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Is Cortana and Chome draining my battery?

seb_uk

New Member
Hi guys

I just bought a Surface Pro 3 and so far I'm enjoying it - apart from some rather crappy battery life. At the moment I'm getting around 4 hours. This is with:
- 50% brightness
- "Hey Cortana" off

I don't really want to disable Cortana completely because part of the reason I got the SP3 was because of this feature! I've attached a screenshot of my CPU usage, which indicates Cortana is eating a lot of CPU. I've also attached a screenshot of my battery which indicates Chrome is responsible. If I can't use Cortana or Chrome if I want 8-9 hours battery life, that is pretty sad.
 

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ctitanic

Well-Known Member
The answer is Yes. Specially Chrome. Cortana is learning from your habits and indexing your info to make searches faster. Chrome is and has been always a battery sucker.
 
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seb_uk

New Member
Thanks. Maybe I will try not using Chrome for a session and see how that affects things. Is there a simple way to disable Cortana so it doesn't use battery? I don't want to wipe everything it's learned because I want to use it while on power.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
Thanks. Maybe I will try not using Chrome for a session and see how that affects things. Is there a simple way to disable Cortana so it doesn't use battery? I don't want to wipe everything it's learned because I want to use it while on power.
After few days (weeks) it will start using less battery .
 
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seb_uk

New Member
I'm not sure how to disable the services running Cortana - I will google it :)

I'm now trying Edge. So much smoother! But I already miss all my extensions and google passwords :(
 

leeshor

Well-Known Member
You can get much of the same result you did with Chrome by using Firefox. It has great support for extensions. And it doesn't chew up the battery like Chrome.
 
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seb_uk

New Member
Yep - definitely will give Firefox a shot. I really need extensions for some of the research work I do.

I'm currently using Edge and I'm on battery. I have OneNote, Outlook, and TaskManager open as well. I'm on 50% brightness and I have AVG Live Optimisation running too.

I have 83% battery and it says I have 4 hours left. Is this normal?

The Surface Pro is about a week old.
 
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