Sager NP8268-S - Draining battery during sleep?

Apparently XoticPC is censoring my thread on their forums? I tried to update the thread and reply and now my original post is missing. I guess they don't like bad publicity?

http://xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?17136-Sager-NP8268-S-Draining-battery-during-sleep

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Original post:

I just got my NP8268-S in the mail a few weeks ago and everything has been great. Last night, I put the laptop to sleep and having now woken it up about 6 hours later, it has gone from 100% battery to 85%. That seems a lot faster than my old NP5797. Is 15% battery drain after 6 hours of sleep really normal?

Thanks!

*Edit: updated to reflect that the laptop was only actually asleep 6 hours, as noted later in the thread.

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09/01/2014 update:

This is highly upsetting.

So I got my laptop back from Sager. Apparently the only thing they did was replace a corner piece of my case that had fallen off, but wasn't causing my battery drain issue. They claim that they put the laptop to sleep "all weekend" and when they came back in on Monday, it had only lost 15% battery while sleeping the whole weekend. Surprisingly, what they're failing to realize is that all of the default power profiles are set to only sleep 6 hours, before automatically hibernating. So in reality, the laptop only slept 6 of those hours over the weekend, lost 15% during that sleep, and then hibernated the rest of the time, losing no power. So I'm still in the exact same situation that I was in when I sent it in, when they approved me for RMA. I tested it again myself as soon as I unpacked it. Sure enough, 17% battery lost after only 6 hours of sleeping. This is still much more than Krnzmaster is reporting and so obviously nothing has been fixed.

They claimed that it was only losing 1-2% per 3 hours. That would be great, if it were actually true. They also claim to have reinstalled my OS, after which they were "unable to duplicate the problem." This is a lie, as I did not include any backup, restore, or OS installation disks, and no Windows key, and my laptop is exactly the same as when I sent it to them. I don't think they actually did anything to my laptop, other than add that corner piece. It was at about 93% battery when I sent it in, and when I got it back, it was at 91%. I think the odds are pretty low that they legitmately tested anything and then charged it back up to within 1 or 2% of how I sent it.

Even more frustratingly, XoticPC is telling me that I can ship it back to them instead of Sager, and they will test it, but *I* will have to pay shipping. I don't understand why I would have to pay shipping on an RMA/repair issue that has failed to have been fixed and possibly not even properly/competently tested. I shouldn't have to pay shipping at all for the repair of a faulty product, and especially not when this would be the second time I would be inconvenienced by having to send my laptop in to possibly not even be tested, or tested poorly, just like when Sager had it. That's not acceptable customer service, or product support for a product that is under warranty.

This entire situation is beginning to sour me to both Sager and XoticPC, over what feels like an unwillingness to do the proper testing on an under-performing product, for example swapping parts such as the mainboard or drives/ram to troubleshoot the issue that still clearly exists. It is encouraging me to make this the last time I deal with either company, and advise my friends to steer clear as well. I had heard so much good about Sager and XoticPC, but this is very disappointing.

 

It will drain while asleep yes, try to shut it off or hibernate it.

 

I did notice after poking around in the event logs that actually my computer was only asleep for 6 hours, after which it then woke up and hibernated. So really I'm looking at 15% drain in only 6 hours of actual sleeping, which seems even worse to me.

 

Depends what settings you have in sleep mode and what you have specifically told it to shutdown and put in standby or not.


As for battery drain, about 50% (give or take) after 24 hours seems a bit high, but for some of the heavier machines, again, depending on the settings, it's not too far out of the ballpark for figures that others have seen.

How Much Battery Life Does Sleep Mode Really Drain?

I'd just double check to make sure wifi, bluetooth, etc etc are put into sleep/standby mode and shut themselves off, otherwise you could potentially have a higher drain than you expect.

 

My m11x r3 drained no more than 15% in 24 hours.
that looks like a very fast draining rate.

 

My devices like wifi/bluetooth and such are definitely off during sleep, and I had made it so there are no devices even able to wake my computer from sleep. It'd be nice to hear experiences from other NP8268 owners, because I guess that's the only real comparison. It might legitimately just be a "fast draining" sort of machine, but I'd hate to be out of warranty before I figure out it's actually a defect. D:

 

I have the 8258-S and I guess I can put it to sleep and see what the battery life is after 12 hours.

Not the exact machine but it may help figure out if it's common or an exception.

 

That would be awesome if it's not too much trouble. : ) You only need to do it for 6 hours since I figured out that only 6 of those 12 hours were sleep mode, it hibernated for the last 6 which should be basically no drain at all. It equals out to 15% lost over 6 hours, or 2.5% lost per hour. It was on power saver, if that matters at all, and nothing was running after a fresh restart.

I'd have posted in the NP8268 owner's lounge.. but I couldn't find one. Is the NP8268 really new or just not very popular? : /

 

Ever get around to this experiment? <: D

 

Just an update, no, I've not yet done this with my laptop. Work has kept me away from my lovely so I've not had much time.

However, this weekend I have 4 days of blessed gaming and I'll put it to sleep before going to bed and give you the results.

 

Hey, could you tell me how to put it to sleep? I recently got my NP8268-S laptop and wanted to test it for you. But I have every setting set to sleep but when I close the laptop or click the sleep button, it ends up hibernating instead.... But I only lose like 2% after sleep/hibernate (idk which one it really does anymore... lol) after 8ish hours. Hopefully I can test it more thoroughly once I can get it to sleep the whole time or something!

 

What happens if you go to power/start shutdown and select sleep?

 

I found the solution! My last laptop never went into hibernate so this confused me a little but in the advanced settings in power options there is a function that puts this laptop into hibernate after a certain amount of time has past in sleep mode. So whenever I opened my laptop back up it would be in hibernate instead of sleep. I changed the time limit so that the laptop would be in sleep for 6 hours like the OP said his was. I ended up losing only 4-5% instead of his 15% loss.

 

Yes, sleep keeps things in a low power state but still running. Hibernate will consume much less power. Good find!

 

Thanks for testing this for me Krnzmaster! Your 4-5% loss in 6 hours sounds much more reasonable than my 15-17% (they sent me a new battery to try, but it did not improve the situation). I guess I'll have to get in contact with XoticPC about warranty repair/replacement options, as my hardware is failing to perform to a comparable standard even after a battery swap.

 

If you havent yet, you'll want to start with an RMA request under the "Contact" section of our site. One of our service reps should get back to you within 1 business day.

 

Yeah, something is definitely wrong there, though I must state that battery charge DOES go down with an "off" PC. Hibernated or not. It's not as fast a drain as a sleeping PC, but it does drain. Also, keeping a battery unplugged also drains. I was going to ask if you'd checked the min/max charge via HWMonitor of your battery, but since swapping the battery doesn't affect this, I suggest you definitely RMA it. I hope your machine issue gets sorted out quickly =3

 

Thanks, Hutsady. I've actually been in contact with Barry over e-mail who also helped me during my purchase of the laptop, and he submitted an RMA to Sager for me on Friday. Do you know if I will need to do anything special with my laptop before sending it in?

 

Good to hear you've gotten things rolling. Since Sager is out of the office on the weekend they may have just got the request today and should have the RMA to you tomorrow. There usually isnt anything special you need to do, but any instructions will be included with the full RMA details.

 

This is highly upsetting.

So I got my laptop back from Sager. Apparently the only thing they did was replace a corner piece of my case that had fallen off, but wasn't causing my battery drain issue. They claim that they put the laptop to sleep "all weekend" and when they came back in on Monday, it had only lost 15% battery while sleeping the whole weekend. Surprisingly, what they're failing to realize is that all of the default power profiles are set to only sleep 6 hours, before automatically hibernating. So in reality, the laptop only slept 6 of those hours over the weekend, lost 15% during that sleep, and then hibernated the rest of the time, losing no power. So I'm still in the exact same situation that I was in when I sent it in, when they approved me for RMA. I tested it again myself as soon as I unpacked it. Sure enough, 17% battery lost after only 6 hours of sleeping. This is still much more than Krnzmaster is reporting and so obviously nothing has been fixed.

They claimed that it was only losing 1-2% per 3 hours. That would be great, if it were actually true. They also claim to have reinstalled my OS, after which they were "unable to duplicate the problem." This is a lie, as I did not include any backup, restore, or OS installation disks, and no Windows key, and my laptop is exactly the same as when I sent it to them. I don't think they actually did anything to my laptop, other than add that corner piece. It was at about 93% battery when I sent it in, and when I got it back, it was at 91%. I think the odds are pretty low that they legitmately tested anything and then charged it back up to within 1 or 2% of how I sent it.

Even more frustratingly, XoticPC is telling me that I can ship it back to them instead of Sager, and they will test it, but *I* will have to pay shipping. I don't understand why I would have to pay shipping on an RMA/repair issue that has failed to have been fixed and possibly not even properly/competently tested. I shouldn't have to pay shipping at all for the repair of a faulty product, and especially not when this would be the second time I would be inconvenienced by having to send my laptop in to possibly not even be tested, or tested poorly, just like when Sager had it. That's not acceptable customer service, or product support for a product that is under warranty.

This entire situation is beginning to sour me to both Sager and XoticPC, over what feels like an unwillingness to do the proper testing on an under-performing product, for example swapping parts such as the mainboard or drives/ram to troubleshoot the issue that still clearly exists. It is encouraging me to make this the last time I deal with either company, and advise my friends to steer clear as well. I had heard so much good about Sager and XoticPC, but this is very disappointing.

 

You ought to send hutslady@xoticpc a PM about this; she should get you sorted out. If your warranty isn't at all with Xotic but with sager, yet Xotic is willing to test it for you, I could understand why they would possibly want you to pay shipping, but it's still unfair to you. Especially since it's quite literally been 6 weeks since your last reply here and I've no idea how long it took before you even managed to get it to them.

 

I think I mailed it in around 08/10 or so, I'd have to do some digging to find the exact date. I know the tracking number said it was delivered on 08/14, and I got it back on 08/26 or 08/27. I just don't understand what Xotic could even do differently than whatever it was that Sager did (or didn't do). If it had cost me money to send it back to Sager initially, I'd be furious right now that I had paid money for a repair or replacement that didn't happen. As it was, I did pay my time and inconvenience, and was without the product I have paid for.

I'm also starting to be a little wary of Xotic in general at this point, the person I've been talking to during my RMA process has told me a few contradictory things over the course of our e-mails. I'm not sure if they either don't know what they're talking about, or if they're simply relating things that Sager has said to them, and it's in fact Sager who doesn't know what they're talking about/flat out lying. It may just be the case that they are only the messenger and Sager is giving the runaround. It'd be really nice if they were local, and I could just mosey on down and talk to someone that would be able to get things done, and avoid all this mounting frustration.

 

Yeah, sometimes they're just the messengers. If you could find one of the reps here and keep talking to them, they'll be better able to sort you out. Not everyone at XoticPC is as good as these reps that float around, but the company is very good. If you stick to your guns or call out contradictions/ask to speak to managers you might get somewhere quicker. Sager... is not a company I trust AT ALL with warranty repairs. I remember once telling their rep my keyboard had LIQUID DAMAGE (repeating it about 6 times) and asking if it would still be under warranty, and he said "sure send it up"... only to find out that when the keyboard arrived, they wouldn't replace it because it had liquid damage and asked me to pay for a new one.

So yeah, deal with Sager as LITTLE as possible. Let Xotic light a fire under their behinds and see how things go. But make sure you keep it consistent and talk to the active ones at Xotic. Once again, I definitely suggest sending hutslady a PM here explaining the madness that went on.

 

OK, D2 Ultima. Thanks for the advice. I pm'd Hutsady to request assistance in a resolution. I'll update if I hear back.

 

Working with shatteredhalo to see what we can do to get this resolved.

 

Apparently the advice is to keep talking to the same person who I've been getting nowhere with. Not sure what the point of that PM was...

 

In your PM you did not tell me you were not getting anywhere with Barry, only that you have been talking to Barry and offered to sent me the email correspondence with him. So yes I suggested to keep talking to him since he is in our Service dept and is one of our reps that would help set up the repair with Sager. That only made sense, I do not do any of our Service related set ups but.

Continuing this in PM.

 

Hello All, I'm going to be taken over on this for shatteredhalo as I was the original adviser on the order. We'll be getting in touch with Sager regarding the issue and see if we can't help turn it around. I've gone ahead and emailed the OP directly letting them know what we're doing.

 

Bit of an update. I'm not sure that I've pinpointed what the issue was, but after trying Windows 8 instead of 7, and installing/reinstalling 8 several times while trying different setups like removing the solid state drive, I finally reinstalled the solid state drive, put Windows 8 back on it instead of the HDD, and was going to just give up.

While doing that last reinstall of 8, I had also just read up on HIPM + DIPM and turned those options to on, normally they are disabled/only partially enabled in the windows power profiles. I don't know if it was due to removing/reseating the SSD or the HIPM + DIPM options, or maybe a combination of the two, but I'm finally seeing performance like Krnzmaster did. I can't say for certain what really made the difference, but it seems to be working much better now. I'm scared to ever wipe/reinstall windows 8 again after finally getting it to work. Heh.