Why should I NOT sell my V1Jp?

Hey all. I've just about had it with my V1Jp. Great looking machine, great feeling machine, great performance... but horrendous battery life. I'm very well aware of the issues surrounding these controllers and how they misreport the wear; hell I've had my machine now just over two months and already battery 1 says its got 48% wear.

But what I can't have, is the 1.5 hour total life I'm not getting; and that includes the optionally installed optical bay battery!

Yes, I've done the battery recal, and still I get less that 2 hours. I'm a road warrior and I MUST have something that can go at least 4 hours... I was just getting that a few weeks ago. But now...

So tell me, what is my option here? I believe there is still no solution to the wear issue, correct? I imagine I could call and file a warrantee claim, but is that just postpones the same issue, doesn't it?

Help me guys. I'm at my whits end here. I'm willing to sell this thing and the dock, extra bat, upgraded RAM and car charger I just bought for it two months ago and take a significant loss at this point... tell my why I shouldn't?

 

You should probably ask for another replacement, there are also other cures for the matter, like using some software that bypass the malfunctioning part so they would report it correctly.Search the forums, there is a whole thread about that.

 

Thanks muj, I'm actually subscribed to those threads. The main suggestion as I understand it is to just set the critical alarms to 0% and run till the battery actually dies. I'm doing that and still getting 1.5 hours. Try and restart, and it wont fire... no juice.

The other suggestion I've read is to never let it wear down past 30% capacity. Totally impractical for my use. Again, I need a full 4 hours each and every day.

And the software tools you mention, as far as I know are just for diagnostic purposes... they don't actually increase use time or fix anything really.

This is killin me! Anyone wanna screamin deal on this thing? LOL...

 

have you read MysticGolem's thread about how the wear level on V1J batteries isn't really accurate? The battery life should still be the same- just disable the low battery warnings

edit: oops, beat to it

 

No prob dj. Yep thats the thread I'm referring to that I got my original suggestions from. I was willing to deal with the misrepresented "Time remaining" indicator. I was also willing to deal with just having my lappy shut off when all power was exhausted. But Im not willing to deal with the less than 2 hours TOTAL life, regardless of alarm or warning indicator...

 

Asus rules!

 

So, what does this have to do with anything?

Given these things, and the fact that a solution to the wear level issue is not forthcoming, I would say you should change your notebook...

I also believe that turning off the critical alarm only works in the less advanced stages of the problem... and after that it doesn't. I think the defect is more insidious than just misreporting a smaller charge than the battery actually has.

 

Even at its best, with the modular battery inside, and doing non-intensive tasks, does the V1 last 4 hours? That seems to be a pretty hefty amount of time for a 15.4".

 

No it is not. My M6Ne lasts around 4hrs on a single 8-cell main battery. Without undervolting. With modular bay and some undervolting it would easily push 6hrs with light tasks.

So I see no reason for which the V1 shouldn't last 5 hours with the modular battery and at least 3 without it.

Except the battery wear defect, of course.

 

On an 8cell battery with a machine of that caliber with VISTA 2 hours is exactly what you can expect on the v1jp or most other machines in the same class with vista. years ago you can get almost 4 hours on something like the m6n. i have 98% battery wear on my aged m5n. i get about 50 minutes after battery alarm should go off. with a new 3 cell I got an hour plus. battery wear is not you biggest problem. inherent poor battery life with vista is

 

I don't quite agree. A hardware defect is more severe than inherent poor battery life for an OS, because you can always change or downgrade the OS (although XP is currently an upgrade w.r.t. Vista in my opinion but anyhow). But one cannot currently solve the battery wear problem, which will kill batteries systematically no matter what you do.

That being said, the fact that Vista has inherent bad battery life doesn't make the situation better. Why shouldn't I expect a laptop in 2007 to have the same battery life, if not more, than in 2004? Technology is supposed to be evolving, ain't it?

 

Thanks for the comments guys. I WAS getting just over 4 hours with Vista no less than 3 weeks ago. Starting then, and thru today I'm lucky to get 1.5 hours.

I hate to do it, but it looks like its off to eBay with this puppy. I spent over $2500 after shipping on this... that's not to say price dictates quality, but still... I find it unfortunate that a name like Asus has yet to address this issue.

Thanks again.

 

Still, are you sure you want to sell it now? If you lose 500 USD by selling it on ebay, aren't you better off by buying 5 batteries, one every few months, and making it last for another year or two?

 

There are a few articles out there about Vista draining batteries. If you're running Vista turn aero off to get some of your battery life back.

 

v1jp NEVER got 4 hours of life. On a fresh load it got under 3 hours and i had to try. few weeks later i would expect no more then 2 hours afdter all the stuff in the background is loaded. i cant speak for the battery wear but you are blowing the batteyr life out of proportion. if you are looking for better battery life get the optical drive bay second battery. selling it on ebay what good will that do? you will not find a laptop out there that gets more. most laptops in that class get about the same with vista. remove the deicated gpu and some of the other bells and whistles and maybee you got a cheaper notebook but it will not have the option for a second internal battery.

 

Well, you could get a Thinkpad - it offers a smart bay for a 2nd battery as well and the integrated x3100.

But then, you'd have to be willing to sacrifice a whole bunch of features too. The great thing about the V1 is that it fills a unique niche in its particular set of non-customizable features - there's no other laptop like it!

 

Uhh... did you actually READ my first post, or just assume you knew what I was going to say?

And yes, I was getting just over 4 hours with both batteries installed, as I said earlier. Got it on a daily basis for the first few weeks of ownership. I'm blowing nothing out of proportion.

Yeah thats exactly why I want to hold on to it. But I can't get around needing a full 4 hours each and every day. My work, and therefore livelihood depends on it.

Ah well. Looks like I'm back in the market after this one sells.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

I'm guessing they would get better battery life if a) they could change this video card for something less heavy than a X1700, and b) if they could get this battery problem straightened out.

I'm somewhat disappointed at how they aren't acknowledging and quickly addressing the issue. It's most likely because they don't want to eat the cost of recalling the batteries like Dell, though that was a potentially life-threatening thing, this is just an inconvenience. I wonder if it's actually the cells weren't made to spec or whether someone botched this on their side...

Anyway, that's the price you pay for getting a premium, "different" laptop that stands out. Since they make fewer units, the issue is less likely to be addressed as quickly as opposed to companies that grind and churn out mass quantities like Acer or Dell, where they crank out cheap stuff, but their #1 priority is to reduce the number of latent defects out of the box to avoid eating RMA costs. Despite that, I'm not really tempted to go with the "mass made" models just yet...

 

FYI after sleeping on this a night or two I realized I couldn't sell it in good conscious in this state. So this morning I called Asus tech support. WOW what a difference from that of Dell; what I'm used too. Someone picked up the phone right away, listened to what I had to say, complimented me on my efforts to that point and within 5 minutes had me a case number for repair work (battery replacements, as well as fixing a minor annoyance with the mouse button hardware). That alone justifies my previous faith in Asus.

So I'll get this thing fixed and see what happens. Might be good for a while longer now, and if its really this easy to get thru to support and get action... well maybe a call every few months isn't so bad.

I'll keep ya posted.

 

Keep in mind though the battery warranty is 1 year only.

If possible, try not to discharge the new battery(ies) past 30%... in that way their life will be tremendously prolongued, since wear doesn't happen unless batts are discharged past 30%.

 

Will try EBE. But I dunno... I still need 4hrs. Not sure I can get 4 and still be above 30%. We shall see.

Thanks.

 

Try to time your last replacement just before that 1 year mark then

 

That too. That was my strategy as well (well, that it was when I realized there's nothing really to switch the V6J with).

 

Hrm... I wonder if they'll replace the V1J batteries with the new SR version of the batteries or whether it gets fixed in that version (assuming that those are any better)...

 

Probably around the same time they add LED backlights, hybrid HDDs at 7200rpm, and move the heating vent on the V1J

 

Well I dropped it off this morning. Turns out North American HQ is literally in my backyard.

I hand delivered it to them, and was assured they'll take care of this battery issue for good. Should be getting a call tomorrow or Thursday to come get it (my request as again, I can just come pick it up).

Will report back when I get it back.

 

Somehow, I find that very difficult to believe. But keep us posted.

 

You aren't alone EBE. I too find it incredibly unlikely... but as they say, 'hope springs eternal'...

 

has anyone thought that maybe its not the battery. the chances of both his main and 2nd bay battery both malfunctioning at the same time is rather unlikely. Get the laptop checked.

download something like battery monitor and see what the capacity of the battery's are and how fast in watts/hour they are discharging and changing. I'm guessing that the notebook has a changing error and is not actually fully charging the batteries.

@geared2Play .... dude read the thread b4 you dish out your 'asus cant have a problem' crap. its a theme thats coming from all your posts.

 

Good thoughts. I did just that and reported to Asus. The way they interacted with me left me with the distinct impression they also did not want to just replace the batteries... they wanted it in hand to take a look even before I mentioned the mouse issues. Otherwise they could have just sent me a couple new ones.

FYI the numbers NHC told me were 48% wear on bat 1, and 0% wear on 2.

 

Yep, from which I read that the main battery is affected by the well-kown battery wear problem and the optical bay battery is intact.

Which seems to indicate a problem in the battery firmware or hardware.

 

well, calebschmerge reported that asus may have found a solution to the battery problem....

 

Really.... thats pretty odd becuase i always though i was the only vendor out there that had a dedicated forum that has a dedicated thread describing various asus models and various problems and solutions. Unfortunately battery wear in my oppinion and for the most part (few exceptions) is not an indication of anything but the obvious.....Batteries do and should be expected to wear. Some faster then others. If you use your battery on a daily basis expect it to wear pretty quick. i have seen the same over the years repeat it self in varios brands models and cells, most people will agree. Some will claim that their 10 year old hp has the same battery life it did 10 years ago. Until a manufacturer can make a gurantee that there is no wear in the first year of use then you all should expect battery wear of some magnitude. if you dont like it or feel it is abnormal then keep sending the battery back or keep trying out models of various brands, you may find some that have super batteries .

 

G2P, not trying to start anything here... but 50% wear, even in my example, after 2 months is in no way normal. Nor is the sub 2 hour performance after over 4 hour use the week before. Something is most certainly wrong, and I believe Asus to be fixing it (or at least attempting to) as we type.

If it helps to know, I've had this same battery life demand for nearly 5 years. I've used Dells, Sony, Toshiba, HP and IBM before I bought my V1Jp. None showed anything like this, in such a short period of time. To my thinking, I have pretty strong evidence something is up with my particular laptop, not my use of it.

 

Hi CoolVanilla and fellow forum members, just and update, I am still here reading and being very patient with my V1JP.

I know you have already decided not to sell your V1JP, that's good, because it is true there is not other laptop in the market that matches it overall looks and performance.

The battery issue is something I have been monitoring since day 1, and I know you have already read my report. It also seems you are experiencing exactly what is going on with my laptop and battery life.

You stated 4 hours using Vista with both batteries, I would get about 4:30 minutes using XP with a discharge rate averaging 25 watts, on both batteries.

Now with both batteries, my laptop will only last 2 hours regardless of the critical alarm. Meaning the first 2-3 months I had my critical alarm turned off, I was getting battery life passed 0%, allowing me to use my notebook. Now it doesn't matter. :S

My main battery is at 92% wear, my goal is to reach 100% wear, so far XP puts and "X" through the main battery stating it's almost out of juice, despite being 100% charged. My modular bay battery fluctuates from 0-1% wear day to day.

I was one of the first North American owners of the V1JP, Dec. 22/06, it is now June 6/07, it has been basically 6 months now.

I have spoken with Asus, I have also talked this issue over with MilestonePC. I am in Canada so I am able to visit Danny and tell him what's going on.

I have been waiting patiently for a solution other than the one I have posted, which is merely a temporary work around, and more of a consumer awareness report.

If Asus did come up with a solution that's great, if not I am just gonna be patient and wait. I am currently taking summer school and I don't bring my laptop to school, so it sits at home so that my family can use it.

Danny has been giving me updates on what is going on with this battery issue, the last thing I have heard is that they are definitely working on it.

I personally still can't figure out whether this is a battery problem or a software/hardware issue. When I first wrote the report, I believed it was a software/hardware issue. Now that my main battery only last 30 minutes on a full charge with the critical alarm disabled, I believe it is a battery problem.

Then again I have no idea how it can switch from one to another, and think of it this way, if I can't tell what's going on, think about how much trouble Asus is going through trying to figure this out. They can't randomly do a battery recall because people want new batteries, they have to first figure out what's wrong and then take necessary actions.

All in all, I still enjoy my V1JP, the vent on the right hand side is really annoying me when I game on it. :S Ohwell can't have everything.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Well here's the interesting thing, I have also seen old laptops last the same amount of time over years, on the same battery. Mainly Toshiba and Dell laptops, I can't speak of the others because I haven't experienced them over a long period of time.

Should batteries wear out? Yes, how long is the question. Some will argue batteries should wear out at a reasonable rate of 5-10% a month under regular usage.

I personally believe batteries should wear about 0.2%-1% wear per month under the same usage.

There are so many laptop owners in the world, the forums and resellers generally hear feedback regarding problematic issues. So if a reseller has sold 100 laptops, and 5 comes back with a battery issue, this means this is just and isolated case, where a bad batch of batteries were probably given out.

However, in this particular case, every V1JP on the forums has had the battery problem, there are others who are not on the forums telling their store, and could be exchanging batteries with Asus, and possibly not even knowing what's going on.

In my report, there are posts of just a few laptop owners who state that their laptop experiences this same problem from another brand. However, if for example a Dell E1505 faced this problem, thousands of them would be complaining since there's a vast majority of E1505 owners. But we don't hear complains about battery issues, like this, regarding other brands. Aside from the exploding Sony batteries in Dells.

So this discussion of how batteries are suppose to wear is two sided, it is the consumers who believe in low-none wear over long periods of time, and the companies/resellers who will argue that batteries will wear out and they should be replaced.

Who has the real answer? Well there are more laptop owners than there are companies/resellers, and I am sure that the entire laptop industry contains more satisfied laptop owners who have no battery issue like this, regardless of brand than the people who are faced with this problem.

This is just speculation because the average user will not know anything about battery wear, but will understand the decrease in battery life over time, when they are using the laptop, but may still not understand what's going on.

To be honest the best thing to do is be patient, do what you can now, and watch what happens, since we already know that Asus is working on it. Whether or not we hear an official hearing about this, we will hear the answer here on the forums.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

if you ask me i would say its a bum battery simuilar to the one on the z71v and v6. they did fix the batteries on the z71v which are no longer available now. not sure what came out of the v6 deal but 30 min life on a battery thats less then 6 months old is definitely a warranty issue. hardware would be the cause specifically the battery it self.

 

The most in demand item locally are batteries. Every single day someone comes in looking for batteries. Dell mostly but thats because dells are popular in the crummy neighborhood where i work. Just becuase the e1505 has no issues dont dell is free from issues. No brand or manuf is excluded from battery issues. Vast majority of laptops i work on have dead batteries or dying. No brand is an exception. most laptops i work on are generally a year or more old ofcourse. alot of people mention battery wear. Who is to say that battery wear is steady? It may wear 50% then stop for a year and resume.

 

On a separate note. i will use z71v as an example. that unit pretty much has 100% failure rate in the batteries manufactired in most of 2005. refreshed in 2006. now the funny part is the 6cell optical battery had no problems what so ever. when used in conjunction with the main there were other anomalies such as charging problems and wear problems. used by it self the battery was consitent and worked like a charm. once the main was refreshed both worked great. the whole battery wear thing is blown out of proportion. its either a faulty battery or not. messing around with settings and checkboxes is just a workaround an issue that will kill the battery regardless

 

Thanks for the informed and informative posts MG. I agree with you completely; patience is the key. I do believe Asus is validating our faith and our gift of that patience by working on the problem. Will my system be one of the first 'fixed'? I doubt it, but we shall see.

G2P: we do have a problem with these systems. Its well documented, and well verified by folks like MG and others. The 'why' of the problem is key to the solution. To just say 'its either a faulty battery or not' is not productive and akin to running in place. The 'messing around with settings' is making these problematic systems workable for us, thus enabling us to be patient and ultimately giving Asus the time needed to discover the 'why' and therefore solve this issue.

I, for one, am incredibly grateful to guys like MG for their efforts and persistence. Hats off gentlemen.

 

Are you trying to convince me of something? I am not one that needs convincing. You dont have anything to prove to me. I ve said it before and i will say it again. Asus does not read this forum. they can care less what is said in this forum. The only sure fire way to get anything done is by calling them again and again. Houston does not know that they have a problem unless you let them know about it. if they sold 1000 v1jp over a few months and 50 people called in with a problem then there is no problem. No if 500 people call in with a problem then someone may raise an eyebrow. you guys are all wasting your time here. Call asus if you want something done, then call them back again and again and again
The whole tread can be summurized as follows...
My v1jp battery is faulty. should i sell it or not? everything else doesnt matter.

 

Thank you for your opinion. I do not share it nor do I therefore accept it as more than just one opinion. Asus may or may not read this; I frankly don't care. We are here to share information with each other, and figure ways of problem solving, despite the OEM's involvement. Thanks to MG and like minded folks, I knew *exactly* what my issue was, how to help work around it and how to ultimately solve it based on today's options. None of that is debatable.

What might be debatable, is Asus' interest in solving this issue; based on the last two days of interaction with them, I'm left feeling the answer is a definitive yes, they are working on it, if not already have it solved. Maybe I'm wrong... either way, I'm going to give them the time needed to prove either opinion right.

 

well you may not want my opinion but my exprience is something you should want to hear. If you give them or any other manufacturer enough time they will come up with a solution. Give them enough time and eventually your battery will be out of warranty and they may not feel the need to keep producing this battery. In the long run you will be left with an awesome laptop that has no option for a new battery. it has been done before

 

It's a combination of both. I'm willing to bet that the battery cells aren't operating the way the smart chip expects them to and gives back bogus data. The more the battery is used, the more the chip writes off the maximum capacity until it shows very little capacity. Remember that the charger in the laptop will only provide power so long as the smart chip says it's okay to keep providing it, so at some point the chip will say no capacity and the charger won't charge, even if the cell is still "good".

Well, chances are that they're going to be giving these crappy things until their stock is depleted. If you want action, this sounds crazy, but we should get ALL V1J users to start completely deep-discharging their batteries constantly so that we're all sending back batteries once a week. That'll mill through any bad stock that they have rather quickly and raise flags that this is a really high-priority problem... (hey, that's business, I don't know if they have a return policy with their supplier for these battery cells, but it'll just get passed onto the next guy since nobody wants to take a loss).

 

hehe yah, I thought about both of those. With regards to the Smart Chip though, as I previously stated, that my battery would last passed 0% charge, and would last for about 1 hour or more. Now my battery lasts about 20 minutes with 92% wear, and won't give my anymore battery life passed 0%.

So either the Smart Chip decided to continue to give me the 1 hour of battery life passed zero and then suddenly stopped those cells from being charged, giving only 20 minutes of battery life now. That's how I see the Smart Chips role in this entire experience with my battery.

As for constantly returning batteries for the V1J...well I am not sure how many North Americans bought them, 1000? But how about the Asians and Europeans?? Their population is vast and they can generally afford more expensive laptops. I am curious as to if the V1J is a popular laptop in those market, and whether they are returning their batteries even more than we are simply because they more people and more with a V1J.

And I guess there are people like me, who just haven't given a battery back yet.

PS: There are always going to be two sides to an issue, as long as we acknowledge both and understand the background of where the information, and experiences of others, then it is ok to come up with your own conclusions. Batteryuniversity.com also claims batteries are to wear at a reasonable amount, up to 20% per year.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

I don't want to sound too negative, but I no longer believe that ASUS is doing anything to solve this issue. I believe they are doing absolutely nothing.

All they'll be doing is selling the batches of batteries until they run out; and afterwards, if the new models happen to inherit the faulty hardware and/or software, then the wear issue will recur with those newer models. But they won't solve it cause it doesn't bring enough money to solve it (or so they think). Or worse, they haven't even acknowledged the problem internally.

The most effort you'll see is some kind service guy who is trying to help as much as possible, determining what the problem is, changing hardware to solve it. But he can't solve it because it's a problem with the entire line. He cannot determine ASUS to redesign and recall the batteries.

Draining batteries and depleting old stocks isn't a solution as long as the design of the new batch remains the same.

And w.r.t. a debate in the previous pages. A 3 to 5% average wear increase on a discharge is not normal wear, under any sane circumstances. Saying or implying that it is, or there might be circumstances where it is, is complete b.s. Sorry, but that's the objective truth.

 

EBE, that is your opinion, and that's fine, it could be true, we don't exactly know for sure. I have also thought about that myself, but I do have some optimism that Asus is working on it.

I don't think anyone stated 3-5% wear per charge, it is per month.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Yep, of course it's my opinion. I also hope it's not true.

Actually, I did experience drops in charge of 3 to 5% per cycle when testing my V6 batteries by discharging them lower than 30%... so they are not made up numbers, unfortunately...

 

Here is an odd one. My m5n use to last 1-1.5hr when new on its 3 cell. now years later i get about 50 min life remains @ 1% throughout. Yesterday i loadaed vista. works great on a very weak old laptop. now the battery remains @4% and lasts over an hour!. kind of odd considering nhc reported 100% wear just a few weeks ago? whats going on? well i know vista seems to have better cpu throtling on my notebook particularly.

 

well, supposedly asus is working on it according to milestonepc....though i don't know if it specifically with the asus r1f (check the tabletpc forums) or more wide spread.