Debian etch with 2.6 kernel on Inspiron 600m battery life

[Prepaid]

Hi all

So I just recently installed Debian Etch with a 2.6 kernel on my Inspiron 600m. I got everything all working with X11 and wireless. But the issue that I'm having it the battery life in Linux is about half that of what I was getting in Windows. I have setup CPU thorottling to 50% through KDE but I still get about half the battery life that I was getting in Windows..

Does anyone have any idea what I'm missing or how to fix this? Getting half the battery life is a pretty big hit :(

Thanks in advance!