Numbers don't lie - Sleep vs Shutdown power drain

As Sony Vaio owners, we all know about the battery drain issue while the laptop is shutdown. Whether or not Sony wants to address the problem and not call it a "feature" is a different matter.

Lifehacker did a battery drain write-up on how much power laptops use while on shutdown or on standby. ( How Much Battery Life Does Sleep Mode Really Drain? - Sleep - Lifehacker) The results weren't really surprising except the Sony results. Good read.

 

This article from Lifehacker does NOT support the issue you are referencing. (Please note I am NOT saying that the issue you are concerned with does not exits, only that the Lifehacker article does not support it.)

The article said it took more battery power to shut down and restart than it did to just leave the machine in standby for an hour. It did not say anything about how much power was or was not consumed while IN a power down state, which is the issue you are talking about. They didn't attempt to measure how much power was consumed while the machine was turned off.

Also remember that not all Sony models exhibit this nasty behavior. The FZ series, for example, consumes zero power when shut off or hibernated.

Gary

 

OK. I see that. It's the battery drain from one charge level to the next point in a given period of time. In the Sony's case, it measured drain from shutdown to power up vs just sleeping for an hour. I wasn't happy with the numbers either way. Thanks for the clarification.

So why doesn't the FZ exhibit the battery drain behavior?

 

Actually those numbers they posted would be great. It should take more power to shutdown and restart (remember even shutdown consumes some power) than it does to stay in standby for an hour. That behavior is perfectly normal and fully expected.

Why doesn't the FZ have the issue of consuming power when powered off or hibernated? Because it has all components in the full off state when powered down. The real question should be (and is) why don't all Sony models do this. Some do, some don't. No one has come forward with a good explanation as to why.

Gary