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System details: Intel Core i5 2.50GH, Nvidia, 2GB RAM, 32bit O/S for both Linux and Windows.

Well I have been using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS for nearly 1 week. I have noticed whenever my laptop runs on Ubuntu its battery last only half an hour. On the other hand when I run laptop on Windows 7 battery last nearly 1 hour! This is amazing. I always thought Linux is far away than windows in every technical aspects. But unfortunately this is not true when it comes to power management technology! Well I did read some old posts in Ubuntu forum and here on askubuntu too. I see many experts (or at least experienced users) not acknowledging this fact and often they are saying this is simply not true. They showed many statistics from their end but to me none of them are convincing at all. However I myself did few tests and here is my test results...

  • I charged my Laptop during 5 hours seamlessly and then unplugged the power cable from main power supply and run my laptop on Ubuntu. Battery lasted only 28 minutes.
  • Then again I charged my Laptop during 5 hours seamlessly and unplugged the power cable from main power supply and run my laptop on Windows 7. Battery lasted nearly 54 minutes.

I did this litmus test 2 times more. Here are the results....

  • 1st Test - Ubuntu - 28m | Windows7 - 54m
  • 2nd Test - Ubuntu - 26m | Windows7 - 1h
  • 3rd Test - Ubuntu - 28m | Windows7 - 55m

So this is clear Ubuntu failed in race with Windows7. Well now my question is how to solve this problem? The only reason why I provided you test results is because some guys might start arguing that Ubuntu is not consuming more power than Windows and I know which is simple not true. At least in my tests I didn't get any evidence to agree with them.

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  • As you can see in the link I gave you , in the past this has been considered "too broad" . It is an interesting topic but this site encourages "simple" question-answer and not long technical questions / answers. At any rate, the link I gave you should give you a starting point and you can ask a more specific question if you have a specific problem.
    – Panther
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:08
  • if you are using 64 bit, windows 7 almost always uses 32 bit versions of applications even when the OS is 64 bit capable whereas Ubuntu almost always uses 64 bit applications for a 64 bit OS. One good example is firefox and how your system probably won't even boot without the win32 library. You are probably using your processor to it's full capability whereas in windows you were not.
    – mchid
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:37
  • most of the time, 64 bit versions of applications aren't even made available for windows 64 so they just use 32 instead . . . smh How to solve? Do what windows does and downgrade to 32 bit OS to make you feel like the OS is more efficient when it's actually not.
    – mchid
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:39
  • Try either TLP or Laptop Mode Tools and see which one works better for you. You can find the details if you follow the link in comment regarding "possible duplicate..."
    – user68186
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:42

1 Answer 1

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Try to use:

http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html

Windows 7 lasts 4.5 on battery, Ubuntu lasted only 2 hours at best... later I installed TLP and Im at 5 1/2 - 6 hours (with Intel GPU in use instead of NVIDIA)

Not to mention the fact, that this has been discussed a lot of times...else I wouldnt know about this

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  • I see this on TLP... ThinkPads require an additional: sudo apt-get install tp-smapi-dkms acpi-call-dkms Should I run this command too? My another question is after installing do I need to do anything else? Or TLP will take care of everything? Apr 29, 2015 at 15:54
  • @MikeFriedman if you don't have a thinkpad, don't run those commands
    – mchid
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:55
  • @MikeFriedman on 14.04 you can also add pstate to grub and thermld webupd8.org/2014/04/prevent-your-laptop-from-overheating.html
    – mchid
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:58
  • @MikeFriedman not to mention prime indicator which allows you to manually switch nvidia off to intel webupd8.org/2014/01/…
    – mchid
    Apr 29, 2015 at 16:00

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