According to Sinofsky, the problem relates to a feature in Windows 7 that increases the accuracy of reporting battery errors. Sinofsky reports that, "In Windows 7 we set a threshold of 60% degradation (that is the battery is performing at 40% of its designed capacity) and in reading this Windows 7 reports the status to you." Sinofsky goes on to mention that Windows 7 simply reports a problem that already existed.
While Sinofsky's article appears well supported, in the case I experienced, the customer maintains that his battery life exceeded an hour or two before the upgrade and only 5 minutes or so after. The customer explained he wasn't too worried, just wanted to know if I knew of any adjustments to make. A quick Google search showed similar problems with solutions ranging from pulling the battery out and placing back in while under AC power, to disabling a feature in the device manager.
Neither solution worked, and like Sinofsky mentioned, the customer's laptop was over a year old and likely had some battery degradation. In the end, I recommended he purchase a new battery. Curiously, I had a similar problem with a Vista laptop that I'll detail in my next post.
Jonathon
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