SZ made it to 6 hours!

i got an SZ18 last week and if anyone remembered i posted here that i was going to have it replaced because i was unsatisfied with the battery. (it lasted less than 3 hours, max battery settings).

however, after one discharge cycle. i charged it to 100% yesterday and the meter registered 6:15 hours. totally skeptical, i used it just for browsing the internet (maximum battery setting, wifi enabled, bluetooth disabled) and i had maybe an hours worth of break (eating, phone calls etc). i kept it on til it reached 2% battery capacity. time is lasted 5:47 hours.

is this a random performance? i don't know how else to explain it. now i kinda don't want to replace it, but the store had already ordered i new one for me and it'll be on it's way in 2 days. oh well

 

No thats normal. If I put mine into Ultimate Battery Mode I get 5-6 hours

 

This is with standard battery? With screen set to 0 brightness and on stamina and not touching it for hours? Sure I can see it hitting that high. Useless if you ask me. As I've said b4. Like the old Izusu commercials. "Sure the car get 900mpg and go 100mph doing it" *downhill in a hurricaine, coasting, with all the wind at its back.

 

is the ultimate battety mode a set configuration?

your reply puzzles me. a few days ago, i complained here about the SZ'z battery life which only lasted less than 3 hours, using the same settings i had when i got 6 hours. people were telling me that 3 hours is normal and that i should only expect half the life that sony claims for the model (7hours). now you're telling me i should expect 6 hours.

so what's the real deal?

 

Youre using the normal battery, right? Its capable if going 5 hrs in stamina mode with ultimate settings and you not touching the laptop. Its a paper weight. Just dont watch the gauges. Touch a few programs like MS Works, open a few internet pages for a min. I BET YOU the time will go from 5:30min to like 3hrs just by doing nothing important. You start typing and doing some word documents and maybe a few internet things, and I doubt you'll get over 4 hours. You game? Get ready for about 1-1.5 hours. Watch a dvd? If you set everything to minimum except for volume and screenbrightness to 80% You'll get enough for 3+ huors for a movie.

So you saying 3hrs of use sounds right for average use of laptop. You get 5+hrs for doing nothing is right too.

 

Um, nope. I was using mine to do some reasearch on the net last night. It was set to 32bit colour 3/10 brightness. I had everything in power managment disabled. CPU was on Adaptive. Wireless was Active. I was in SPEED mode (I was at home just lyin in bed surfing, so I could plug it in when needed)

I have my built in camera disabled in device manager. I removed the card reader that comes with it and am using the plastic insert. I insert the reader when needed. I have the microsoft usb fix. I have a premium model.

I got just under 5 hours with that config. If I was in stamina mode I imagine I woulda been looking at 5:30+. The CPU was also not in the ultimate battery saving mode.

I wont ague that with most of the features enabled it does not last nearly as long. Most of the time you dont need to have alot of **** enabled on battery power however.

If I'm doing someting like video conversion which holds the CPU at 100% I only get about 2 hours out of a battery. Gaming is much worse and I less than 90 minutes.


Edit: Oh yeah. About an hour of that was spent streaming videos of Gamespots E3 coverage. I turned the audio on to do this.

 

Forgot to mention that I also use Notebook Hardware Control to undervolt the CPU when it is de-clocked.

 

now i know what you meant by ultimate, and no definitely wasn't in that mode. it was the regular configuration you'd get just by having it in stamina mode before you turn on the notebook. i also had wifi enabled, but bluetooth was disabled. i didn't have the memory adaptor inside, no mouse or any USB devices.

right before i turned the notebook on, i checked the time (in my mobile). i was just browsing the internet, and probably had about 1 hour worth of break in between. restating: total time my SZ lasted before i stopped at 2% and plugged in it in? 5:47 hours (give or take a few seconds of course)

that's why i'm wondering if it was just a random occurence.

 

That's really good, especially considering you had WiFi on which does drain the battery quite a bit! Most users report a much lower batter life around 4:30. Do you have the USB-Fix from Microsoft installed? No real way to tell if it was a random occurence but to test the battery life another time I guess.

 

there is absolutely no way, no matter what my setting are do i get more than 3-3.5 hours

 

Same here Neilk2350. But, you've to consider the fact that Op own a premium model? I know they can go a lil' longer!

 

i have a 160. it doesn't go to 11

 

lol. 11hrs? I just got the ext battery and set to "normal" seetings Vaio Optimized and it says I have 4:35min after 5mins on. doing nothing.

 

spinal tap: it goes to 11 she is using the regular battery and getting 6. i couldn't get near that

 

don't worry, neither could i. I should with the ext. battery. waiting for a 100% charge then I'll turn it on in stam mode and see what the max time says after 5mins.

 

this is a coss-post but should be valid here.

hahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! want a laugh? I just charged my ext battery to 100% started up to stamina mode. made it to windows at 99% power. Set to ultimate mode and everything off and screen at 0 brightness after 5mins of not touching the laptop, It says I can get....12hours !!!!!!!! what a joke.

I changed ONLY the brightness to 5 bars. Went from 12hours to 10hrs 11mins. and if I move around the mouse and launch a few programs it drops to 4hours.

I take it with a grain of salt. at least I now have a battery that should last 3+ hours watching a dvd for trips.

 

update: i got 5 hours again with the old SZ notebook, just surfing the web, listening to music and chatting on msn and yahoo. same settings again.

too bad i had to return it. i don't think i could've backed out of it since i had already signed a release and replacement form. my new SZ gets the standard 3-3.5 hours, sometimes as low as 2.5 =(

 

Must be a setting. There is no way I get 5hrs on the std battery. Even with everything on min I would get 3-4hrs.

 

why did you return it?

 

Hi you.

It's my first week with the SZ110B, since I bought it may/29.

About it's battery, it's autonomy was 3,5 to 4 hours, but to my surprise, I tried to remove the memory card reader that came with the SZ, and got 5 hours of the battery.

The infamous USB problem cause a major battery drain with the card reader.

Now, when I need the most autonomy my SZ can give, I will simply remove the card reader and put it in the stamina mode with dvd, audio, lan, wireless and firewire all off. In this configuration, I'm getting 5 + hours from the battery.

 

really!!!! i thought the patch fixed that. i'm going to pull mine and try. i used it on the train last night in stamina watching an itunes tv show and barely got 2.5 hours. i had screen down to 5.

 

Hi NEILK2350.

Didn't try yet the USP PATCH. Has any one tryied the patch? What are the results?

I'm really cautious to use the patch since I don't no if it will cause any problems with the SZ110B and the Windows Home that came with it.

Mozart

 

try this(I cant right now) and just let eh computer idle for a bit. once the battery indicator settles down. then pull out the card reader. yoou should see a jump in battery life.

 

me too, i noticed that whenever i don't have the card reader, my batt life gets another 45mins.

 

as in you tried that trick? having the card in, then taking it out? Then you can see an addition/subtraction of battery life? With or without patch?

 

dude i pulled the card out and so no difference

 

Ok same here. I thought I saw the power go down, but then I stuck the card back in a minute later and the power stayed the same.
btw, I applied the patch.

 

not sure whether my tech guy applied the patch. anyway to check? or where is patch? i tried a search and couldn't find a link

 

i'm not sure if i have the patch installed, mine is a SZ18gp (asia model). where can i get it, will itwork on mine?

and yes, i notice the jump in battery life when i remove the card adapter when my notebook is on battery.

 

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...dac95eda612/WindowsXP-KB918005-v2-x86-ENU.exe

 

Installed the above hotfix, and so far no problens with my SZ110B.

The hibernation is working normally. I don't use standby.

Will try to put again the card reader and see if the battery drain problem has been resolved.

Mozart.f

 

when you installed the hotfix did time remaining change to percentage charged?

 

never noticed...

 

erm, before i download that patch, i'd like to know if anyone has used it for the asia models and if it worked.

has anyone actually noticed a difference in performance?

 

i didn't. aren"t you the miracle six hour user?

 

Just an update on my posts in the first page.

With WiFi on, set to stamina mode and screen at mid brightness levels I am consistanty getting 5-6 hours out of a single charge.

Settings are as follows;

Bluetooth Off, WiFi on
STAMINA

LCD LVL4
Power Saving LCD ON
CPU/FAN Adaptive/Adaptive

Other Devices
Disabled/Disabled/Disabled/Disabled

I do not have the card reader in the laptop.
I have applied Arctic Silver 5 to my CPU.
The computer was not just sitting idle either. Most of the time Visual Studio2005 was running and also multiple torrents in the background.


Catherine - I did not notice a difference with the installation of the WinXP USB Update. I have the Asia SZ18GP model.

 

thanks for that, i guess i won't upload it if it doesn't work.

neilk2350 - i reached almost 6 hours with the other SZ, if you look at lithast post above, my settings were practilcally the same.

with my new SZ, the average life is 4 hours - and that is with the card reader inside and the other devices enabled (the rest are configured as lithast's)

 

Here is a detailed review about the USB issue...

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

The resolution explained in the review is the same thing if I apply the patch (just the path do those things automatically?)?

 

which old sz what did you change from/to

 

on standby still doesnt work. Standby will still make the sony laptop warm and drain pretty quickly.

 

thats just nuts. i was reading that vista will have better standby. but i was using a powerbook while sz was in the shop and the instant on thing was great. i disagree with people here that say the standby thing is normal. i could put my TR into standby and it would wake up with no battery drain. i havent tried standbye since you and i had the issues but i'm sure it;s the same