T61(p?) --> Battery Self Discharge in Hibernate mode

Just received my T61p two weeks ago (? model is 6459 CTO) and I am noticing something very odd.

Preamble...
1. Laptop running XP Pro SP2
2. System set to HIBERNATE when screen is closed (not SLEEP!)

Perform the above and power-up the next day = 20%+/- battery life was used.

Perform the above and power-up 2 days later = 40%+/- battery life was used.

I thought that HIBERNATE did NOT use up the battery? I perused through the posts and read that the T61 uses some form of hybrid between HIBERNATE and SLEEP. If so, care to explain how I can just have this laptop hibernate?

For those who ask, I am ready to live with the HIBERNATE-to-LIFE times as it is much faster than a fresh boot. This is how I was using my SONY Vaio TR3, which the T61(p?) is replacing.

Oh, and is the 6459 CTO a "p" model (this laptop was provided to me by our IT department. I can ask them but hey, it's Saturday ;-)

 

What video card does that laptop have? If it comes with the 570M then it is a p. Another good give away would if it says T61 p under the screen on the right side.

 

Thanks... it says T61 (no "p").

Display adapter is NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (1680 x 1050)

I was confused as it is a 15" widescreen model and I erroneously thought that only the "p" model offered this format.

Question --> Is it safe to update the video drivers? It is presently using NVIDIA's rev 101.33 of Forceware (this is how it was shipped)

 

My suggestion is... After hibernation, remove the battery and unplug the A/C adapter. You will not lose anything...

 

I have the same card. I have found that the best drivers are the nVidia bioshock drivers. I havn't experienced any problems with them, but this is only though normal use. I also used jut the regular LENOVO 140M drivers with no issues.

I suggest NOT downloading the windows update drivers for your video card, I have heard problems about those.

 

Or maybe your laptop has poor support for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). If so, you cannot use hibernation and instead you can only let your laptop sleep... Try type in "powercfg /a" after clicking "Run" in the "Start" menu and see what shows up next.

 

Hmm... that's not what I was expecting... :cry:

 

Tnx... I ran "powercfg /a" in a command window and this is what showed-up:

The following is available:
Standby (S3) Hibernate

The following are not available:
Standby (S1)
Standby (S2)

 

This website explains your situation pretty well: http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/archive/2004/05/11/129553.aspx

Different states of your computer:
S0 - your computer is awake and active
S1 - CPU is stopped (consumes 5 to 30 watts of power)
S3 - Suspend to Ram a.k.a Standby / sleep (consumes less than 5 watts)
S4 - Suspend to Hard Disk a.k.a. Hibernate (consumes less than 5 watts and saves more power than S3 but it still consumes power)

Hibernate still consumes power since your computer is technically still on! That is why your battery life is drained. Shutting down your notebook (or taking out your battery like desperado suggested) is the real way to save power.

 

Then that's it... the S3 "hibernate" in the T61 is different than the S4 hibernate in my Vaio TR3. It saved to disk and the battery would NOT drain a lot even after a week+ (apart from the normal self-discharge). I'll look in the BIOS as what I am looking for is S4 hibernate... if the T61 supports it.

HOWEVER, this still doesn't explain why the battery still dramatically self discharges even when I shut the computer off (full shutdown).

 

That's right, but the power consumption should be extremely low. This seems to be a common problem of hibernation. I only got this solution that would work:

 

Ok. Then try type in "powercfg /hibernate on" in the "Run" window and see what's going on.

EDIT:

Seems that your laptop don't support S4, which is a little bit weird. How about removing the battery? Will it self-discharge still?

 

I shut the lid on my T60 earlier today, the half moon came on so I figured it was either in Sleep or Hibernate (running Vista Busienss, and I think it goes into Sleep mode).

Tonight I find the battery is dead (or almost dead), the bottom of the unit is warm, and I hear either the hard drive or the fan running, not sure which.

I thought when the moon came on (sleep mode I assume) that the hard drive and fan would shut down, and just RAM would be kept active.

On a previous laptop, with XP Pro, putting the laptop in standby when battery was at 100%, I would lose about 15% of charge a day. I always thought that all moving parts were off in that state, and I'm pretty sure that was the case.

Oh and by the way, when I turned the unit back on, it asked if I wanted to to use safe mode. So I'm assuming that when the battery ran out Windows didn't shut down gracefully.

 

Battery acts normally when removed from laptop (normal slow self-discharge for the battery chemistry). In the laptop, it's dramatic... over 40% in two days! My Vaio TR3 does not exhibit this trait.

powercfg /hibernate on doesn't seem to do anything. I followed up and checked using the /a suffix and still only see Standby (S3) Hibernate, then the note stating that S1 and S2 are not available.

 

I've got Vista Home Premium on my T61p and I too found terrible battery drain during hibernate one time w/the AC adapter unplugged. I also heard a crackling sound coming from the bottom of the machine while in hibernate. This is drain is contrary to what I observed w/my ancient Dell Inspiron 4000 Celeron 800 mhz w/Win XP in hibernate.

I double checked all the BIOS settings to ensure all wake on LAN stuff was off (I think it was). I also right clicked on all my network adapters and turned off all the wake on _____ stuff under the Power Management and Advanced tabs. That seems to have solved it. I definitely have left it in hibernate w/AC adapter not receiving power and battery in place for >12 hours. Battery state was unchanged (63% before and after).

 

My T61 started doing this about a month ago, it was fine before that

Anybody fix this yet?

Thanks

 

My T61 and T61p both have the battery drain issue in hibernation. My T43 didn't do this before, but now it does too..also during the course of the last month. I am running Vista on all of them. Could this be the fault of the latest Power Manager driver from July?

 

hey illmatic get this,

Some update must have set the "thinkpad modem" and "High definition audio controller" (in the device manager) to "allow this device to wake the computer" (under the power mangement tab)

I turned these off and my hibernate doesnt drain the battery now (tested with system in hibernate, battery in and unplugged from AC)

cwerdna's post was right, check all the devices in your device manager and make sure none are set to "wake" the computer

good luck

 

I'll try that, thanks.

 

My "Thinkpad Modem" setting was set to "allow this device to wake..." and so i unset this option but i am still seeing the battery drain issues on hibernation. batman5315, could you may be expand on what are the exact devices in the device manger that we should be turning off "allow this device to wake the computer " option. I dont want to make a mistake switching the setting for all the device and then end up creating more trouble for myself

Thanks.

 

check all devices in the device manager and make sure none are set to wake the computer

also i have noticed that i do lose 1% of power sometimes. it only happens when i hibernate the t61 and then unplug it.

however i have noticed that if i hibernate the computer, remove the AC cord, take out the battery, press the power button a few times and put the battery back in then there IS NO LOSS of battery power.

I am beginning to wonder if the T61 properly supports hibernate given that mine doesnt have the S4 state.

 

Folks, really, let's think this through.

If you can put the machine into hibernate, and then remove the AC power and the battery, wait a few hours, put the battery back in and come out of hibernate properly - then it doesn't require ANY POWER to hibernate. Require being the operative word. Now, there may be a hardware bug where there is a slight discharge _if_ the battery is plugged in during this activity, but any source of power is absolutely 100% not required for proper hibernation.

As a point of reference, I hibernate all the time for weeks on end with no noticeble battery loss. (1-3% is within the realm of noise to me, and not noticeable)

On the other hand, when I put the sucker in sleep mode, it sucks power like there's no tomorrow.

 

Ok, Thanks. I will try to look through all the devices and see which ones are still actually set to wake the comp.

In regards to you mentioning the 1% loss, i would take that as normal. After all coming out of Hibernation will definitely take some power. My old system which was a Toshiba Satellite would also take around 1 % - 2% on resuming from Hibernation but never any more than unlike that like what is happening with my T61.