Laptop battery doesn't last that long compared to Windows

Question

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Why does my computer get less battery life with Ubuntu compared to Windows?

I'm using Ubuntu 12.10 with Gnome 3.6 on a Dell Inspiron N5010 laptop, but I have a problem with the power handling/battery. As soon as I disconnect my charger, the battery starts discharging from an indication of 51% and it lasts for only 1 hour. Compared two hours in Windows 7, this is a major difference.

I've installed Jupiter and I don't see any change. I'd appreciate some help on this, as I would like to keep using Ubuntu now.

do you have a dual graphics card? like nvidia optimus/ ati switchable graphics card? — Web-E, Dec 29 '12 at 07:55
I had a similar problem with a 2 hour battery life on Ubuntu and 4 on Windows, but then felt that all Linux-based OS's consume a lot of power, sorry for being weird, but practically it does seem so as a lot of my friends' Android phones have similar opinions. — jobin, Dec 29 '12 at 09:10
-1 Please don't re-post the exact same question repeatedly. I'm voting to close both as we have many duplicates (1, 2, 3, example search) of this exact issue. — Tom Brossman, Dec 29 '12 at 09:28
I have ATI Radeon 5xxx with a driver " Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD " — Mhd Tareq Shaheen, Dec 29 '12 at 09:28
Sorry for repeating I'm new for this site and don't know the rules yet. I deleted the old post — Mhd Tareq Shaheen, Dec 29 '12 at 09:30

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 29 '12 at 09:15

It is likely because your processor is running full at full speed or your graphics card is switch-able but not switching.

You can check and control your processor speed using a widget such as CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor. It fixed my problem with power consumption on Ubuntu 11.04.

Laptop battery doesn't last that long compared to Windows

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