Windows 8.1 is now officially released and you may be considering to upgrade your notebook’s operating system. Today AussieBatt battery experts explains what you need to know before upgrade to Windows 8.1 so that you will not lose laptop battery life.
Why upgrade to Windows 8.1 affects notebook battery life
The primary reason why you lose laptop battery life after upgrade is the power saving features, which was working before the upgrade, is not working after the upgrade. This usually happens because the device drivers installed during upgrade is not power-optimized.
So, let’s look at how the device drivers are configured during upgrade. There are two cases depending on how you upgrade.
- Upgrade from Windows 8 using Windows Store (free upgrade)
- Upgrade from Windows 8 using upgrade DVD and select “Keep Windows settings, personal files, and apps” option
In these cases, Windows 8.1 will use the device drivers installed to Windows 8 unless there is any known compatibility issue with the device driver. If you are going to take this path, you don’t need to worry too much. You should be able to get similar laptop computer battery life after upgrade.
- Upgrade from Windows 8 using upgrade DVD and select “Keep personal files only” or “Nothing” option
- Upgrade from Windows 7 or older operating system using upgrade DVD
In these cases, upgrade program will create clean Windows 8.1 operating system image. The device drivers installed to the original operating system will not be used by Windows 8.1.
Windows 8.1 upgrade DVD includes variety of device drivers and devices look working fine with them, and when you open device manager, you don’t see “yellow bangs”. However, they may not be well power managed. To ensure best TOSHIBA PA3634U-1BAS Laptop Battery life, you need to re-install optimal device drivers after the upgrade.
How to create laptop battery life optimized notebook
Installing the right device drivers is the first step to create battery life optimized laptop, but it’s not everything. Unfortunately there are many other reasons why power saving features stop working and it’s impossible to describe all possibilities in this article. If you notice your HP hstnn-ub69 battery life is much shorter after the upgrade, please try Battery Life Maximizer. It will, not only check if optimized device driver is installed, but checks if power saving features are actually working for each devices and if not, give you actionable recommendation to fix the issue.
