There is a problem with your battery

The dell battery life issue on Windows 7 actually dates back to June 2009, according to the forum thread. At the time, Windows 7 wasn't yet released, but the issue was apparently in both the beta & Release Candidate builds. Apparently the problem wasn't widespread for Microsoft's quality control team to fix it in time for the RTM build compiled in July 2009, though some users say they've only started to notice the issue with the RTM build & that beta builds worked fine. Windows 7 was supposed to extend laptop battery life on notebooks, & in every case it definitely has. Nevertheless, there's always a few users who have issues. Microsoft stance is that the root cause of the issue is related to specific process firmware, meaning it only affects machines with sure BIOS releases. Judging from the forum thread, however, customers disagree with Microsoft explanation since the problem appears to affect notebooks from over one OEM, & some claim their vendors have informed them that it's a Microsoft problem. The phrase class action lawsuit is mentioned by two different posters so far; users are getting impatient with the application giant as it fails to give a timely official response. Microsoft has sold over 60 million copies of Windows 7, & it's not clear what fraction of those owners are having issues with dell latitude laptop battery life.