Strange power consumption

[andykrej]

I'm trying hard to make my battery last as long as possible in my X61s. I'm running 2008 R2 and initially I was very impressed with the battery life: up to 12h with lowest screen brightness and low cpu activity. Windows 7 would not allow more than 9h.

But here's the strange thing: when I open any application that uses sound, the wattage jumps from 7w to incredible 12w. Even opening the small Sound Recorder that comes with windows will cause this. At the same time, Task Manager shows 0% cpu activity. I'm really stuck here. Where are these additional 5w going?

I'm using the latest Lenovo Soundmax driver for Vista x64, but the default microsoft driver that came with 2008 R2 was no different. Could be really interesting to see if any of you experience the same.

Just try to note your wattage (using Power Manager) when idling and then launch Sound Recorder and see if there's any difference.

[pershing]

I think I have noticed this too, win7 consume more power than XP - on X60 and X60s and I dont know why