Battery drain problem on new Vaio SR?

I've veru funny answer from sony support regarding the issue (I use Z, but the issue us same)
See here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4005976&postcount=153

 

Has anyone successfully managed to return an SR / other VAIO based on this battery drain problem to sonystyle.com
For me battery life is key, and I didn't know about the problem before hand. Moreover I got an engraving, which kind of modifies their return policy - they only accept returns if the product is defective, if you've got an engraving.

Any one had any luck with this?

Toshiba Portege just came out with a new model that is a bit pricier but I would rather get that.... if i can just return this battery hog

 

I would consider that as defect and return sony if Toshiba is really worth it. More returns will make sony fix the issue in future models.

I would definetely give it a try.

 

Dear friends,

I have had the same problem with a new vaio SR 190 and read all the comments in this forum. And first, I had started the computer on BIOS (by pressing F2) and left the battery to drain all night. In the morning it was completely empty. And then I was charged it fully without using the computer (Please note that the battrey care function was disabled). And then when I checked, I've found that nothinhg have differed, again there was a 5% drain in 8hrs although the computer was fully shut down.
However, afterwards I had turned the DVD drive feature to auto off in battery adjustments settings (right click the DVD icon in the system tray>power settings>take the Vaio power management tab> in the Other devices part, I have changed the CD/DVD... to auto off in BOTHPLUGGED in and running on BATTERIES. Beforehand, it was on "power on" in BOTH.
Now, for the last 2 days, there is a drain of 0 to 1% for a 8 hrs duration when the computer was completely shut down the battery is in place. Whenever I wat to use the DVD drive,I need the right click DVD icon on the system tray and make it POWER ON...
With best
Levant

 

The culprit is the DVD drive?! We found the culprit?

 

any body can confirm this ?? I tried it but have the same problem !!! no change !!

 

I have set my dvd drive to auto off on battery since the first day i got the laptop but i still have the drain...

 

Have you had the dvd-drive AND the wifi off...

let me know...

 

No.. I never turned my wifi off cause i always need it
But i've always set the card readers, dvd drive, modem, firewire to auto off when the laptop is running on battery..

 

Hi,

I have been experiencing this problem in Sony Vaio VGN-CR 23. Though I have not yet attempted to quantify the problem, I often get a completly drained out system when I hibernate it and switch on after a few days.

I suspect two reasons:

1. Sony has a facility by which I can use the DVD player and media buttons on the laptop to play files without booting into Vista. Obviously, this means that some amout of power is used to operate the drive and use the buttons even when Vista is switched off. Maybe this is what's draining the battery power.

2. Sony has an illumination LED light at the bottom of the laptop. I have seen this light burn when the PC is being charged even if it is switched off. Maybe this too is drawing power from the battery.

 

i have had the same problem in shutdown and restart... and i have seen a loss of 15% from that... hibernation seems to eat it up as well. im thinking whether it is the process of shut down and start up that is killing the battery. i have since tried pure standby, and have only lost 2-3 percent at most from hours of standby.. thats just my way of dealing with the current situation with my sr t9400.

how is the batterry life for those that use the pxxxx processors? (they use 25w instead of 35w for t9xxx)

 

Someone in here somewhere once postet links to some reviews, in German, of the SR and another laptop, I think the SZ.

These reviews stated a power consumption of 0,3W (I believe, dfinitely 0,3) for the SR when switced of.

So either this is a known factor and intended or a known fault.

The question is then though, does this happen to laptops that are non-Sony.

(PS: I'll see if I can find the links... don'tthink I will though )

 

here's the web site...
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/638
but i don't read german

 

Yes, I just found it as well
Thread link:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303083

SR
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/628
SZ
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/483

Now, for the SR:

Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 40,00
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 22,50
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 0,80
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,30

-> Energy consumption
"high load" (3D game) Watt 40,00
office use (Browser & Word) Watt 22,50
Standby Watt 0,80
Switched off Watt 0,30

And this is the SZ:
(same order)

Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 46,50
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 29,00
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 1,80
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,30

 

Can you look up a laptop from another brand on that web site and see if it has the same problem?

 

Well i just looked up many other laptops from other manufacturers on that web site.. and they all consume at least 0.3watt of power when turned off... so it's not really a sony problem...

 

Doing so now, just using links provided:

Sony Z:
Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 32,50
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 18,00
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 1,10
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,40

Smasung Q310:
Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 46,20
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 23,40
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 1,00
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,40

HP Pavilion HDX18-1080
Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 70,00
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 39,00
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 0,90
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,30

MSI Wind U100-1616XP white luxury
Energieverbrauch
Bei hoher Last (3D Spiel) Watt 17,80
Office Betrieb (Browser & Word) Watt 15,20
Standby / Bereitschaftsmodus Watt 0,70
Ausgeschalten Watt 0,20

There seems to be an energy consumption on just about every laptop...

 

Very true.

The question is now - do other people experience the same problem on their laptops and do they percieve it the same way?

 

I have the same problem here and it drive me to be crazy very soon

 

I've been looking at getting an SR... but this battery drain issues is a bit of a deal breaker for me...

I was wondering if anyone knew if this battery drain problem affects all SR units, or if not, about what percentage/fraction of units are affected. :S

The SR looks amazing, and is almost ideal (wish it were a wee bit lighter...) for me, so I'm trying to research as much as I can about the laptop before I choose what I buy.

 

I've powered off the DVD drive in my plugged in and non-plugged in profiles and it WORKS !
I left the laptop unplugged at 100 % for about 8-10 hours and came back and it was at 90 %.

Haven't done extensive testing with this, but it appears to do the trick .... Thanks for the idea Levant !

I would recommend others try this too ....

 

sorry, but why do you say it works?? there has been drain of 10% in just 8-10 hours.

some people may think that this is normal but i certainly dont. i have had a number of notebooks including dell, asus and toshiba and none have done this. my asus w3v is now 4 years and battery lasts only 1 hour a best but it doesnt drain at all, even left for days.

 

Are you sure? Is 10%/8hrs loss looks "fixed" for you?

 

It's amazing that when you plug it in before booting up, the LED doesn't go on. Doesn't indicate a full charge?
Then I boot and... 93%.

It's not too much of a deal, since I run it off ac usually, but this is too weird.

 

Haha
Dude, when you're gettin a loss of 8 % / hour, and when you end up losing your work cos you put the laptop on standby and went to work for 8-10 hours, and your laptop was SHUTDOWN when u got back .... at that point 1 % / hour is great if you ask me....and what i meant was that guy's suggestion works.

I think you're expecting too much from Sony (which in my opinion used to be overpriced but had high quality, but now is a piece of cr*p on quality). My old toshiba also never bothered me with it's battery drain.

I would probably never buy a Sony again,but right now i'm stuck with this model, so for now, to me this does WORK.

 

A loss of 8%/hour just isn't normal. Since this is a new machine, have you tried calling for a replacement battery under warranty?

 

Is this battery problem or the Sony Vaio sr motherboard problem?

 

Not just the SR
the Z, SZ, and maybe some other VAIO models also have this problem..
It looks more like a firmware/BIOS problem..

 

Recently ordered an SR290 at the end of November. Tested this a few days ago. Charged to full, left for 20+ hours unplugged. Turned it on with 90%

 

That's not bad.

Also: I think someone noticed that the initial drop is large and that it "fades" afterwards...

 

i feel like this problem can never be documented since there is also the wrong battery % predictions. with the 2, u will never know just how much % loss is due to real drainage, and how much is due to wrong % display.

 

i am trying out the hibernation with cd/dvd off on both AC and on battery. i will report back.

 

raw data.............

2:12 in hibernation. 0% loss @ 80% took 5 min to go to 79% serfing web. 3 min to 78%, 1 min to 77%, 3 min to 76%, 1 min to 75%, 3 min to 74%
settings: full charge with battery care function on, battery stays in laptop, silent mode, cd/dvd auto off in both AC and battery, 1 brightness bar.

VS


2:43 in hibernation. 0% loss @ 80% took 8 min to go to 79% serfing web. 2 min to 78%, 2 min to 77%, 2 min to 76%, 3 min to 75%, 1 min to 74%, 2 min to 73%
settings: full charge with battery care function on, battery out of laptop, silent mode, cd/dvd auto off in both AC and battery, 1 brightness bar.

so leaving the battery in for 2 hours cost me 3 minutes of battery life in this test. i have more data but will publish it when its useful with comparison.

 

part 2

8:18 in hibernation. 5% loss @ 66% to 61%. 10 min to 60%. 2 min to 59%, 1 min to 58%, 1 min to 57%, 2 min to 56%, 1 min to 55%, 1 min to 54%, 1 min to 53%, 2 min to 52%. 1 min to 51%, 2 min to 50%, 1 min to 49%, 2 min tp 48%, 2 min to 47%.
settings: partial charge with battery care function on, battery stays in laptop, silent mode, cd/dvd auto off in both AC and battery, 1 brightness bar.

VS

9:27 in hibernation. 0% loss @ 60% took 10 min to go to 59% serfing web. 1 min to 58%, 1 min to 57%, 1 min to 56%, 2 min to 55%, 1 min to 54%, 2 min to 53%, 2 min to 52%, 0 min to 51%, 1 min to 50%, 2 min to 49%, 1 min tp 48%, 3 min to 47%, 2 min to 46%, 1 min to 45%, 2 min to 44%, 1 min to 43%, 2 min to 42%, 2 min to 41%.
settings: partial charge with battery care function on, battery out of laptop, silent mode, cd/dvd auto off in both AC and battery, 1 brightness bar.


result on run down of 19% of battery, it shows that 8+ hour of hibernation with battery in laptop decreased in battery life of 8 minutes.

 

I have been having a LOT of battery issues since I got my SR250J. Today I am pretty darm sure I have a bum battery and I am going to finally call Sony about this after the holiday, but I wanted to report my most recent findings...

1) I find the computer loses 10% of the reported battery life when waking up from hibernation, even if it is only hibernating for 5 minutes.

2) Today I was out for 12 hours and left the computer in sleep mode. The battery life % went from 80% when I left to 62% when I returned, then quickly down to 55% percent. After just a half an hour of light use in power saver mode it ended up at 40%. I am down to 32% now. Ugh.

I assume they'll send me a replacement, anyone else have any ideas? What a nuisance with a brand new laptop.

 

try to take out ur battery after u hibernate. if it still does that, then its the battery. if not then its just the same thing everyone's been having. i remember my first few days of hibernating was horrible just like that. then it stopped doing it at such extent. donno what it was.

 

That's a great idea, thanks! I'll try that!

I strongly suspect this is a lame battery, but who knows it could well be both problems. I really love this computer but these battery issues are a major bummer.

Do you have any idea why your problem got better? That's really weird but I am glad it improved for you!

 

after the initial experience, i went through extensive tweeks.... the ones i remember were: undervolting, 50% for max cpu performance on battery, removing battery immediately after hibernation or even before hibernation (i sometimes try putting it back in when i leave for school), cd/dvd auto off at all times being the lastest tweek. at this moment, im getting 1% loss every 2 hours with battery plugged in, no loss when battery removed.

 

I still deciding between Sony SR Vs Z Vs Dell E series. I really like the SR almost ideal for me till i read abt the battery problem....so the poor battery life issue is not solved? Guess i shldnt consider sony SR then..

 

the battery problem with all sony laptops not just SR !!

 

not quite - hardly noticeable on the SZ7 ... if it exists.

 

I tried this today, I hibernated for around an hour with the battery out. When I returned, it read 100%..... buut...... then drained down to 95%/93% pretty quickly.

I am going to finally call Sony, as I found out I can have a time extension for a full refund if they cannot sort out these problems.

 

Ugh, I lost 20% hibernating overnight for about 7-8 hours. That seems pretty ridiculous.

I tried installing RMClock, but it says I need a digitally signed driver or something. This is my first Vista laptop, can anyone advise me on how to sort that out. Thanks.

 

when it came to that, i took out the uac thats set in the user setting.. it takes out all those ridiculous warnings when u open anything. if thats wat it is, go to user account on control panel, and then turn off user account control. see if that helps.

 

hotsuma, u are experiencing exactly wat i was experiencing. i say just wait a few weeks and let it recalibrate itself. u have a whole year to exchange the battery anyways. mine is acting a lot more reasonable with 1% loss every 2 hours of hibernation. and no loss with battery removal.

 

Hey guys! I was gonna buy the SR or Z in about 2 weeks time and still can't decide which one is better. In the light of the battery drain problem, which one would you advise to get?

Also, I was thinking... Did anyone try to take out the battery, take a few wires - use them to connect the battery to the laptop. Then put a voltmeter/ammeter in line and have a look at the current that is flowing when the laptop is off?

 

It's a good point that there is a whole year to exchange the battery!! But I do not have as much time to get a full refund for the entire system.

I do believe and hope Sony may fix these battery issues with a BIOS or hardware update, from everything I read here and elsewhere it seems like the issue is not the batteries themselves, but who knows. Since there is no guarantee the problem will be fixed, I am evaluating the system with this bug and whether or not I am prepared to live with it. It is really not the worst thing ever since the battery life it pretty good to begin with (despite the estimate bug!) and I am not untethered from the AC as often as some people. Still, it's a major nuisance as I do travel frequently (and it's not the only problem).

Incidentally, I have found that the battery usually has a major drain but not ever single time! Def over 9/10 times tho. I lost 33% hibernating for 10-12 hours today. :\

 

Just thought I'd say that my SR290 was at 96% before I went on vacation, and I returned after 7 days to find the battery at 58% after booting up. Interpret that however you wish.

 

Hi all SR190 users!

There is a new BIOS update on Sony's US esupport web site!

ftp://download.sony.com/US/pc/AIBSYS-00166696-US.EXE
"This utility updates the BIOS to version R0290Y1 and resolves the following issues:

Issues resolved that may occur when using Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system:

* Yellow exclamation point error Device Manager Exclaimation Point Error that may appear in Device Manager next to "Docking Station" after restarting the computer when it is connected to the docking station
* No display on the LCD screen when the computer is disconnected from the docking station while the display is set to CRT only mode
* The LCD brightness setting may not be retained after restarting the computer

Issues resolved that may occur when using either Windows XP or Windows Vista® operating system:

* Battery status may be incorrectly reported which may cause the computer to shut down unexpectedly"

It should fix the wrong battery life prediction problem!! (finally!!!!!!!!!!)

try it out and see if it works!! (i hope it does..)

 

posted in two other threads: the BIOS update did not fix battery drain or battery prediction issues...