Windows 7 | Philadelphia Web Designer Seth Goldstein

Windows 7 Battery Problems

I’m getting frustrated. My laptop, a HP DV6748US is about a year or so old, maybe a little older. I’ve been through one battery and I got it replaced. That one died and now I’m on my third. The first one eventually gave out, apparently part of a recall. I got that replaced only to get the second one which died 6 months later. Both at the end of their lives would only get, at most, 7 minutes of battery life. It was clear that the battery was shot. Now my third one is a different matter. It lasts for 45 minutes before promptly shutting off with no warning at all.

Okay, here’s some background.

The computer originally came with Windows Vista and when Windows 7 beta came out I downloaded and used that. I upgraded every time a new version came out, straight through the RC (release client) and the RTM (release to manufacturer) versions. Finally, when Windows 7 was released to the masses I bought a copy of the final version (two actually, one for each of my computers).

Now Windows 7 runs great, EXCEPT for a small “pesky” problem. The battery will run down to 42% and just shut off. No warnings, no courteous dialog saying that my battery is reaching the end of it’s charge and to run, not walk, to the nearest outlet. No, it just shuts off.

I still stand by my statement that I’m a huge fan of Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv fame. I think his shows are great and in general Leo’s absolutely amazing. But in my recent blog post on my corporate blog, I needed to give a retort to Leo’s anti-SEO comments he made on his This Week in Google Show. I have gotten good feedback on the post and I hope Leo knows that there is nothing hostile about my posts, I just want to set the record straight.

Now, I hate to be a knit-picker, but on MacBreak Weekly this week Leo made a quick statement stating that net-books are the only reason Windows is still around. That is just not true. Microsoft Windows is still a dominant player in the operating system market and still has the majority stake in the cross section of operating systems. I was shocked when Leo, who is known to be a Mac and Windows user, said such a thing. The business almost exclusively runs on Windows (well not so much the design world) and many PC users are on Windows.

I’m really just perplexed by these statements Leo’s been making on his shows and needed to vent. With Windows 7 coming out, the operating system is far from gone.