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    3.5 Hrs Idle Battery Life on Vaio Z - is this normal??

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by random45678, Aug 20, 2010.

  1. random45678

    random45678 Notebook Guru

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    Just wondering if this is normal. (3.5 hours "estimated" on a full charge.)

    Core i7-620m, FULL LCD brightness (auto dimming off), stamina mode, wifi on, bluetooth off, balanced power plan, not doing anything.

    If not, I might have to do a clean install. It's for a Z12. Thanks a lot.
     
    random45678, Aug 20, 2010
    #1
  2. madmook

    madmook Notebook Evangelist

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    Well the highest brightness is darn bright...
     
    madmook, Aug 20, 2010
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  3. beaups

    beaups New Jack Hustler

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    This seems light. Clean install is overkill, not sure why everyone runs to that. Any processes eating CPU time? Screen brightness WILL kill your battery.
     
    beaups, Aug 20, 2010
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  4. random45678

    random45678 Notebook Guru

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    From the Vaio Z Specifications on the Sony Website:

    Estimated Battery Life with Standard Battery9 (included)
    Default Settings: Up to 7 hours
    Full Brightness: Up to 6.5 hours
    DVD Playback: Up to 3.5 hours

    This is probably for the i5, but I don't think the difference in power consumption is more than about 10%. The only processes that show CPU time usage is DWM.EXE (for Aero). 6.5 hours to 3.5 hours seems wrong. BatteryBar reports a power usage of 17,000mW, which also seems a bit high. My previous core-I7 laptop (Toshiba R700) would only draw about 12,000mW on idle.

    This is the Full HD (1920x1080) model, I wonder if that makes a difference.

    Can anyone report what their estimate battery life is on a full charge? Are others getting 3.5 hours too?
     
    random45678, Aug 20, 2010
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  5. beaups

    beaups New Jack Hustler

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    Battery specs are bs. But note that those specs are with power saver set to the power plan and wifi and Bluetooth off. Again, do you have any processes eating CPU?
     
    beaups, Aug 20, 2010
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  6. beaups

    beaups New Jack Hustler

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    I see dwwm is eating CPU. Just 1% from time to time?

    Going from balanced to power saver in the power plan makes a big difference.
     
    beaups, Aug 20, 2010
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  7. 5ushiMonster

    5ushiMonster Notebook Deity

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    That's true, but I'm on the opposite end of the scale, in that I can get 6 hours of rather decent word processing time (on BALANCED, brightness down to the lowest, wireless off) off a battery that's been quoted by Sony has a maximum of 5 hours while on POWER SAVER.

    ...But then, I'm talking about a VGN-Z so...
    The most power-hungry consumer on a laptop is the screen, though that's arguable with the i series Intel CPUs with TurboBoost being able to suck more than the screen at certain load levels.
     
    5ushiMonster, Aug 20, 2010
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  8. Zoobzone

    Zoobzone Notebook Guru

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    Have you tried leaving the laptop idle for a while? My Z11 boots up with 3.5 hour and goes into a ~7hour estimated battery life in a minute or two.
     
    Zoobzone, Aug 21, 2010
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  9. shurcooL

    shurcooL Notebook Deity

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    I get around 4.5 hours tops on my Z122GX with min brightness and wifi on, but that's using Windows XP.
     
    shurcooL, Aug 21, 2010
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  10. Andrew08

    Andrew08 Notebook Evangelist

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    power saver, battery 100% brightness 1%, processor 0% running at 1336mhz, monitor never off, idling, wifi off, battery 7 hours...
     
    Andrew08, Aug 21, 2010
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  11. pyr0

    pyr0 100% laptop dynamite

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    thats around what i get with the same scenario on my fhd i7 machine.
     
    pyr0, Aug 23, 2010
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