VTT using massive amounts of power

I've encountered a new problem while using the virtual table top. Last week, my laptop that I use to play suddenly shut off, which I later discovered was because the battery was completely drained. This was unusual, because I had it connected to a power supply, so the battery should've been charging, not draining. During another game, I again noticed that my battery was draining while connected to power. Looking at my power consumption by application, I have traced this problem to the Roll20 VTT. When the tab is opened, I experience a massive spike in power consumption- about a 1000% increase in usage, along with overheating on the laptop after a few minutes. It uses so much power that the machine can't keep up even on external power. When I close the tab, or switch to a different tab, the power usage drops to normal, so it's definitely an issue with the VTT. I've used Roll20 for years on this same machine and this has never been a problem before. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Does anyone know a fix? It's really annoying, and it's a huge distraction to try and GM while I'm constantly worrying about managing my power levels.

I suggest checking your processor usage, it may be abnormally high while running Roll20. That could result in battery drain, although it shouldn't while connected to the power supply.  If this is the case, please see this thread on the topic. 

Roll20 uses hardware acceleration, so my guess is something to do with the video processor. I'd similarly suggest looking at some metrics on your hardware. I recently had some performance issues with my laptop, and the issue turned out to be clogged and decreased efficiency in the cooling fans. I cleaned about one and a half cats out of them and everything returned to normal. 

one and a half cats

Bianca said: one and a half cats Very helpful.

(I probably should have said " enough cat hair to make one and a half cats" =D )

The Aaron said: (I probably should have said " enough cat hair to make one and a half cats" =D ) Sometimes you just have to get the can of air out and give it a good blow.  Going to bed now, that made me laugh for some reason. 

I can relate. We have three, including a persian and a half-maine-coon. The Aaron said: (I probably should have said " enough cat hair to make one and a half cats" =D )