Can spyware / malware cause your notebook battery to drain faster?

[musashi74]

I had a nasty infection in my HP laptop (running Vista Home Premium) over the weekend, and cleared it out. But now my battery life ticks down at about 1% every 20 seconds. Can this have been caused by the malware?

[Geekgirl]

Hello and Welcome to CyberAnswers.org

I have never seen this in the past. How old is the laptop? Does it charge properly?

[Mobo]

Is the battery really going down that quick or is it misreading it since software cannot due hardware damage.