I own a HP nx7400 laptop. I’ve been using opensuse on it since 10.2. I know that battery usage isn’t the best feature of linux distributions, but with 11.2 this has become a real problem.
I used to have about 1 hour and a half of battery power when I was using opensuse 11.0. About a month ago I upgraded to 11.2 and to my surprise now I have only 10 min left when I disconnect main power from the machine, with batteries at 100% charge.
This is very frustrating. I made a new install from scrach, and almost everything has worked with no other issues.
The battery works good as it works on any Windows machine, and for your information so that you know, Microsoft is revewing their code related to batteries on Laptops, as Windows 7 is being reported to kill batteries You don’t see that in Linux. For further reference to that issue, check Slashdot [dot] org.
What may influence the life of your battery is not using proprietary drivers as they control perfectly the fans and power management (at least on my Vaio/ATI).
I am not aware on open source drivers are, but I’ve had problems before (not GNU/Linux related) with bad drivers.
Has long as your hardware is supported, I would recon it should be ok.
Powersaving has always been an issue with linux, as even batteries dont like anything other then windows.
Try turning off compositing, its one good way of powersave, no desktop effects mean a less resource hoggy experience.
Another way to powersave is to try other DE’s, LXDE is my recommendation as its so light yet powerful
Hi,
thanks for your answers, folks. But what I’d like to make you notice is the fact that this laptop here has lived (always) with a linux on it, and started to have problems with the battery when it was upgraded to opensuse 11.2.
You don’t see that in Linux. For further reference to that issue, check Slashdot [dot] org.