I'm currently running Vista Home Basic on a Dell D620 laptop, with the Vista
Basic visual theme. So far I've been quite impressed with Vista's power
management features and am quite happy.

I'm on the verge of doing an Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium, primarily for
Aero but also for some of the extra Mobility, DVD playback features etc.

Looking around the web there are quite a few articles and comments relating
to Aero and it draining battery power relative to both XP and the Vista
Basic theme. However just about all of these articles relate to the betas of
the OS, and all cite the same source for their evidence.

Just wanting to ask what peoples experience with Aero & battery drain is
with the final release of Vista, and has deactivating Aero made any
difference?

Thanks,

Bren

I guess I could run a few test to confirm. It would be my believe that since
Aero is using your 3d card functions, versus just 2D, that means you Vide
card is pulling more juice, in turn it pulls more battery life. The same was
said about running 3D screensavers.

I think I'll test, but it will take about 5 hours to run it one way,
recharge and run it another.

"Bren" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm currently running Vista Home Basic on a Dell D620 laptop, with the
> Vista Basic visual theme. So far I've been quite impressed with Vista's
> power management features and am quite happy.
>
> I'm on the verge of doing an Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium, primarily
> for Aero but also for some of the extra Mobility, DVD playback features
> etc.
>
> Looking around the web there are quite a few articles and comments
> relating to Aero and it draining battery power relative to both XP and the
> Vista Basic theme. However just about all of these articles relate to the
> betas of the OS, and all cite the same source for their evidence.
>
> Just wanting to ask what peoples experience with Aero & battery drain is
> with the final release of Vista, and has deactivating Aero made any
> difference?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bren

If you don't have a dedicated video card in the laptop or a heavy duty
builtin one w/ 128 mem, Vista will not run Aero and revert to basic. You are
able to play dvd's with Basic. Media Player is fine for that. The only
important things you won't have is Media Center and Aero. I think you would
be wasting money on the upgrade.

"Bren" wrote:

> I'm currently running Vista Home Basic on a Dell D620 laptop, with the Vista
> Basic visual theme. So far I've been quite impressed with Vista's power
> management features and am quite happy.
>
> I'm on the verge of doing an Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium, primarily for
> Aero but also for some of the extra Mobility, DVD playback features etc.
>
> Looking around the web there are quite a few articles and comments relating
> to Aero and it draining battery power relative to both XP and the Vista
> Basic theme. However just about all of these articles relate to the betas of
> the OS, and all cite the same source for their evidence.
>
> Just wanting to ask what peoples experience with Aero & battery drain is
> with the final release of Vista, and has deactivating Aero made any
> difference?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bren
>
>

just one correction :

Any vista ( any Windows from 98 on ) can playback DVDs.

But only in HomePremium and Ultimate a DVD software decoder is installed.

For HomeBasic and others you need a dvd decoder ( any 3rd party dvd player
software ) to enable the mediaplayer to find the decoder and play commercial
( Hollywood )DVDs ( because the content is encrypted - for obvious reasons)
..

And yes, Aero of course sucks on the battery, the same would be true for 3d
screensavers,3d modelling software constantly running and so on.

It is not a feature any mobile business manager would turn on if he depends
on maximum battery-life. If on A/C it is ok, but not per traditional use of
a notebook / Laptop.

SJ / germany

"Mary" <(E-Mail Removed)> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:31C7D4AE-E37D-4984-A5BA-(E-Mail Removed)...
> If you don't have a dedicated video card in the laptop or a heavy duty
> builtin one w/ 128 mem, Vista will not run Aero and revert to basic. You
> are
> able to play dvd's with Basic. Media Player is fine for that. The only
> important things you won't have is Media Center and Aero. I think you
> would
> be wasting money on the upgrade.
>
> "Bren" wrote:
>
>> I'm currently running Vista Home Basic on a Dell D620 laptop, with the
>> Vista
>> Basic visual theme. So far I've been quite impressed with Vista's power
>> management features and am quite happy.
>>
>> I'm on the verge of doing an Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium, primarily
>> for
>> Aero but also for some of the extra Mobility, DVD playback features etc.
>>
>> Looking around the web there are quite a few articles and comments
>> relating
>> to Aero and it draining battery power relative to both XP and the Vista
>> Basic theme. However just about all of these articles relate to the betas
>> of
>> the OS, and all cite the same source for their evidence.
>>
>> Just wanting to ask what peoples experience with Aero & battery drain is
>> with the final release of Vista, and has deactivating Aero made any
>> difference?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Bren
>>
>>

Unless you're constantly using the display it would not be a major impact.
My laptop does a very nice job of cycling up and down (CPU, FSB, memory
speed) to save power when it's not actually in use thanks to Cool&Quiet
support from AMD.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (E-Mail Removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Bren" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm currently running Vista Home Basic on a Dell D620 laptop, with the
> Vista Basic visual theme. So far I've been quite impressed with Vista's
> power management features and am quite happy.
>
> I'm on the verge of doing an Anytime Upgrade to Home Premium, primarily
> for Aero but also for some of the extra Mobility, DVD playback features
> etc.
>
> Looking around the web there are quite a few articles and comments
> relating to Aero and it draining battery power relative to both XP and the
> Vista Basic theme. However just about all of these articles relate to the
> betas of the OS, and all cite the same source for their evidence.
>
> Just wanting to ask what peoples experience with Aero & battery drain is
> with the final release of Vista, and has deactivating Aero made any
> difference?