Lenovo Battry Issue with Windows 7

[Arkangyl]

Something I just ran across FYI:

The software portion of switchable graphics in Lenovo laptops doesn't seem to be working properly in Windows 7, basically the discrete GPU is always being powered thus hurting battery life. It appears to be a driver issue.

If you go into the BIOS and force integrated graphics you can get the better battery life, discrete will still work if you switch back though.

My observations (always similar use, Visual Studio 2008 ASP.net development, web browsing, Evernote, Word, Thunderbird):
BIOS set to switchable, both drivers installed :: 3.5 hours
BIOS set to integrated, only Intel GPU seen ::: 5 hours

If this is either incorrect or a re-post let me know and I'll close (searched and found nothing), also as far as I know this issue has NOT been corrected

 

[Cyclone]

check out the lenovo forum at nbr and ask your question there:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2
because switchable has been working great on lenovo drivers for win 7 for a long time now
you must be doing something wrong

 

[Arkangyl]

hmm, some reading through the big Win7 thread said:

- yes it works (which I have seen, I can use both)
- if the laptop goes into 'sleep' mode, when it wakes, both GPUs will be active unless you select the ATI GPU and then switch to the Intel (if you want the Intel)

So it appears it is still somewhat of an issue if you use sleep mode (like me...), anyone using Hibernate ought be fine though