I think it might be that powertop is on crack here. I see that at the top of powertop's overview all the time (with only a few terminals open), but on powertop-1 it never shows up. Here's a snapshot of both, taken at the same time (on precise):
powertop: Usage Events/s Category Description 2316 rpm Device Laptop fan 100.0% Device Audio codec hwC0D0: Conexant 16.3 ms/s 85.9 Process /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 vt7 -novtswitch -background 16.9 ms/s 59.5 Process compiz powertop-1: Top causes for wakeups: 29.5% (136.3) [Rescheduling interrupts] <kernel IPI> 17.0% ( 78.7) [i915] <interrupt> 11.5% ( 53.0) compiz 8.1% ( 37.7) [ehci_hcd:usb2] <interrupt> -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/877560 Title: Audio codec draining power when not in use To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/877560/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs