Battery drain problem on new Vaio SR?

Hm, I tried it last night, I charged it up to 100%, and when I was done I shut it off (Around 3:30 AM?)
Then this evening I turned it on (around 7:30-ish PM), and viola, it's down to 92-93%. (I booted on the battery) Not that it really matters to me. I'm almost always by an outlet anyway. xP I had switched off the WLAN button as well. It made no difference. The other night it was still on.

I would post screenshots, but I am not sure that the wallpaper I was using would be... appropriate for the forum. It's not anything uber bad... but eh. Just realizing.

 

I just tested the "boot up consumption" on my SZ.
80% (battery care) shutdown under AC, removed plug, booted up, looked at the battery indicator as soon as possible, result:
Battery dropped from 80% to 74% ...
(OS Vista Business)

 

Now try with shutdown while on battery.

This is what I did.

 

Ok, thanks, I did that on an SZ and what happened:
Shutdown plus boot up used 0-1%.

This is getting stranger and stranger...

 

This is very interesting it may be a clue to what's is causing the battery drain.

Now it would be very interesting to know if there is any battery drain over a longer period of time when you have switched off while on battery.

So maybe tonight or sooner you can test it? Switch off while on battery and then not boot for x hours.

 

If I remember I can try. It's on an SZ though.
I'm also thinking, its a new problem, so what did SOny do in these new laptops, SZ, TZ, SR etc. that they hadn't done before?

 

I'm not sure if it is really a new problem...

 

hi, can someone do a test for me. i have read through the threads and people have tried disabling vaio power management, wifi etc etc. 1 thing that was mentioned with a hp / toshiba was that the hd audio driver that gets loaded at start up might cause some problems.

could someone disable that from msconfig, restart and shutdown while on battery. then wait x hours and restart on battery. thanks

 

I disabled the HD Audio thing from MSConfig from the get-go (however, I think it's just the control center that gets disabled, not necessarily the driver), and it hasn't solved the problem.

 

thanks for trying. btw have you disabled all the other processes mentioned in the other thread eg ISBmgr.exe and uninstalled vaio power management which seems to limit drain to 2-4%

 

so most of you guys left the battery in your laptop to test this battery drain problem?

i just did so with the battery out of my laptop for 15hrs (charging it to 50% before), placed it back in, it stayed at 49% for 30secs or so before it dipped to 44% then 40% in under 5mins.

I have a sinking feeling that mine battery might be faulty, looks like I'll taking this up with Sony and getting a replacement soon.

for those geting battery drain problems, are you getting the same results if you took the battery out of your laptop??

 

I got my vaio sr finaly but I have the same problem like every body here !!!

1- when I turn off the sr with AC power and when i turned my laptop on with battery the battery is 92 %

2- I removed the battery after charged to 100 % and then i turned on my laptop with AC adapter after 8 hours and the battery is 100%

3- I turn off my laptop and after 9 hours I turned it on again with AC and the battery is 100% without any drain

So there is something wrong with software and i know it's Vista problem (just when you boot with vista it took 5-7% from the battery )

coz before 2 years maybe , win XP faced the same problem with some intel processor and then they solved it with patch !!
and if any body has win xp in any one of these models SR or Sz... i'm sure he didn't face this problem

read this
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/18/ms_patches_win_xp_core_duo/

 

Hello,
I bought a Vaio sr too. I have the same problem that everybody reports, but I'd like to add a new detail: did you notice your notebook sometimes starts charging its battery even though you're using it with the AC power (and battery inserted)? This happens to me sometimes, and I think this is a serious problem! This witnesses that the battery drains even when it is not used (e.g. AC power on, and battery already charged). And this also means that our battery will have a very short life :-(
Moreover, Sony says battery discharges on every notebook with windows Vista, but this is not true in my opinion!
How can this problem be fixed? Did you encounter this problem?

 

Aaaargh! Unluckily I have to add a sad update, just a little time after my last questions: just half an Hour ago my AC adapter suddenly stopped working!!! I realized it because while I was using the notebook with the adapter plugged in I suddendly saw my battery was at 75%!!! Is this only my problem? Could it be caused by the fact that I was using a 7200rpm external usb drive? I had to unplug it, leave it out for some minutes, and now it seems to be working again.
However, from the point of view of currency & power, this notebook seems very bad. I'll call Sony again, but I want my new notebook to be perfectly ok!!!! I'll pretend it to be substituted, isn't it my right? I'm seriousely concerned about the problems I wrote here...

 

yep, with Xp SP2 , same battery drain problem ...charge to 100% , unplug then next day was near 85% ( and yes i checked it with batteryMon and i had only ~45000mW from the 54830mW at 100% )
So Sony must be thinking we are just dumb, saying stupid things like "it is a VISTA problem ", no way! the SR is SHUT OFF , not in HIB or StandBy!!! no major drain should occour ! Anyway, because of that i format everthing and i made a clean install with XP SP2 with all correct drivers from sony ... Same problem , so SONY is must be joking with everyone !

My guess is that even with the SR Shut Off, some electronics are still on standby mode, getting energy from the battery, like when you shut to standby mode on your tv set and you get the small Power Redlight ON ...
To be honest, if this is a electronics "bug" no way they will fix it by a firmware update...The only thing they may fix by firmware is the buggy discharge rate that display wrong ACPI info to the OS, that all we can expect.

Since i also have a SR19XN , i really dont know if i will keep it or exchange it in the next weeks or so.

waiting for comments from the other users...
rgs,
JP
Portugal/Europe

 

Some people have managed to solve this problem by turning off their wireless completely.
There was the suggestion before that this problem is caused by the components capable of restarting/waking your computer.
Also, mentioned in here before.
Go into your task manager and check the energy settings for each device at different "shutdown/standby" modes.

 

bump. I'm experiencing the same issues with the Z.

 

Just a thought, but has anyone tried shutting off the dvd-rom via the taskbar icon as well as shutting off the wireless before turning off the notebook?

Because one time while on standby/low power mode, the dvd-rom of all things woke up the computer from standby...at 4am...and woke me up...scary...a bright green light lit up my room and made loud vrooming noises(from the dvd drive).

So turning off the wifi and dvdrom may solve the problem...?

 

????
That's not really a battery drain issue, is it?

That's a computer comming allive...

Honestly, there is either malware on your computer or you have had something set up incorrectly, God knows how.

 

I was just suggesting that the DVD-ROM may be contributing to the battery drain, in the same way as the wifi is. The device is not shutting off while the computer is off. This is just a theory/idea of what may also contribute to battery drain because the device isnt powering off completley and sucking out battery life.

You can shut the drive power off via the task bar icon...

 

Well, as you phrase it know - possible.
I've got an SZ (!!) and that one hasn't got a taskbar icon, but the SR maybe differnt in that respect.

Just wondeirng - it'll still be interesting to find out what woke your computer.

Oh, and about the "energy modes", they can be found in the device manger for every device.

 

i dont have an sr but have been following this problem as it is a dealbreaker for me.

the problem here is battery drain when shut down. from the posts, i gather that the default setting is off and besides the notebook will only "wakeup" from sleep not when shut down. it does not appear to be related to wifi either.

this appears to be a sony thing as it is now reported on the z.

i guess it doesnt bother most people here who are power users and use their vaio every day and maybe even only on ac. the biggest concern is 1 poster reported not turning it on for a few days and it woulnt power up.

 

I just noticed this problem today
I shut off my laptop at the end of a class, and then turn it on again 10 mins later when I was at my next class...
and in that 10 minutes my battery lost 10% of power... 10% in 10 mins!!! urghhh!!!

oops 16% i mean! before i shut it off i had 93% when i turned it on 10 minutes later i had 77%...

 

In the Sony FAQ list they mention that it is normal.
My concern is that it will reduce the battery life time dramatically, if I have to plug it overnight on ac.

 

I just got my SR, and I have the one with integrated graphics, but when I first turned it on, and left it charged fully, it said I only had 3 hours left total from a full charge. Why am I not getting 4 or even 5 hours from a full charge?

 

TonytheTiger did you shutdown on AC, unplug and start up on battery?

I once did something with an SZ - it never got quite followed up:
shut down on AC, boot up on Battery, 5% loss
shut down on battery, boot up on battery 0-1% loss

 

There is another similar thread to this. You are meant to be able to get more battery life than the indicator shows. In the other thread someone’s indicator was only showing 2.40 mins battery life but they were able to get 4 hours 50 mins when they actually timed it and ran their battery down.

I doubt if the estimated time is accurate for you as Sony seem to have messed up getting this right on the SR models. Hopefully Sony will fix this up with a BIOS update.

Unless you have your computer on full brightness with bluetooth on and sidebar in balanced mode or above then 3 hours estimate seems pretty short and not accurate.

It seems to be mainly these newer models that are affected as i have an SZ/7 and have no battery drain problems at all.

 

no.. i shut down on battery..
i never realized how bad the problem is until today..

 

I have a 1 year old SZ680, and the battery drain issue happens when I leave the battery in my laptop.

About 24 hours ago, I recharged my battery to 100%, and then I took it out and left it on my desk.
Now, I just plugged my battery and computer shows that I still have 100% battery.

But, if I recharge my battery to 100%, shut down the SZ completely and leave the battery in my laptop for 2-3 hours, the battery will have 98% left when I turn it back on using AC.

If I plug in the battery and leave my SZ untouched for about a week, it will only have 10% or less left.

Try to avoid having your battery plugged in when you don't need it, whether you are using the laptop or not. Constantly recharging the battery and the heat generated by the laptop will do nothing good to the battery. There is also a Sony software called Battery Care Function for TZ series, but all VAIOs can use it. You can set it so that the laptop will stop charging your battery when its 80%/50%/etc...

 

Yes, but if you use Vista it won't charge for 1 or 2% as far as I'm aware.

 

I have had NO ISSUES with battery drain from vista bootup using extended battery and intel GPU and 320 GB hdd.These three things are the only things different from my first SR (standard battery, ATI GPU, 160 GB hdd) which lost 4-5% on bootup. Now I lose 0-1% and i've tested it many times already. same software, ect...

 

hmmm
Somehow I'd say the problem seems to be connected eith the Intel integrated graphics...

 

I said I HAVE the Intel integrated graphics and I AM NOT experiencing any problem with battery drain.

i lose max 1% on bootup.

 

thanks duke. what about if you shut down say when the battery is say between 20-50% remaining. is there any battery drain then. you may have found the solution if not.


can sr users state if they have this problem and if so , whether they have the ati or the intel graphics.

 

Yea, I was about to ask the same question as well. Maybe from 100% the night before to the next morning and it's still 100% - 99%?

1-2% drain per day is normal but apparantly users are reporting about 1%/hr, which is kinda atrocious.

 

okay well I did some thinking... perhaps the 1% loss on bootup (not overnight waiting) on extended battery translates to 3% on standard battery.

Also..I did leave it in overnight on 100% and turned it back on the next day about 9 hours later and the battery drained 3%...which again may translate to 6% or so on standard battery.

so I guess the issue is there no matter what battery or GPU you have. SONY FIX THIS **** ALREADY. ****.

 

Hmm, the Z's have this problem. I wonder what could be causing this.

I don't think it's a device turning on while off, or else it'd have to do it a lot.... as I think it takes 4-5% from booting off of the battery estimation. (At least with the ATI GPU and the regular 6-cell battery.)

So, you exchanged your SR Duke? Interesting. xD

 

yea i did because i don't even game. the ATI card was a paper weight for me. With that money I saved I got the extended battery, which fits my personal needs much much better.

 

I have a SR with the ATI card..
when i shut down the laptop fully charged, unplug the ac adapter, turn it on the next day i will still have around 99% or no drainage at all..
but if i shut down my laptop on battery (not fully charged) and turn it on later, i will see a huge drainage..

 

Ah, well that does indeed suit you better. I do game though... so it's not a paperweight for me. @_@ xDDD

But hey, extended battery seems better for you too, as you seem to need the battery life much more than I do.

I just seriously wonder what design flaw or something is causing this either mis-reading or battery drain... Sony doesn't seem to say anything...

 

I emailed Sony, and they just said I probably have a faulty battery, and gave me a long list of tests I can do... which was pretty useless and didn't help anything.. I emailed them again, and no replies since then.. lol

 

But it's a faulty battery that still works fine? I dunno, maybe that's just to me it does. It works waaaaaaaay longer than any of the laptops I've seen or used in my life, so I'm happy with it (Integrated or dedicated).

But yeah, they gave you a long list of tests? What kind of tests for example are these? (Hasn't bothered to contact them, kinda need battery and or laptop.)

Though, your laptop seems to lose less than mine does. Of course, I do have a different model type. When I do the same thing, I turn it on Battery and it loses 4-5% after I load the desktop. BUT, if I plug it in and turn it on, I have 100% charge..... and it doesn't show any kind of charging indicator before turning it on.

 

well the list is not really that long... it looks long though... lol
doesn't help anything though..
here it is, id just copy and paste the whole thing...

"Thank you for contacting Sony Support.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience you're experiencing since the battery doesn't hold the charge. I suggest that you follow these procedures to determine if your battery needs charging, cleaning, or replacing:

1. Without the A/C adapter attached to the Notebook and the battery
fully inserted, attempt to power on the unit:

a. If the system boots up, the battery is functioning but may need
to be charged.

b. If the system does not boot, turn the unit off. Remove and then
reinsert the battery. Try to power on the unit again. If it powers
up, the electrical contacts on the battery may have become
oxidized creating a poor connection. Power down the system,
remove the battery and clean the contacts with a pencil eraser.

2. If the system will not start on battery power, completely power the
system down and reconnect the A/C power adapter. Leave the battery
in the Primary battery bay and start the system using the A/C power.

a. Hold the Fn key and press the F2 key. A window will appear and
indicate both an A/C plug and a battery symbol. The shaded are in
the battery symbol indicates the charge left in the battery.

b. If the battery indicator does not show over 15%, charge the
battery 12 hours (overnight). Check to see if the battery charge
indication changes. If the battery charge increases overnight
restart the battery diagnosis at step 1.

c. If the indicator does not change there is a hardware issue that
will require either repair or replacement. Either the battery has
failed and requires replacement or the internal Notebook power
connections in the primary battery bay have failed and require
repair.

3. For those VAIO Notebook systems which offer dual battery bays (for
secondary batteries) you may try to determine which hardware issue
you have:

a. Power down the system and remove the battery from the Primary
Battery Bay. Insert the battery into the Secondary Battery bay.

b. Disconnect the A/C power and attempt to power the system using
the battery ONLY. If the system starts, the battery is
functioning. Hold the Fn key and press the F2 key. If the battery
indicator does not show over 15%, power down the system and
charge the battery in the Secondary Bay for 12 hours (overnight).
Check to see if the battery charge indication changes. If the
battery charge increases, the battery is functioning normally and
the issue was in the internal Primary Battery Bay. Although the
system will function using the Secondary Bay, SONY strongly
recommends you have your notebook serviced. While in warranty

call (888) 476-6972.

If you outside your warranty term, you can set
up service at:

http://eservice.sony.com

c. If the system still will not start, completely power the system
down and reconnect the A/C power adapter. Leave the battery in
the Secondary Battery bay and start the system using the A/C
power. Start the Battery Scope application. If Battery Scope
reports 0% and Full charge capacity 0 maH, Design Capacity 0 maH,
then the battery needs to be replaced.

TIP: Most of our Notebook batteries come with a 1 year warranty.
Should your battery fail outside the warranty term, a replace-
ment can be purchased from our Parts Center website:

http://servicesales.sel.sony.com

Thank you for choosing Sony.

The Sony Email Response Team
C6H6
David"

 

Huh, those are interesting. I think most of us have already done that with our SR's and have posted that in one of these battery problem threads.... Hm, very interesting. Too bad they haven't contacted you yet. D:


Though, I'll admit, when I have to charge my battery, after I fully charge it, I'll take out the AC adapter, and then it'll drop back to 95% charge, and then I plug it in and it will actually take quite a bit of time to recharge back to 100%, and etc. etc.

 

it will drop to 95% right after you unplug it??

 

Yup.... it always drops to 95% reading after I unplug it. I'm not sure why... it still lasts like, over three hours or so. Of course, I like my screen a bit brighter than 3/8ths brightness...

Still though, it actually does that... I'm not really sure what causes Vista to adjust so dramatically.

 

maybe using rmclock to check if your laptop is fully charged can help..

 

Ya, do let us know.

Anyway, this problem is so irritating and that's preventing me from putting my money on this cool looking machine. Now that the Z also has this problem (although not widely reported), I don't even think I wanna trust Sony anymore unless they fixed it.

Can you imagine charging the laptop fully and next morning when you reach school, your battery is flat or drops some 10-20%?

Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the battery.

 

There is a very easy work around: take the battery out.

I'll admit is not the best solution but it works.

 

Yup, I did thought of that.

But seriously, it shouldn't be like this.