Microsoft Patches Core Duo Battery Bug

Windows XP patch February

Core Duo-powered portables quickly drained their batteries, Microsoft said in a support document also posted Tuesday, because the USB 2.0 driver kept the CPU from entering "the deeper ACPI processor idle sleep states, or 'C-states.'

"C-states save power when the processor is not busy. These states range from 'C0' to 'C3' or 'C4.' Typically, an idle portable computer uses the C3 and C4 states to preserve battery power. If an idle portable computer cannot enter or maintain the C3 or C4 states, the battery power drains more quickly."

The Windows XP SP2 patch can be downloaded from Microsoft's Web site. Users must be using a legitimate copy of Windows to retrieve the fix.