Battery life - Windows 7 vs Windows 10

sri369
sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
edited November 2023 in 2018 Archives
Windows 7... no cpu undervolting... conservative custom power settings - 4+ hours at about 40% brightness before battery went from 100% to about 20 something.
Windows 10... cpu undervolted... same conservative custom power settings - Little less than 2 hours at about 40% brightness before battery went from 100% to 20 something.

Along with core parking, both CPUs were limited to 80% and so no turbo power either.

Seems like windows 10 is playing a major power hog :-(

Now now... before anyone says anything... I had Windows 7 on my laptop for about 10 days before I switched back to Windows 10. Both 7 and 10 were clean non Acer windows builds downloaded from microsoft site.
-----
Karma...
LIKE - if helpful
ACCEPT - if helped resolve

Answers

  • Roland_Lorinczi
    Roland_Lorinczi Member Posts: 126 Skilled Fixer WiFi Icon
    Interesting. Thanks for sharing @sri369! I'm actually pondering "downgrading" to windows 7 since that may solve my blackscreen issues if it's windows related...you just gave me another reason it could be useful to do so...

    I'd love to see a graph of what specific processes drain the battery to what extent in these cases, in a test scenario, running the exact same tasks for the same time and idle for the same duration. Something like what you can check on your phone: which app used how much of the power since last charge.

    (I don't expect you to do it buuut if you happen to already have some screenshots like that or wouldn't mind 😅 for science...Do know that there's at least 1 geek on here that'd be very interested 🙈 
    ⚠️ If you're affected by the System Hang/ Black Screen issue:

    - Official Fix Announced by Acer_Manny
    - Instructions for FIX

    Currently owned Acer systems:
    💻 Predator Helios 300 (PH317-52) - i7 8750H, GTX 1060, Win 10 64bit (build 1803), 8gb Ram (single channel), WD Blue 256GB SSD in M.2 slot, 931GB Hitachi HGST factory Hard drive. [Owned New Since 2018, May 22nd - Overheating (solved-ish) , PredatorSense not working (solved) & BLACK SCREEN ISSUE (BIOS update 1.15) ] 
    💻 Predator Helios 300 (PH315-51) - Same specs and issues as above 
    💻 Aspire 5750G - 2nd Gen. i5 processor, 4gigs of ram, nVidia GT 540M [Owned new Since 2010 - in working condition]
     
    :) Status: Been with Acer since 2010 - Was disappointed with the Blackscreen issue & lack of interaction from staff for ~1week
    But Acer_Manny and the Acer team came through with BIOS announcement and upload.
  • Marathi_Manus
    Marathi_Manus Member Posts: 27 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Downgrading to Windows 7 isn't option for UHD 630 and 8th Gen Intel Processors. Intel is in bed with Microsoft and pushing 10 like anything. Although, there is an interesting thread on getting win7 by some hack here:- http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-7-installation-help-for-intel-skylake-and-kaby-lake-laptops.803630/
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    Marathi_Manus said:
    Downgrading to Windows 7 isn't option for UHD 630 and 8th Gen Intel Processors. Intel is in bed with Microsoft and pushing 10 like anything. Although, there is an interesting thread on getting win7 by some hack here:- http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-7-installation-help-for-intel-skylake-and-kaby-lake-laptops.803630/
    I already posted a thread on how to install windows 7 on G3-572 helios 300 :-) with my personal steps for installing on mine.
    -----
    Karma...
    LIKE - if helpful
    ACCEPT - if helped resolve
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    Roland_Lorinczi said:
    Interesting. Thanks for sharing @sri369! I'm actually pondering "downgrading" to windows 7 since that may solve my black screen issues if it's windows related...you just gave me another reason it could be useful to do so...

    I'd love to see a graph of what specific processes drain the battery to what extent in these cases, in a test scenario, running the exact same tasks for the same time and idle for the same duration. Something like what you can check on your phone: which app used how much of the power since last charge.

    (I don't expect you to do it buuut if you happen to already have some screenshots like that or wouldn't mind 😅 for science...Do know that there's at least 1 geek on here that'd be very interested 🙈 
    That would be hard at this time. I already removed 7 and put in 10 now, and don't really want to go to 7 all over again.

    In both cases I was looking at this forum, and watching videos on youtube, on the same firefox browser, with the same antivirus, antimalware and background tasks going. Whatever OS I use, i tend to always get in my standard set of software first.

    If I could find some app that allows what you say, I could do that on my current windows 10 too.

    One headsup on Windows 7: At times, if 7 corrupts your USB drive when formatting it (happens only at formatting, and not at normal usage), have windows 10 on a VM and format via device manager. This would get them back to working.
    Other than this, I didn't have any other issues on Windows 7.

    Roland, also give a try using the power settings I use on mine, maybe that would help your black screen issues. Also, disable the "fast startup" option in windows. Enabling this option never lets windows shut down completely, and sends into a stateless hibernate mode.



    -----
    Karma...
    LIKE - if helpful
    ACCEPT - if helped resolve
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,774 Pathfinder
    edited June 2018
    @Roland_Lorinczi

    I think I got what you asked me for. I drained my G3-572 from 100% to about 6%, generated reports, and posting some highlights from them.
    CPU undervolted by 0.125, and intel gpu undervolted by 0.030. My own custom ultra battery saver plan with cpu parking, and such features.
    Windows power mode selected to "best battery life".

    2 hours 15 mins from 100% to 7%. Ignore the 88% there, since windows says total capacity is 97%. I still have no clue where the 2% went (97-88 = 9, and 9-remaining7 = 2).


    Power estimation report listing all apps with total mW usage more than 10.


    So here is the missing percentage from above. Windows is saying that i started at 96% and ended at 8%. This balances the 88 above.
    used 88 + remaining 8 = total 96.


    Let me know if this helps. Overall, I got about 2.5 hours with very gentle usage.



    -----
    Karma...
    LIKE - if helpful
    ACCEPT - if helped resolve

Categories