Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) recently acknowledged that its most popular web browser ‘Chrome’ is responsible for reducing the laptop’s battery. The problem occurs because of a ‘bug’ in Chrome for Windows, and it has been identified after many years. Google has now decided to focus on resolving this issue.
Google to fix the issue
The problem was persistent for many years, but recently it was brought into notice by Ian Morris. From his personal experience of using various browsers, Morris drew the conclusion that, ‘Chrome’ is the most power consuming.
Morris informs that in 2010 the first instance of this bug popping was known and beginning November 2012 another report came regarding the bug in Chromium and has drawn the attention of lot many people facing the issue. So it is official, now, that if the Windows laptop is not giving the desired battery life to its users then Chrome is to be blamed.
While the issue might have got neglected for the first time it has drawn enough attention this time, and Google has assured that it will take due care of the problem till it is resolved to users’ satisfaction.
Chrome drains battery
Unlike other browsers that return the system’s processor to the idle state when unused, Chrome for Windows sets a high “system clock tick rate” of 1 millisecond, and the same rate is carried even if the browser is just running the background.
On the other hand, Internet Explorer, a browser from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), easily manipulates the clock to suit the user needs and intensity of the task undertaken. For example, certain tasks are very much processor intensive like YouTube, they and require higher tick-rate. After the task, it returns back to the lower rate of 15.625 milliseconds, which is the default rate. When the tick-rate remains stuck at 1 millisecond for long durations the power consumption might rise drastically up to 25% depending on the hardware configuration.
Till Google comes up with a fix, remember to close Chrome, when it is not in use. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) informed PCWorld that the technical team at Chrome has been assigned to take this issue on priority.
