Microsoft have issued a patch that fixes a battery drain problem on portable computers running Windows XP SP2.

Dailytech have reported it here and Microsoft give the details on this knowledgebase article here.
There’s no specific talk about VIA or UMPC’s on the MS posting but it could cover the USB-related CPU state problem we’ve seen on the Eo. Unfortunately you people with Tablet Kiosk eo’s in the U.S. seem to be asleep as I write this so I can’t get it tested. (Paceblade Easybook P7 ships in Germany today though!)

I know there’s a few owners watching this journal so please, if you’re reading this and you have an eo, try this patch and let me know if ‘perfmon’ reports C3 states on the VIA processor. Check your battery life in idle to. This fix has the potential to take an Eo from 1:20 to nearly 2hrs lifetime at idle.

[Update: This fix does not work on the Eo. Test and reports on this here. ]

Thanks to rainwalker for posting the info in the Origamiproject forums.

Keywords: UMPC, Eo, Power