R61 and Windows 7 issues

[madkat]

Got an itch up my a** to make a new partition and try installing W7 ultimate on my R61 (see sig for specs)

All looked fine, all drivers ok, boots a little faster than the XP SP2 i've got, etc.

But there are issues with power management - i cannot make the battery last as much as it lasts with XP running - 1h45 vs 2h20.
The processor seems to have the right speed (adaptive) but the fan runs continuosly on a lower speed - under the same conditions it XP it turns on and off.
I should mention that in XP i have NHC up and running, set on adaptive - and in W7 with or without NHC it has the same behaviour stated above.

Did anyone have this issue? how can i solve it?

[NerdPope]

I installed Win 7 Ultimate on my R61i and experienced less battery life as well. I am not sure, but I have attributed this to Aero. I suggest disabling Aero and see if it makes a difference.

[ajkula66]

Even on machines that won't run Aero, the battery life goes down by quite a margin. I've experienced this on both ThinkPads and non-ThinkPads.

[madkat]

This is not good news... i'll try investigating what drains more current.

My first guess is that W7 doesn't "let" you control as much parameters as XP. Such as processor speed, fan, and also brightness control is weird - it combines harware (usual TP) and software control...

edit: only one machine i've found with better battery life with 7 - one elcheapo dell with a previous clogged xp (with around 80 processes on idle)