SZ160 Dead Battery-Recovery Console

I've had my SZ160 about a month but have not used it for the past several days. I needed to use it today and ti would not come on with the power button. It had a full charge on it the last time I used it. I don't remember if I chose hibernate or shut it down completely, but the battery was dead now.

I plugged in the charger and tried to start up the computer and use it while connected to the charger. The computer booted up to the recovery console and I chose to cancel. Again it booted back to the recovery console giving me the option to restore back to factory defaults. I've spent quite a few hours updating and loading software to get the computer to where it was. It seems like I have lost all this work now.

Now I am wondering if I lose all my data anytime the battery is drained? Has this happened to anyone else or is there something likely defective on this VAIO? I let the battery charge for a while but I still have the same problem.

Is there any way that I can recover my old system. I don't even see a way to use the XP system restore option. When I turn it on it goes straight to the recovery console. I've got an old Dell 8100 I've let go for weeks without using and the battery retained its charge. I have also had the battery on the Dell go completely dead and the computer worked fine as soon as I plugged it in.

 

You need to return it, or contact SONY. Sounds like a failure to me. I don't know of any settings or anything that would cause you to have to run the recovery everytime you boot up.

 

I feel stupid now. I had left one of the recovery discs in the DVD drive. I had been looking for a file to load from the disc and forgot to remove it. Thanks, and sorry for the mistake.

 

sorry man, that sucks...

 

On the battery issue. I am having a similar issue with the battery on my SZ. I have it fully charged. I leave the laptop shut off for a day and when I boot up my battery is down significantly. Can start up anywhere from 60% - 80% charged. In other words, my battery seems to lose charge while the computer being shut off.

Anyone else noticed this?

 

Are you SURE it's going off and not into standby? I think the default action for the power button is to NOT turn the computer off.

 

your batt will discharge when not in use, even if not plugged into anything, but it shouldn't discharge that much in such a short period. standby could account for that kind of discharge though.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking... I typically got a day or two maximum on standby on my last notebook, and I do remember having to change the default Power button settings on my new SZ - but I can't remember if it was set to Standby (which would account for it) or Hibernation (which wouldn't).

 

The laptop is definitely turned off (turning it off through Windows, not using the power button). When starting it up again it goes through the whole boot process as when you start it cold.

I am going away for a few days this week and I will leave the laptop turned off with the battery removed (shouldn’t matter) and then I will see what charge I have left when I come back. Hopefully this is only a bad battery.

One more quick question. On my other laptop (and past laptops as far as I can remember) the Power Meter icon shows ‘On AC Power’ when I have the power adapter connected and the battery is fully charged. On my SZ it states ‘100% remaining (charging)’. This is probably normal, probably just being paranoid.

 

If it makes you feel any better, mine says the same thing.