Microsoft KB Archive/306828

= Battery Life May Be Shortened After You Use a Multimedia Program =

Article ID: 306828

Article Last Modified on 1/31/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

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This article was previously published under Q306828



SYMPTOMS
After you use and then quit a multimedia program, your portable computer battery life may be shorter than expected. Note that the battery is not damaged and does properly recharge.

If you restart the computer and you do not use any multimedia programs, battery life returns.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because the Multimedia Timer Interrupt service remains at one millisecond after you quit all multimedia programs which can reduce battery life because there is increased CPU usage. This occurs because the overlay mixer does not properly clear the minimum timer resolution that was set.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, install DirectX 8.1. For more information about how to obtaining this update, view the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/directx



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, restart your computer. When you restart your computer, the timer returns to the default value of five milliseconds.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
When programs use the Multimedia Timer Interrupt services, they can schedule timer events with the greatest resolution (or accuracy) possible for the hardware that is installed on the computer.

A program that calls the timeBeginPeriod Windows Multimedia function, must then call the timeEndPeriod function or the timer remains at one millisecond.

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbhardware kbprb KB306828

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