gone to bed.

So far as I know, Microsoft gives you some ability to control when Windows restarts itself to finish installing updates (as the per the link in Mt Spokane Photography's post), but doesn't allow you to prevent restarting altogether.

I don't want Windows downloading and installing updates automatically at all (let alone restarting itself). I want my computer to be completely free to do the work I want it to do, and to only worry about updates when I specifically tell it to download and install them. If I am under time pressure at work, I don't want anything slowing down my computer - or worse still, bringing it to a halt. I don't understand how/why Microsoft would think anyone who uses their computer for business could be happy with the idea that the computer is just going to download and install updates any time it likes!

 

[jd7]

Start here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rczgCmoNSSE&feature=youtu.be

and then do some extra research on windows 10 privacy and such....

Thanks NWPhil. I have changed a lot of the privacy settings, but I cannot shut off automatic updates, and the battery life on my laptop is hopeless compared to what I was getting under Win 8.1. None of the privacy settings seem to change those things.

 

[rfdesigner]

I tried upgrading from my windows 7 ultimate, but rolled back. I'll be trying again, but I never seem to find the time to fool with it.

Turning off the privacy controls is easy, You can schedule restarts from updates, set them for a time you are not usually using the computer. Its a bigger deal with a laptop than a desktop.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-lets-you-schedule-windows-update-restarts/

Can we turn off the ability for windows to just reboot your machine..?

I'm thinking unattended astro-imaging where you don't want M$ screwing up your nights imaging session by killing your machine 10 minutes after you've gone to bed.

So far as I know, Microsoft gives you some ability to control when Windows restarts itself to finish installing updates (as the per the link in Mt Spokane Photography's post), but doesn't allow you to prevent restarting altogether.

I don't want Windows downloading and installing updates automatically at all (let alone restarting itself). I want my computer to be completely free to do the work I want it to do, and to only worry about updates when I specifically tell it to download and install them. If I am under time pressure at work, I don't want anything slowing down my computer - or worse still, bringing it to a halt. I don't understand how/why Microsoft would think anyone who uses their computer for business could be happy with the idea that the computer is just going to download and install updates any time it likes!

thanks.. I looked at the link, and that was my conclusion, but I didn't KNOW, only read between the lines. So no.. I won't upgrade unless I can prevent M$ from killing my machine.

I've managed to get it through a few softies heads that continuous updates on machines which are part of automatic test equipment are a very bad thing, sadly some just don't get it. Running telescopes are not that dissimilar and whilst the data I gather isn't as critical, it's still desperately bad practice to keep meddling.

 

[expatinasia]

I very much doubt that the Windows 10 update feature is what is causing issues with your battery.

I upgraded a laptop which is not officially supposed to be upgraded. I did the upgrade with an ISO which I guess was a risk, but have run into very few problems. In fact, my machine has never been as fast, and it was no slouch to begin with.

I did have a few issues, most of which were easily rectified, and there are also quite things I do not like. However the speed my laptop now operates at is worth the few inconveniences.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the battery issue as I never use my battery and it has problems (needs replacing anyway).

Maybe you should install HWIFNO and see what the wear on the battery is.

 

[jd7]

I very much doubt that the Windows 10 update feature is what is causing issues with your battery.

I upgraded a laptop which is not officially supposed to be upgraded. I did the upgrade with an ISO which I guess was a risk, but have run into very few problems. In fact, my machine has never been as fast, and it was no slouch to begin with.

I did have a few issues, most of which were easily rectified, and there are also quite things I do not like. However the speed my laptop now operates at is worth the few inconveniences.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with the battery issue as I never use my battery and it has problems (needs replacing anyway).

Maybe you should install HWIFNO and see what the wear on the battery is.

Thanks expatinasia.

I installed HWINFO64 and it reports the wear on my battery is 12.5%.

I did some digging in the Windows settings and discovered you can turn off background updating of apps. I turned that off for most apps (left a couple on because I thought it might be useful for those specific apps), but it didn't make any noticeable difference to my battery life.

I also found the area in settings which tells you what programs have been draining your battery the most. The stand out was Windows Live Mail. Closing that one program has made my battery life (predicted by Win 10) on a full charge jump from about 2.5 hours to about 5.5 hours!!

I have used Windows Live Mail for years and I usually leave it running at all times on my computer. It didn't cause this sort of battery problem under Win 8, but there you go.

As long as the actual battery life turns out as predicted, I guess I have at least largely solved my problem (I thought I was getting more like 6.5 or even 7 hours previously, but maybe that was initially and doesn't take into account battery wear).

And yes, I know Windows Live Mail is an old piece of software. However, I actually like the way it has handled sending photos via One Drive - although that stopped working properly a little while ago and I haven't checked whether Microsoft fixed it or not. Anyway, might be time for me to look into the email app in Win 10, or another alternative for email.

PS - I also use another email client called em Client, which I leave running at all times. It does not seem to cause a significant battery drain - Win 10 reports it contributing less than 1% of my battery use.

 

[jd7]

Further update - from a quick test, starting the email app which is part of Win 10 causes my predicted battery life to fall dramatically, similar to the situation with Windows Live Mail.

 

[zim]

I had been thinking of finally upgrading from 8.1 to 10, but this review alone is enough to put me off for another few weeks/months. I still have until June I think to upgrade so its no rush.

+1 exactly where I am, but this has been a really useful thread, thanks all.
Incidently I've gotten into the habit just recently of putting my laptop into aeroplane mode before processing images, speeds things up. Would that solve the auto update and auto reboot issue at least during critical processing time? Obviously useless if you need internet assess!

 

[symmar22]

Upgraded from day one to learn how to use it. Now all my PCs are updated and I love it, I forgot about windows 7 in about a week, won't go back to it, contrary to what happened with Windows 8 and 8.1. Anyway you can reverse to Win 7 (or 8.1) since your old install is fully backed up by default on "C" by the Win 10 install.

Windows 7 dates back from 2009, that's quite old for an OS. It was IMO the first solid system from Microsoft, win 8 and 8.1 were as reliable but plagued by their catastrophic ergonomics, Win 10 is the new 7. If you come from Win 7, it's worth a try, if you come from 8 or 8.1, you shouldn't even ask yourself the question.

All the privacy drama is irrelevant since you can disable pretty much everything you send to Microsoft, plus if you're so concerned about you're privacy, you should stop using Google, Facebook, the web in general, your smartphone and you credit cards.

Seriously, between Google and the NSA alone, Microsoft is a very small time player.

 

[jd7]

OK, so installed Win 10 on another laptop - a Toshiba but similar vintage to my Asus. Again battery life has been destroyed. I get some of it back if I don't run any email program, but it's still not great (and that isn't a very practical solution anyway).

Yes, the Win 10 interface is better than the Win 8 interface - but Win 8 was so bad that doesn't mean much. The Win 10 interface still isn't great, eg the new settings screens (well, something a bit similar is in Win 8 as well) often don't actually let you change the settings you need, so you have to go digging around for the old control panel. The old control panel is still there thankfully, but the new settings screens are just irritating.

All in all, I would say Win 10 is not worth it ... even as a free upgrade. As annoying as the Win 8 interface is, you can generally work around (eg with Classic Shell, Start8, etc). So far I have found no way to work around Win 10's poor battery life and its insistence on installing updates when it chooses rather than when I am ready for it to do so.