Party Monger said:The drivers for the battery management might hav been improper or problematic in xp, for your make of battery..
While there might have been charge in the battery, the os would hav reported less or shut down because of it..
did you every try any other OS except xp?
The reason why XP now gives better battery is because you must hav installed the latest xp release, or atleast relatively newer release..
I don't think the WinXP installation is the suspect.. Coz the WinXP which i've installed in the laptop is the OEM version that i've got with the laptop!!! It was working fine for the initial years.. The version of windows xp & drivers installed was exactly the same before & after the Windows7 installation..
Also I've began noticing the drop in battery backup for last one & half year or so.. Again it was not a drastic change.. It gradually decresed to the '5min' level..