Is this excessive battery drain (while the laptop is TURNED OFF)?

I have an Acer 4810TZ timeline (SU4100 processor). I had charged the battery up to 100% and then left on an 11 day vacation. When I came back, I found the battery to have only a 16.7% charge left on it. Is this an excessive lost of battery over an 11 day period? My laptop was left shut down (it was not in sleep or hibernate mode). I would think the drain on the battery would be minimal.

Is my battery defective or is this normal? I've had the laptop for about 2 months.

Thanks to anyone who can offer an knowledge on this.

 

yeah i'll say 83% discharge is pretty bad after a little over a week. Still hard to say its definatly the battery at this point, you'll have to rule out it being the notebook by removing it completely next time you go away for a week and see how much charge it has left when you get back.

Do you power cycle your cells from time to time? did you do 3 full cycles when you first got it?

 

Yes, I did do the 3 full cycles when I first got it. I might remove the battery from the laptop for a few days and see if it is still draining at the same rate.

 

This is a high rate and I doubt it is the battery. Look for items in the Bios and/or Windows that are used to wake the laptop automatically. These will drain the battery as they require juice to operate while the unit is off.

Things like:

1) Wake on LAN (Bios)
2) USB "Sleep 'n Charge" (Bios)
3) Win7 (If Windows 7) timers (they wake the laptop to perform maintenance,
like defrag or virus scan). You can get at these settings via the Advanced Power Options in Windows 7.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I've been trying various tests with the laptop. First of all, I charged up the battery all the way and then removed it from the laptop for a few days. It averaged about a 2% drain per day. That showed that the battery seemed to be holding a charge much better when out of the laptop.

As Gorkon suggested in his post, I tried going into the BIOS to look for any settings that might be draining the battery while the computer was off. I did notice a setting that was allowing a Network bootable option. I went ahead and turned that off and tried leaving the laptop off for a few days. That seemed to help a bit as the laptop drain was about 4.5% per day. Still don't know what is causing the extra 2.5% as compared to having the battery out of the computer altogether but it is better than it was before (about 8% per day)

 

Thanks for posting the follow-up and I'm glad one thing has helped. My Acer 1810T has about a 3.5% drain over 24 hrs, so your's is not too out of line. I wish it were closer to 0% though. I have a Samsung netbook that looses about 2% a week. It is always the go to PC as it always has a charge.

 

My AS1410-2285 is showing similar high self discharge when off problems.

It was ~ 3/4 charged over a week ago. Today I went to use it and it was ~ 1/8 full.

It's still in the 'as received' condition. I have not played with any of the Bios settings. From reading the posts above it looks like I need to do a full charge - discharge 3x? Is this for battery conditioning or training the battery gauge?

I'm used to leaving my full size Dell alone for months without losing charge. Looks like I'll need to pull the battery out of this Acer if I plan on not using it at least every 1.5 weeks.

Dave

 

Dave,

I have exactly the same problem with 1810T, but did not have it with AS1410. I would suggest to do the following:
1. Update to the latest BIOS
2. Open ethernet driver properties in device manager and uncheck: "allow the device to wake up the computer" and disable all "wake up" and "magic" packets in the properties. Good idea to check the other devices if disable "allow to wake up" flags if any.

 

Thanks! I just downloaded the latest bios, but how do you install it under windows 7 64 bit home premium?

Edit: Nevermind. I was an XP person and didn't know I had to 'run as administrator'. Updated from .3115 to 1.3300

Also turned off auto wake on lan. Hopefully this will take care of the problem.

Dave

 

Dave, a couple other things - I do not have the problem on 1440 with either .3117 or .3120 bios (don't have laptop with me now), but have the problem with 1810T with 1.33 bios. So I'm not sure how would it behave with 1.33 & 1440.

Also don't forget there are 2 other "wake up" settings in advanced tab of the ethernet controller props in device manager besides power management tab.

 

My 1810TZ is still on the factory installed BIOS v0.3115, so are you saying your 1410 doesn't drain with .3117 or .3120?

Have you tried either of those on your 1810?

 

As for 1810T - I have not tried anything but the latest 1.33. Now I'm testing the battery from 1410 on 1810T to completely illuminate this factor. I can try 3117/3120 as the next step..

Yes, 1410 does not drain with one of those BIOSes (and disabled wake on settings). I did not use .3115 at all because of disabled VT

 

Battery self-discharge is faster if the battery is stored on warmer temperatures.

 

But still far less than 10% right? My house is 65-74 deg F.

I'm doing the first full charge - discharge right now. Maybe my battery gauge is just wonky?

 

The battery on my 5810TZG lost 3.2% charge overnight , the temperature here is around 6-8C.

 

Correct me if I wrong, but if this is the normal drain process, discharge rate should be the same regardless of if battery connected to or disconnected from laptop. Which is not the case.

 

Exactly. Wish I had a pigtail adapter between the battery and the laptop so I could measure the current draw when the unit is off. That would definitively answer what's going on.

Yesterday afternoon I fully charged my 1410, then at 7pm I unplugged it, turned it on, set all the power settings to not turn off the laptop (I did have the screen go off though). Surprisingly this morning at 8am the laptop was still on and had 8% life left. Turned it off and I'm fully recharging it again. Hopefully this is enough to calibrate the battery meter.

 

Yes you are correct, but i was just saying it might have added to the drastic battery drain. I thought he said he took it to vacation for 11 days, i figured it might be somewhere hot.

bluesboy are you sure no one else used it or any wake events? Any blinking LED's that stay on even after shutdown?

 

No.
This netbook is only used for vacations and business trips. It'll spend most of its time turned off and at home.

The 11 days part came from my estimation of how often I would need to plug it back in to keep the battery charged unless I unplug the battery.

 

Today I powered up my AS1410 48 hours after fully charging it on Sunday. Initial battery gauge measurement showed 90% capacity left. Came back 10 mins later and the gauge was showing 86% left.

So I'm losing ~ 5% battery charge per day.

Bummer. I'll have to pull the battery whenever I'm going to let it sit for more than a week to prevent killing the battery from storing it overdischarged.

This is after the latest BIOS update and turning Wake On LAN off.

Dave

 

does the battery wear fluctuate each time when we charge the battery?
because my 4810t battery wear shows different values ..after charging the battery..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've applied 3320 bios on 1810T. Yesterday evening, after about 24 hours off, it looks better than with 1.33. Will see what will happen in a couple days.

 

Where did you get 3320 from? It only goes upto 3303 on Acer's site?

 

Oh, I'm really sorry, I meant old 3120 bios.

 

I sent a help request to Acer through their website. Let's see what they say.

 

Here is what their reply was

 

Probedude, I've done the same during last week. On 5th or 6th message they would RMA your battery. But I believe the problem is not there..

 

That's what I figure. Did you tell them that the battery does not drain unless it is plugged into the laptop?
Did you already go through the routine they suggested above?

Sure would be nice to talk to one of their knowledgeable techs.

Googling I have not found very many posts on this problem so I'm wondering if my 1410 truly has a problem and it isn't designed to do this.

 

I told them all about that, but they have the script

I've researched this problem with one of the Lenovo laptops in the past. I would say, it's common, but some people do not notice/care about it. In most part of the cases, it's not hardware problem, but the combination of BIOS and drivers settings. Which unfortunately would not help us at this point.

 

I'm seriously considering returning my AS1410 due to the battery drain when OFF issue. There were some other items I wasn't too happy with but would have overlooked - the screen is so so (you have to have it at the right angle to prevent the screen from washing out), keyboard keys are too flat, a few other things. Figure another deal will come along, and what you get for your $$ is just going to get better and better.

 

Having the same issue with an AS1410-2285. Mine was a recent Fry's Purchase. I'm getting about 5-6% with the battery in the laptop and after one day with the battery out it was only 2%

I'm kind of late catching this issue. Only have about 3-4 days to get an RMA for a relatively painless return.

Its a shame too because it was quite a deal at the time and this unit is (was) hard to get.

Anyone had success with BIOS changes?

 

Hey, seems we both got in on the same deal.
I updated to the latest bios, no change, still lose ~5% a day.

 

I was kind of wondering if it was an issue for a whole batch. So much for trying for a replacement from Fry's. If I do send it back it will be for cash or even credit.

If I could get the drain down to 80% just over 3 weeks, I could live with that. But right now at the current rate that's at 2 weeks.

3 weeks comes from the longest trip I've taken. So I'd like to get to 3.5%.

 

accidental repost

 

Not so sure it's the whole batch. Dwkor has an 1810 with similar problems.

Does anyone know how much power SLEEP takes? Maybe Acer botched it and though we're shutting the unit down, they are still powering the RAM? (like they screwed up on enable lines and left out a pullup or pulldown resistor out of the design and one of the voltage regulators are not being shut down?)

I figure for a 4400 AH battery, 5% a day power drain is ~ 10mA of continuous current drain.

 

I'm pretty sure my 1810T has this problem also. I've left it unplugged for a day or two and turned it on to find the battery was noticeably discharged. I haven't done any tests or tried to quantify it though. I guess that's next.

 

It's nothing to do with a faulty "batch" so getting a replacement won't solve anything.

It's a problem with the BIOS, I presume something like WOL is turned on in the BIOS. However as you cannot see the settings in the BIOS it's upto Acer to release a BIOS that fixes the issue.

 

But how do you raise the awareness with Acer?
Going through their tech support, they keep going down the path that the battery is bad.

 

Their support seems awful to say the least!

I'm not sure what you can try.
The problem with their techincal support is they insisit on sticking to the script in front of them. Plus it doesn't help that they don't seem to know much english either!

 

This is a problem with laptops from many manufacturers. I had an HP that lost 20% over 24 hrs. So much for charging it the day before in preparation for client visits.

I too am hoping that this will be corrected in a future bios upgrade as this mars an otherwise perfect laptop. What happens, though, the MFR moves on with new processors, displays, etc., and maybe, by chance, or the right combination of h/w the problem goes away for awhile or with a particular model.

It's really silly, promote great battery life, but every time it is off the charger consume power anyway - not too green now is it. This should be a test point with every manufacturer with a published spec provided.

Reviewers take notice.

 

Found this when looking for other Acer owners with problem. This link is to someone with a problem with their Acer AspireOne. Took 3 tries to get it fixed but they finally did with a power board replacement.

Interesting read. I'd like to know if this would fix mine or it is indeed a bios problem.
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=16701

 

Well, neither of 3117, 3120, 3302 bioses solve the problem..

 

I'm in the middle of testing the "power reset"
- remove battery
- hold down power button for 30 seconds
- plug in ac adapter,
- power up laptop fully using ac adapter
- plug in battery

I then shut the laptop off and let it charge overnight and then unplugged the AC adapter. I'll let it sit until Sat (3 days) and then power it up and see how much it's lost.

If it's lost anything I'm going to RMA it with the complaint of discharging when off.
Dave

 

I tried that and it did not help me either.

 

If you suspect that the battery is being drained by one of the components in the laptop NOT being off after shutting down the laptop, then removing the battery for a few days after a full charge should help find out whether the battery is being drained or the problem is due to self discharge...

Also remember that hibernation is not the same as shutting down..... the laptop is still monitoring ports for a variety of "wake up" events....

around 5% battery drain per day is normal in my opinion... its only those whose battery draind more than 10-15% a day that need to be concerned...

 

You're absolutely right. Although my main complaint is that Acer provides us the completely stripped out bios. I don't need wake events so I want to be able to disable it and prevent the battery discharge and extra charging cycles.

Remember VT. Why Acer has it disabled prior 3117 bios? Some people including me paid extra for the proccessor which supports this feature only to find out that it's disabled by the manufactor.

This is the fuge drawback for almost perfect product line. I seriously doubt I would consider Acer to be my next laptop because of that.

 

After my "power reset" I am still losing ~5% per day. After 3 days of sitting OFF (not hibernate, not sleep - read the threads) I am at 84% remaining. People in other threads have already confirmed that pulling the battery results in NO power drain so it is not the battery.

5% per day is not acceptable. 5-10% per month is, but not per day.

 

You are right - 5% per day is not normal. Should have done more research before posting..... My 1410 remains ON like 18 hours a day maybe I have the same problem too... ill bring it to full charge an see if it drains when off....

By the way, the latest BIOS is 3303 has anyone tried to see if it solves this issue? No change logs on acer's site though.. I do remember reading someone's post on what improvements the new bios brought..

 

My 5810TZG looses 2% while switched off every night, I would not mind if i could set the battey to only recharge at 80% or lower, like some notebooks can , but it starts to recharge at 96% or so, which is not good for the battery.

 

No improvements with 3303 on my 1810T. Hibernate or _OFF_ results in the same 5-6% drain over 24 hrs.

There are very few options in the BIOS, not like the AMI or Phoenix bioses that I'm used to. It may be that it is the USB host adapter, webcam or wired ethernet controller that causes the issue, but without an option to disable them down low, it is difficult to troubleshoot.

It would be great to mount a small slide switch underneath the unit that would disconnect the battery completely. That way if I was to store the unit for longer periods, the battery would not deplete and become damaged. Removing the battery would work, but I'd be concerned about wear on the connector. Some of these types of connectors are only rated for 25 insertions.