Power Meter showing over 7 hours on SZ.

After installing the USB fix, my power meter would show over 7 hours on my SZ160.

I had to turn off everything and turn the screen brightness all the way down.

If I remove the fix, the most I could get the power meter to show was 5:20 hours.

Of course this isn't normal operating conditions, but my guess is the fix should increase battery life during normal use too.



The fix I applied:

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2693&p=3

I also noticed that it requires a restart before the change is effective.

 

Yea my SZ shows about 5 hrs in the power meter when at 98%. I really only get about 3 though. Besides the different numbers in the power meter, did the fix actually give you an increase in battery life?

 

hmm I wonder if that fix will stop my battery from draining when in standby. what does this fix supposed to do?

 

I just got my SZ90 and am putting it through its paces. I ordered it only with the BPS2C battery - the extended one. I just put the USB fix in.

Here's what I'm seeing (not necessarily actual use as I haven’t worked with it on the battery that long, but what the battery meter shows):

Speed - "Vaio Optimized"
LCD Brightness = 3
Power Saving Mode = On
Color QUality = 16-bit
CPU Control = Battery life
i.Link, CD/DVD, Audio/Modem, LAN - all disabled

Wireless Off – almost 8 hours
Wireless On – 7 hrs(+/-) hrs

Stamina - "Vaio Ultimate Battery"
LCD Brightness = 3
Color QUality = 16-bit
CPU Control = Battery life
i.Link, CD/DVD, Audio/Modem, LAN - all disabled

Wireless Off - over 10.5 hrs (closer to 11)
Wireless On - 9.5 - 10 hrs

Both of these are real world usable settings, not dialing it down to a screen brightness of 1 just to see if I can get a bazillion hours of battery. 3 is a usable setting for brightness.

Here's a screen shot of Speed mode with wireless on

 

How are you people getting these crazy battery times ?

I'm using the SZ120, so sure, the battery life might be an hour or so shorter than the SZ160...

but when I'm charged at 100%, wireless off, with the 6-cell battery, with brightness at 1 and everything disabled (firewire, modem / audio, ethernet, etc...) I still get only about 4 hours.

Also, I applied the USB patch.

Does this add up ?

Maybe when I replace my 120 for the 160 and get the extended battery, I'll be getting those numbers too...?

 

Will the PCexpress multireader lessen my battery life even if its not useD?
\

 

I haven't done any real testing besides seeing the definite change in battery time on the power meter.

If you want more info on what the fix does, the article in that link explains it all.

Make sure you restart your notebook after applying the fix. On one instance I had to restart twice.

I also turned off everything using VAIO Power Management.

It takes a few minutes for the power meter to update and register the current power usage.

 

Well, I posted my settings up there - it's not magic. I only have the extended battery, not the regular one. It's how I ordered my SZ90.

 

Decided to go ahead and apply the USB fix - I saw a big jump in battery life, thanks.

I also decided to experiment and found that when I turned Bluetooth off I got an extra hour of more of battery life! Shame I have a bluetooth mouse...

Anyway, I now have a perfectly usable system with reasonable brightness level of 4 on max battery and bluetooth off and I get 5:30 of usable life. Nice.

 

yandh1983, what battery are you using? I applied the fix with things turned off and is only seeing a little over 4hrs of battery. This is on the standard battery.

 

The battery discharge with MobileMeter seems to be the same after applying the fix on mine.

 

I'm using the standard battery.

I did the following:

Applied thefix.
Restart (in stamina mode)
Turn to VAIO Maximum Battery.
Brigthness Level 4
Bluetooth Off.

Under normal use browsing with firefox and using Microsoft Word the battery meter shows ~5:30.

 

using the above example. I'm at 76% 2:30hr but i'm not doing ANYTHING. so its not a real test, but the battey indicator looks neat. now if this just makes my hibernation always work.

 

Isn't there a benchmark that you guys can run and leave it on to test for real world numbers?

@FenderP

Why did you set colour to 16-bit? With your settings, did the fan slowed itself down?

 

16-bit consumes less power - less colors/processing, etc. I don't do a lot of graphically intense stuff.

Has nothing to do with the fan. I've had no issues with it.

 

I'm pretty sure that the "Maximum Battery" and higher profiles use 16-bit. Although I doubt that has any noticable impact on battery life, maybe a couple minutes maximum.

 

Does the fan slow itself down as a result of your profile? Also is it possible that you can try to run a benchmark like 3dmark2k5 with that profile on to test out real world battery life? Thanks.

 

No idea if the fan slows itself or not to be honest. I have no fan issues, so it doesn't seem to impact things one way or the other.

Sorry, no time to run tests like that. I'm on the road for the next 4 weeks.

 

5 hours w00t with 32 bit colors and speed...first it showed 42 hours but then 2 seconds later it changed..

hmmm


edit:went down to 3 hours in 10 secs...bs

 

I'm getting the impression that the application Sony designed for the SZ isn't reporting accurate numbers. I'm seriously interested in getting either a SZ 160 or even a SZ120 before the end of July, but these problems are making me thinking twice to put my money on the current SZ revisions. I guess it'll be either a W3J, W5F, or W7J for me.

 

its only estimating battery life. take it with a grain of salt. I think if you do nothing, it says 3+ hours. is realistic. when set to speed. If you play games, speed is still atound 1hr or so at most