Macbook pro battery issue while running xp in bootcamp

[Nvidiaguy07]

My boss purchased a MBP a few months ago and installed XP pro on it via bootcamp. While he primarily uses OSX and doesn't notice a problem with the battery, his wife who uses XP said its battery was terrible. I checked it out and it gets around 4-5 hours while in OSX and just over 1 hour while in XP. Even with the backlight down all the way and only doing web browsing it gets around 1.5 hours tops. I know some difference in battery life is to be expected but this just seems ridiculous.

This is the newest 15" MBP with a 9600GT graphics card in it. If i had to make any guess on why its happening is that its something to do with the graphics. Ive heard somewhere that while is OSX it only uses the dedicated graphics when it needs it and then uses the integrated graphics when its not needed.

I have a feeling if a 9600 wasnt in this, it wouldnt be a problem. Has anyone else ran into this problem? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, we called apple and Microsoft just for the hell of it but they went much help.

 

[alevasseur14]

I don't have any experience running Windows under Boot Camp but I do have an idea that I think is worth trying...

If you open up Device Manager in Windows, is there an entry under video for both of the video cards? If so, I'd try disabling the 9600 and strictly running the 9400. I guess it's possible that Windows doesn't know how to deal with both cards and is running both of them even when it doesn't need to.

Try that and see if that impacts battery life at all.

 

[vailr]

Try using DriverMax 4.92:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/DriverMax_d5260.html
(Free registration is required).

 

[TheStu]

OS X will use whichever card you tell it to use. If you set it to Higher Performance, it will use the 9600 (after you log out and log back in to switch). If you select Better Battery Life, it will use the 9400 (again with the logging out).

If I am not mistaken, Windows uses whatever OS X used last.

Furthermore, Windows battery life on Macs has always been atrocious. Even on my MacBook with the GMA950, I get, at best, 50% of the battery life in Vista and XP as I do in OS X.