Samsung N140 XP to 7

Hi all, first time posting here in the Samsung section as I'm normally in the LG one.

My Samsung N140 has XP on it. But I noticed it also comes with a Win 7 Starter version. Now I've been following the Windows 7 Battery issue for awhile now, and was wondering if anyone here has an N140 with Win 7?

Would it be fair to conclude that the N140 XP model is in fact identical to the N140 Win 7 model, and it's just the OS that's different? or could they be different in hardware as well?

 

Hardware differences may occur between different versions of the same model but these are usually confined to components installed during assembly such as HDD size, amount of RAM, Bluetooth module, wireless card. The mainboard will be the same.

John

 

Ah ok. So then if the motherboard is the same it should run Win 7 just fine. I know it will, but am concerned about having my battery destroyed due to the bug, thus came here to ask.

 

I've been running Windows 7 for 11 months without encountering any battery issues. If this report is to be believed then Win 7 is only reporting what is already happening.

John

 

That is good news John. However you can't believe Microsoft on this one. That report you linked is simply PR.

Windows 7 and the battery error "consider replacing your battery" (Part 10)

This link tells the real story. Some people are on their 4th battery. Some notebooks don't have problems, others just destroy the batteries, but only when running Windows 7. So on one hand you could say it's the notebooks fault, but the fact no other OS destroys the batteries unlike Win7, points to it being a Windows 7 problem. It's real problem, however it doesn't appear to affect all notebooks. And some companies have tweaked their bioses to help things out, which in a way only confuses things even more.

 

Thanks for the link. Perhaps I have been reading the wrong forums but I wasn't aware that this has been a big problem for some people. In my experience, some notebook batteries die when just over a year old and others last a lot longer. Some die even sooner (in which case one can claim under the warranty). I had a Samsung battery die at just over a year old but that was before Windows 7 had been heard of.

John

 

True some batteries don't last past 1 year, but when someone is on their 4th battery in 6months, that gives some clear evidence Win 7 has a problem.

Since not everyone has this problem, or they simply assume their battery has died a natural death, it's gone a little under the radar. But there really is a problem. People aren't imaging things. There is an incompatibility in the way Win 7 reads the total capacity of your battery and thus charges it incorrectly. However some vendors have made bios fixes that seems to help stabilize the issue. It seems two ways this can be cured, one get a bios update that addresses the issue directly, or two don't run Win 7 if it's destroying your battery.