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Fix coming for Chrome battery drain bug

Fix coming for Chrome battery drain bug
Lewis Leong

Lewis Leong

  • Updated:

Earlier this week I reported about a bug in Chrome for Windows that is causing your laptop’s battery to drain faster. Google has acknowledged the issue and is actively working on a fix.

The bug, which was first reported in 2010, is a result of Chrome unable to idle properly. Windows uses something called “system clock tick rate,” which is the interval at which a program wakes up the processor to perform tasks. Other browsers set the rate at 15 milliseconds when idling and ramp up to 1 millisecond when under load. Chrome, however, sets the tick rate at 1ms from the moment it is launched. This results in an estimated 25% increase in battery drain.

PCWorld reports Google is moving forward to fix the issue, assigning the task internally.

In the meantime, try using a different browser when you need to stretch your laptop’s battery life. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer offer lower power consumption than Chrome.

Macs are unaffected by this bug.

Source: PCWorld

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Lewis Leong

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