battery lasts for lesser time

[baltana]

I have HP Laptop...

Earlier when I had Windows Vista, the battery charge held up for abt 2.5 hours..

But few months back when I replaced Vista with ubuntu, I have been getting considerably less battery power. Although this hasn't been a big bother as I do not travel a lot, but still I would like an explanation.

After full charging it shows 1hr 45 minutes. But within 5 minutes its gone to 1 hr 24 minutes remaining.
When power's gone, I think the actual battery power lasts for about 45 minutes.

1) I run my laptop normally in stretches of 3-4 days. Is it having adverse effects on my battery?
2) The power management options haven't helped me much.

[b2bwild]

Reduce the brightness of the screen, using Gnome Brightness Applet.
Do you keep laptop on Stand by?
Battery uses depends on your uses of Network, WiFi, Disk, CD/DVD Drive, and Audio.
so there is no exact estimate on battery uses.

Check your batteries. sometimes batteries go bananas, i have changed my laptop battery twice. its quite old.

[baltana]

Actually I use WiFi all the time my laptop is on...
for downloading movie from torrents, or surfing purposes...

And when I am not using my laptop, I keep it in 'lock screen' so that the downloads can continue...

And when I am using it, music is almost always on.

Let me check what difference it makes putting the brightness to half...