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Microsoft dismisses Windows 7 "battery problems"

Tom Warren
08 February 2010 - 21:58
43 Comments
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Microsoft said on Monday that users experiencing battery warnings from Windows 7 are by design.

Last week Neowin revealed reports of users receiving notifications that they should replace their laptop battery. The warning is triggered when a laptops BIOS detects a battery replacement is required. Windows 7 provides the following alert: "Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly." Some users claimed their laptop battery's had gone from two hours battery life to 30 minutes whilst others threatened class action lawsuits assuming the software giant had "permanently damaged" their laptop battery. 

Microsoft officials confirmed on Monday that the company looked into the issue fully and found no problems with Windows 7. " In every case we have been able to identify the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement," said Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft President of Windows. In a company blog posting, Sinofsky also stated "To the very best of the collective ecosystem knowledge, Windows 7 is correctly warning batteries that are in fact failing and Windows 7 is neither incorrectly reporting on battery status nor in any way whatsoever causing batteries to reach this state."

Microsoft has received 20 customer service incidents and states none of these have shown anything other than degraded batteries. "The notifications appear to be working as they were designed to do from what we’re seeing" said a Microsoft Spokesperson. From the reports that Microsoft has seen across the Internet they "seem to be from people who don’t realize that this is new functionality in Windows 7 that just wasn’t available previously," the spokesperson confirmed.

Comments (43)

  1. still1 - 08 February 2010 - 22:03

    new feature ha!!!!!! Thats what i thought last week when this issue was raised and it it said the trigger was caused by Bios.

  2. HalcyonX12 - 08 February 2010 - 22:11

    Who cares what the warning is triggered by? What's causing the symptoms is the issue. MS tried to deny the RRoD problems as long as possible, so they're not exactly known to be forward about such flaws. People with new laptops and new batteries are reporting problems, not just users that have upgraded.

    Edit (HalcyonX12, 08 February 2010 - 22:13):

  3. Nagisan - 08 February 2010 - 22:13

    HalcyonX12 said,
    Who cares what the warning is triggered by? What's causing the symptoms is the issue. MS tried to deny the RRoD problems as long as possible, so they're not exactly known to be forward about such flaws.
    Then blame the laptop motherboard manufacturers. The "issue" is caused by the BIOS reporting a problem. Windows 7 simply relays that message to the user.

  4. +shinji257 - 08 February 2010 - 22:16

    HalcyonX12 said,
    Who cares what the warning is triggered by? What's causing the symptoms is the issue. MS tried to deny the RRoD problems as long as possible, so they're not exactly known to be forward about such flaws. People with new laptops and new batteries are reporting problems, not just users that have upgraded.

    That's just it. Windows 7 would not and could not cause this issue. It is doing what it was designed to do. I bet if they ran hwmonitor on their machine their fully charged level would be considerably lower than the designed charge level.

  5. +Shadrack - 08 February 2010 - 23:00

    HalcyonX12 said,
    Who cares what the warning is triggered by? What's causing the symptoms is the issue. MS tried to deny the RRoD problems as long as possible, so they're not exactly known to be forward about such flaws. People with new laptops and new batteries are reporting problems, not just users that have upgraded.

    People with new laptops that have Battery problems should probably thank Microsoft then. They were given a defective battery, and now they know that they need to make good on their warranties.

    Unless Windows 7 is doing something that is causing damage to the battery. I'm not sure exactly how that would be possible.

  6. Raa - 09 February 2010 - 00:14

    Agreed, Microsoft have done people a SERVICE by including this. Now dodgy manufacturers can't skimp out of giving away cheap $5 batteries anymore, as people are going to know a lot faster that theirs is crap.

  7. M_Lyons10 - 09 February 2010 - 06:21

    HalcyonX12 said,
    Who cares what the warning is triggered by? What's causing the symptoms is the issue. MS tried to deny the RRoD problems as long as possible, so they're not exactly known to be forward about such flaws. People with new laptops and new batteries are reporting problems, not just users that have upgraded.

    Windows 7 is just going based on what the Bios is saying, so I think this is a good service in any event. Not that I can see how an OS could even conceivably damage a battery like this anyway...

    As for the RRoD for the XBox 360, Microsoft replaced those units (Even at the beginning), but felt that the amount of units with issues was within general failure margins... They never denied that the devices were failing.

  8. +Northgrove - 08 February 2010 - 22:11

    It honestly always sounded like an odd thing to me. Windows 7 has lower CPU usage than Vista, how would that suddenly turn things into a Battery Beast of Corruption? It sounded much like a myth to me, spread by people who don't know what they're talking about. A bit like those guys who spread "Registry optimization tips" that disable important system services, because it saves a whopping 50 MB of RAM. "Oh, but it could be true, and it sounds scary, and a friend told me... so it's true!!!"

    Edit (Northgrove, 08 February 2010 - 22:13):

  9. M_Lyons10 - 09 February 2010 - 06:23

    Northgrove said,
    It honestly always sounded like an odd thing to me. Windows 7 has lower CPU usage than Vista, how would that suddenly turn things into a Battery Beast of Corruption? It sounded much like a myth to me, spread by people who don't know what they're talking about. A bit like those guys who spread "Registry optimization tips" that disable important system services, because it saves a whopping 50 MB of RAM. "Oh, but it could be true, and it sounds scary, and a friend told me... so it's true!!!"

    LMAO Indeed!

  10. ajua - 08 February 2010 - 22:20

    I'm not defending Microsoft, even when this falls in the "is not a but, its a feature" category but is more than likely the user's batteries are at fault.

  11. DaveGreen - 08 February 2010 - 22:38

    The whole "battery issue" is pure bull****.
    The beta testing was really fine and well made with lot of accuracy. So this is a non problem, unless you buy failed batteries made in china or wherever similar cheap...

  12. +TCLN Ryster - 08 February 2010 - 22:41

    Please correct the headline.... "Microsoft dismisses Windows 7 battery problems", it is a load of bull. It's not a Windows 7 battery problem. It's a laptop BIOS battery problem. Windows is just reporting what the BIOS is telling it. This is in no way, shape, or form a problem with Windows.

  13. +Kirkburn - 08 February 2010 - 22:43

    TCLN Ryster said,
    Please correct the headline.... "Microsoft dismisses Windows 7 battery problems", it is a load of bull. It's not a Windows 7 battery problem. It's a laptop BIOS battery problem. Windows is just reporting what the BIOS is telling it. This is in no way, shape, or form a problem with Windows.
    "Report a problem" link.

    It's probably better described as "Microsoft dismisses claim that Windows 7 is source of battery problems", something like that?

  14. Nagisan - 08 February 2010 - 22:59

    Kirkburn said,
    It's probably better described as "Microsoft dismisses claim that Windows 7 is source of battery problems", something like that?
    I agree, they did not dismiss a "Windows 7 battery problem", they dismissed claims that there was an issue.

  15. Tom W - 09 February 2010 - 00:24

    TCLN Ryster said,
    Please correct the headline.... "Microsoft dismisses Windows 7 battery problems", it is a load of bull. It's not a Windows 7 battery problem. It's a laptop BIOS battery problem. Windows is just reporting what the BIOS is telling it. This is in no way, shape, or form a problem with Windows.

    There's nothing wrong with the title.

  16. Nagisan - 09 February 2010 - 00:29

    Tom W said,

    There's nothing wrong with the title.
    It depends on how you comprehend the title.....when I first read it, I was thinking MS was confirming there was an issue, but is not going to fix it. It made sense after I read the first few lines of the article though.

  17. +Ned - 09 February 2010 - 02:51

    The only problem I see with the front page article is the image they used. How about a little consistency?

    I would like to be able to glace at the front page without reading anything and say "hey, there's an update on that previous article."

    Edit (Ned, 09 February 2010 - 02:53):

  18. M_Lyons10 - 09 February 2010 - 06:25

    Nagisan said,
    It depends on how you comprehend the title.....when I first read it, I was thinking MS was confirming there was an issue, but is not going to fix it. It made sense after I read the first few lines of the article though.

    I agree. The title makes it sound like Microsoft is just dismissing the claims and not resolving the issue... The title is misleading.

  19. Tekkerson - 09 February 2010 - 18:44

    +1 specially for those who barely read the article.

  20. mrmomoman - 08 February 2010 - 23:16

    BIOS BIOS BIOS! - people update your damn BIOS. I don't know how many times I had clients complain about this and I read up on the BIOS update and BAM it was the cause. I can't stand it when people are so quick to jump on Microsoft for anything they can without understanding how things REALLY WORK.

    Complaint happy person: "I don't know what happened! My 5 year old laptop with the original battery was working until I installed Windows 7 on it and now I get this report that my battery might need to be replaced! OMG! WTF! MS did it!"

    In a previous DELL laptop I had a battery that was fried by the BIOS. The updated BIOS caused the problem and then Dell corrected it in another update a few weeks later. They replaced it under warranty but it happened at the BIOS level. Windows doesn't control the Voltage, etc at the BIOS level. As many have mentioned - it only reports it.

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