V1S battery Wear Problem

Every notebook I had so far showed some battery wear from the beginning.

 

I can also say that my M6Bne's battery wear increased sharply to 7% in the first 2 weeks or so, and then it stabilized and it's the same now, after a year.

 

In case you aren't aware, there's another similar thread where lots more people complain about the same.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=48194

 

We're aware That thread dealt mainly with the V6J.

 

EBE and I were both very active in that thread as well. The difference is that this thread is now questioning if there is a wear problem with the V1s.

 

I've been using my fiance's Sony R505-GL for the past few years and her laptop has been working perfectly fine despite frequent abuse.

Recently, my big bro discarded his old Dell C640 and I decided to use it. I was pretty surprised when he told me that I'd have to buy a new battery for it, as both of his batteries in the Dell (it can take two batteries in two bays) were dead. Surprised, I went ahead and bought a battery on eBay just to save some bucks. Turns out the eBay battery is about a year old and that too doesn't have a really good charge to it. It can't even charge past the 3% mark.

That was upsetting news - then I went ahead and decided to see if ASUS users are experiencing the same problem. Obviously for newer models like the V1S, I probably won't be able to tell about the woes of battery wear but all in all, there are indeed complaints.

I haven't done a battery wear test on the Sony R505, but I base my standards on that laptop - even though it's well over 5 years old, I can still easily last 2 hours on that laptop off of a full charge of battery...and that battery has been used quite a bit over the last 5 years.

Something tells me that Sony makes all the good batteries for themselves...

 

My nearly 5 year old compaq presario 2100, with an athlon xp2400 is in the same boat. It came with two batteries, and I can still watch a movie on them (did so when I took the kids to seaworld on the airplane). Each battery is worth about 1 movie and some change. I haven't calibrated them in years, since I mostly use linux and there is no bios calibration.

Darn good laptop btw.

 

To anyone who's familiar with (or experienced) the V6 battery wear problem comment on whether they think the V1S's problem (as explained in this thread) is similar (or the same as) to the V6 problem?
Did the V6 problem end up to be a problem with the battery itself, or a BIOS/SMART Chip/Software problem?

(I've skimmed the V6 battery wear thread, but it's quite bulky so I'd really appreciate it if someone could answer these )

 

As per the previous page, we're not sure yet that this is the same problem, or just the battery transient (which is nothing much to worry about).

Nobody (among the users) knows where exactly the problem lies, because it was never fixed, nor truly acknowledged by ASUS.

 

How has this even risen up as a potential problem of the system..?

 

i think it started with my battery dying with in the 1st week that i had it, i ran NHC and looked at battery wear and it was at 7%....wasnt charging or giving any power to the sytem but yet read as 92% charged...

Just dont let your battery completly drain or ure in for trouble...

 

You have a faulty battery if that is the case. You should be able to fully discharge your battery, though many people don't recommend that you do it often. There is circuitry that prevents the battery from discharging past a safe point, which you and I know as 0%. Once there, the computer will just shut off, and won't turn on until the battery is plugged in. It sounds like you just have something wrong, and need to have a battery replaced.

 

I had that happen Jourabchid, Restart the system, It will probally show your battery at 100% but whatever your mAh capacity was at 92% will now be your 100% capacity, When you get the time fully drain the battery, not just to the 5% vista lets you, but all the way to 0% (Sit in bios from 5% to 0%) then take out the battery, plug in the laptop, Boot Vista and put the battery back, should show you at 75000 mAh again, If not its a dodgy battery

 

(Ignore: Check first pages of the thread for the answer to that question.)

i was answering a post that was on the end of the last page, already answered

 

Can you guys tell me what finaly you have on battery wear problem? I need to understand is this problem so bad, that i shouldnt buy V1s..

 

As I said before, there is probably no battery wear problem with the V1S, it seems that it was "false alarm".

I don't have any problem, my battery wear is now 1% which is totally normal.
matt_h1, do you still have any battery wear problem?

 

So far it looks like only the laptops shipped from North America are suffering this problem. The US model number is V1S-A1. Has anyone with a different model (i.e. from a different country/area) got this problem?
(Maati's model is the V1S-AJ016E and he is suffering no problems)

 

I don't know any major difference between the two models that could be responsible for the problem, exept a different battery.

I don't think that they are using different batteries but we could check the types of our batteries in order to determine if they are the same.

I will check if there is any model or serial number...
I am just writing on my V1S so it will take me some minutes.

EDIT: Ok here is what it says on the battery:
- V1S-AJ016E (the notebook type)
- V1SL891 (perhaps the battery type) and another very long number underneath the bar code.
- SN: 77N0AG037683
- CN:6146
- Made in Taiwan 15G10N349901

I think matt_h1 doesn't have a problem anymore with his V1S-A1 if I understood him right, so there is noone who still has any battery wear problem, right?

 

My battery wear is still changing alot day to day.

 

I suggest you RMA the battery, maybe it's just a bad battery.

 

Mine is changing, too. But between 1-3%, this is normal.

So we have to wait for more V1S users to post if they have any problems. I do not have any problem at all.

The thought that it has something to do with the A1 model is still interesting but I can't really believe this.

 

variation up to 5% is normal (or at least nothing to worry about)
variation up to 10% I would start to worry
variation above 10%: I would ask for a replacement

 

Thank you, this is what I wanted to say.

BTW: Why does the modular-bay 6cell battery cost the same as the normal 8-cell battery? This sucks.

 

I would expect because the production cost is roughly the same, regardless of the number of cells or the form factor...

 

It probably also has to do with things like the special build. Keep in mind that the connectors in a multi-bay are different, so running a battery through that isn't as easy as the standard battery.

 

This makes no sense. Why buy a 6cell battery when an 8cell battery delivers twice the capacity at same price.
This makes the modular bay quite useless!

 

Well, the nice thing about the modular bay is that you aren't carrying a separate battery, and you don't have to shut down or hibernate, you get that power all at once. I would still prefer to have the modular bay as compared to a second normal battery. It is also easier to charge them, because you don't have to charge one, then switch batteries, and charge the other.

 

Hardly useless. You cannot put two 8cells together and run off them continuously, nor can you have them both inside the frame of the laptop at the same time.

The modular battery has both these advantages. You can extend your battery life to 170% in the same form factor using a modular battery.

Caleb: I am not sure that the connectors are really more complicated. It's just that they necessitate a different manufacturing line.

 

170%....?
matt_h1 did not even reach half the lifetime of the 8cell battery with the 6cell one. So 3/4 amount of cells can hardly reach 1/2 the capacity....

 

It has nothing to do with cells. It has to do with the CAPACITY of the battery. ie: how much power (watts) come out of it.

When you plug in the modular battery, NHC says it has about half the mWh compared to the main battery.

When I look at my original main battery, it reads 14.8V ~ 5200mAh (p/n 70-NGF1000M-00A2A-696-0090). When I look at my V1 modular battery and it reads +11.1V ~ 3600mAh (p/n 70-NGF1B2000M-00A2A-651-0033). Since there is about a 33% difference in voltage, however, and P=IV, so if you crudely calculate it that way under the assumption they have the right hardware, the main battery has 76960mWh and the modular battery has 39960mWh.

Actual max values when new:
Main: 76635mWh
Modular: 37543mWh

So if you take the two actual values together, you get a total of 114178mWh => 48.99% more compared to the main battery. So 70% more is a bit of a stretch.

 

Regarding the last few posts about modular battery vs. second battery, let me put it this way:

Would you rather buy a cell phone whose battery lasts for 5 days, or buy another cell phone whose battery lasts for 3 days and a surplus battery?

It is of course a matter of personal choice and it depends on what use you will give to the notebook (or phone in the above example), but I'd prefer the modular battery.


Regarding the main topic, about battery wear:

Given that previous ASUS models have had this problem, and that the R1f has it (at least my father's R1f does, he is now at 29% wear, jumped from 24% a few days ago), I would bet that AT THE VERY LEAST there is a small batch of batteries with a serious problem (i.e. more than the normal stabilization up to ~10%). And I think that it is reasonably plausible that a good fraction of them has this.

Maybe a moderator could create a new thread with a poll about this battery problem and put it as sticky, so we can see which fraction of users has this problem? It would also be useful information to send to ASUS.

Regards!

 

Actually I got more than half on a few tests, just not all of them, And it was not the same price as the main battery, I paid $99 for the modular battery.

 

Does all ASUS have battery weare Problem including Asus V1S-A1 and G1. Will the NEW Asus V1S-B1 also suffer with the same problem?

 

The V1s may or may not have this problem, we don't know for sure not. And no, not all Asus models have this problem, only a few.

 

Honguy that is rather stupid to ask as the B1 hasnt been released yet so how could anyone know?. As it is an identical system with just a CPU upgrade it is safe to say that if the A1 has the problem then the B1 will to, It is not clear yet wether the V1s does actually have a battery problem, it will take a month or so to know for sure, and we need more users to find out.

 

Just to clarify: the 170% battery life number was just guesswork, I have no experience with modular batteries. If the charge (stored energy, expressed in Wh) is half in the modular, then obviously the battery life on both batteries is 150% of the original.

HerrKaputt If there is a battery wear problem with the V1S, then it is almost certainly related to the battery wear problem on the other models. However, as has been said countless times now, it is not yet clear that there is a problem. So we can say nothing about relationships if we are not sure there is a problem.

 

On mine, there is NO problem at all.

I have to state that a lot of users here are paranoid and hysteric!

This had to be said here and doesn't concern these who started to discuss the observed issues objectively.

 

Right. I'm one of the paranoid guys -- and you can bet on that. Hopefully I'm not hysteric.

No worries, I'm not offended or anything, just making fun of my trouble (i.e., the V6J batt wear issues and the severe psychological disorders it can cause on the long term).

 

You are allowed to be paranoid as long as you stay objective. And you are, because you realized that there is no evidence for a battery wear problem instead of screaming around.

This is what I meant. I doesn't help anyone if people scream around because of problems that don't exist at all. This harms the laptop manufacturer (ASUS, in this case, but it is the same thing in the Dell forum) and prevents owners of really good laptops from being happy with what they got.

If there ARE problems, we have to DISCUSS them and find ANSWERS and SOLUTIONS instead of producing mass hysteria.

 

I just did a full battery drain through normal usage etc, lasted 2 hrs on my v1jp, i was doing multiple web browsing, listening to songs etc.. with a high brightness. After i recharged, my battery wear jumped by 5 percent? What the hell is this?

 

Well, it's the... battery wear problem. Well-documented for the V1J / V1Jp, see MysticGolem's article and posts.

 

I agree that it's unfair to start spreading negative opinion on this issue yet. Especially since we have yet to get to the bottom of this problem.
However, I think a little frustration with ASUS is certainly justified. Even if it's not a problem with the actual battery (and personally, I don't think it is a problem with the battery itself), it still stands that there are problems with something, somewhere (be it the OS, ACPI, or whatever) getting incorrect readings of the battery, which is affecting V1S user's general use (such as wanting to charge the battery to 100%). Shouldn't these issues been tested for and fixed? Moreso in a business model?

 

This is actually not correct. There is currently no problem affecting V1S users that we know is really existing.

matt_h1 had some problem, but it is different from the battery wear problem.

I do not have any problem.

Frustration with ASUS is OK when referring to the V1J and other models that really have issues, bot NOT the V1S.

 

So your're saying your computer reads the battery right and you can get the full battery? that this is a hit or miss problem? Becasue if the battery reading problem is only limited to matt h1, I might go for the V1S instead of the V2S (cause of the delays, crappy GPU, loss of 9-cell, etc)and if I get a V1S with the batt reading problem, I can just return it for another one. Right?

 

Are you sure? I think Tim had a similar problem ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2378119&postcount=5)? The apparent fix involved removing the battery. If it's just a one of occurance then I guess it's acceptable...

 

Exactly.

Stopped charching at 99%... How can someone even complain about something like this. Firstly, it is not the battery wear problem. No one has ever seen the real battery wear problem on the V1S (matt_h1's problem at least was close to it). Secondly, it is totally normal that a laptop sometimes stops charging at 99%. Next time it is 100% again. And thirdly, who cares whether it is 99% or 100%... unplug it, wait for 5 seconds and you will have 99% again, so why would you absolutely want to reach 100%?!

 

okay, well I guess I'm gonna consider getting a V1S now, but the problem now is that it has to arrive before the V2S. I've heard the first shipment has already been sold out so we got a little bit of a problem there. Does anyone know if milestone Canada has any stock left? I don't mind getting a 2.2 CPu instead of a 2.4GHZ (small difference, who cares). Now for the price bargaining (getting it down to the price of a V2S, lol as that is all the money I have). And if I have any problems, I'll just return it for another one.

 

Before I sold my laptop I had battery wear levels steady around 2-4% after multiple charge and discharge cycles.
Tim

 

Just restart your computer, it will show the charge 100percent, but batt wear will rise

 

Maati is correct. Let me make this official. We can all agree that MysticGolem's article shows that the battery wear problem occurs for the models he listed.

I understand how everyone is very cautious about whether the new models, V1S, V2S and others MAY suffer from this problem. So far it turns out there is NO BATTERY WEAR ISSUE with the V1S.

It is normal for the battery to have 1-5% wear right when you get it, and it can fluctuate, after some time it will normalize.

It may be safe to assume the the V1S has totally averted this battery wear problem, so those who are interested but worried about the problem, then it seems like there's nothing to worry about.

Here on the forums, I wouldn't mind seeing a Poll regarding the V1S, stating who has a battery wear problem. I bet it will turn out to be very close to no one, because some will assume they have abnormal wear, but it is really normal.

With regards to the 100% charge problem. THIS IS NORMAL. All laptops do this. It is just a slight miscommunication between the ACPI and Smart Chip in the battery. Nothing to worry about, but yes your Battery LED will still be on.

The solution is simple, remove the battery, leave it out for a little while, then place it back in. If that doesn't work, try restarting the notebook and then trying it. Other than that just combine those to methods together and that little problem will be solved.

Anyone else who owns the V1S, and can strongly state that they have no battery wear problems. Please do so, to indicate that this is not an isolated case where Maati is the only one who doesn't suffer.

Thanks for your cooperation.