Sony Battery Drain fix request thread

Hello fellow Sony Vaio user(s).

Us VAIO users will most likely have (and still do) experienced the common and annoying battery drain issue, which Sony has dubbed a 'feature'.

Sure, Lithium ion batteries do suffer some degrading when charged near 100% or fully discharged at 0%, but many here will have experienced the battery draining from 80% (Battery Care on) to 30% (a few days later), which, to everyone here, is NOT beneficial to the battery in any way.

As a result, I have setup this thread in order to REQUEST a fix from Sony.
The fix is rather simple. From reading the forums here, it appears that a module (most likely a bluetooth module from the Z, but yet to be confirmed) remains ON on the motherboard. The fix? A BIOS update with a character edited to command the module to turn OFF when the system is OFF. It is more than likely that other VAIOs have a similar BIOS related issue. I mean, why and how else would the machine suck power when it is off? And why won't the battery drain when it is NOT connected to the laptop? The answer? The BIOS itself - something is on and it ain't turning itself off when required.

I ask that all users who are experiencing this issue to reply to this thread:

1. Post their laptop model
2. Country of purchase, and how long you had the lappie for
3. Whether you have Battery Care on (if applicable)
4. The amount of drain you are getting a day (or some other time period if preferred)
5. A short, personal request/statement regarding this issue
6. If possible, another short statement comparing this issue to another brand laptop

Posts other than the ones meeting the criteria above won't really be beneficial - I am planning on sending this ENTIRE thread to a high-end Sony member when it gets a ripe number of posts. So, I hope you understand, but please try to be contructive towards this thread!!!
Also, no double posting please - would like this thread to be as valid as possible... ^_^

Note, you can post more than ONE reply so long as you have more than one VAIO experiencing the issue. And, ANY Vaio series that was bought within the past three years and experiencing the battery drain can be mentioned here.

Anyways... Let the requests begin!

PS - the pole for this thread is supposed to say:
Would you like Sony to fix the battery drain issue on its laptops (more preferabbly, the ones that a re being sold today)?
It has been truncated for some reason...

 

1. VAIO VGN-Z26GN

2. Purchased NEW in New Zealand in December 2008, had for 10 months at time of writing this post.

3. Battery care to 80% is active

4. Getting approx. 10% drained every 24 hours when the battery is connected with the laptop; NO drain when battery is detached.

5. Being marketed as a portable mobile laptop, I would like to experience the Z with full battery potential, not being drained constantly when it is not in use while I am out and about.

6. I had a past laptop, a Samsung R45. Have not used it since buying the Z, and has been stored till a few days ago with the battery ON the R45. Decided to turn on, and when it did, battery showed 99% remaining - that is 10 months after I last used it. But the Z loses about 10% (more serious in some other cases) in a day when the laptop is OFF - not satisfactory on a small, portable device that has a great battery life when IN USE

 

1. VGN-TZ2000
2. USA, direct from Sony. Had it for 1.5yrs
3. Battery care is on (charge to 80%)
4. approximately 8-10% per day
5. I really hate having to remember to remove the battery if I'm not going to be using my laptop for a while.
6. My wife's Averatec drains about 1-2% a week. Averatec! Not exactly a high end laptop maker. Come on Sony. Step up to the plate and fix this. The battery life is great when I'm using the laptop, so why does it suck when it's powered off?

 

1. VGN-SR129E
2. USA, Newegg , 1 yr
3. Battery care is on (charge to 80%)
4. approximately 10-12% per day
5. I really hate having to remember to remove the battery if I'm not going to be using my laptop for a while.
6. My asus laptop drains about 1-2% a week. . Even if it a feature we don't want this stupid feature .

 

1. Vaio Z 690 CTO, with P9600, 4 GB ram, Hitachi 7K320 HDD, Dual booting Windows 7 RC 32x and factory installed Vista 64x.

2. Customize order by phone in USA. Order date: 2/19/09

3. I Have had the battery care function set to 80% since the 2nd week of receiving my Z, after 3 full charge-discharge cycles.

4. I have my Z docked (my AC adapter is plugged 24/7) whenever I'm not taking it with me to school, so I cannot comment on this. However, before I started using the docking station, I had experienced a battery drain of around 5 - 8% per night (~ 8 hours).

5. Currently, I'm trying to avoid battery drain by having my Z docked 24/7, only taking it off the dock when I bring it to school. However, it would be extremely useful if Sony can release an update driver resolving this prominent problem, given the premium price Sony is charging for this model. Considering the limited charging cycles for the current generation lithium ion batteries, a battery drain fix would help enormously in preserving the battery life. It somewhat defeats the purpose of taking all the effort to make a Battery Care function, when the laptop is still slowing draining the battery even when powered off.

6. My $500 Acer Travelmate with a two generation old processor that I picked up at Staples with a discount a year and half ago does not have any noticeable battery drain problem. The battery life of that laptop is only around two and half hours even if I try to stretch it. If the $500 Acer can do it right, I would expect my $2K+ Vaio to do the same, if not better.

Thank you.

 

1/ Vaio SR46GD/B
2/ Sony retail store in Viet Nam, I had this for about two months
3/ I used to turn battery care on (80%) but this doesn't make a change except for make the charging time faster.
4/7% each night and about that amount in half hour sleep or hibernate
5/ EXTREMELY ANNOYING for me as a customer.

 

1. I'm using SZ370P
2. Bought it in Russia, however it's a US model, so you may think of it as purchased in the States. I got the machine for a bit more than 2yrs now.
3. There was no battery care app when I bought the laptop. However, when I say the thing on my friend's SZ6, I installed it, but couldn't really see the benefit.
4. If I leave it for a day with battery plugged in, 13-15% of battery is shaved off.
5. Too bad the the battery is drained that much. In my current setup 15% of battery power equals to roughly 25-40 minutes of work time depending on the usage pattern (I use the laptop for college so slides/notetaking is the primary purpose in class), too bad I lose 1/7th of possible battery life just because of some stupid software issue.

 

1. Z71JB Japanese version. P9600, 320hdd, 4g RAM, vista64 premium. and all update to last version included BIOS updates.

2. bought in Sony Store Tokyo, Ginza. About 8 months of regular usage.

3. Use the Battery Care 80%

4. Charged at 80% and put in hibernation and have 8-10% drain for overnight.
Same with completely switched off computer but less drain 7% average.


5. This battery leakage is so annoying. after full charged battery to 80% and abnormal battery drain and 2 resume from hibernation the battery is about 65%.
If i don t use my laptop for 4 days i have 30-40% battery remained that is not acceptable for a such expensive laptop.

6. Have a Asus F3sv and use once a week and exprerience 1% of battery loss after restart for a week.

 

1. Laptop model : VGN-Z12GN/B

2. Country Purchased From: India. Period of usage: 1.5 Years

3. Battery Care Function Set: Yes @ 50%.

4. Drains while Power Off @ 10 % with in 12 Hours. NO drain when battery is detached.

5. I am an Executive with a Fortune 500 Company. I had purchased this Laptop coz of the Battery Backup that it could provide while I am on a Long Flight. Its not that every Aircraft will have a Battery Adaptor Port available. It doesn't work out for me since the battery drains irrespective of usage. Result is I use a ThinkPad T400S. My Z is kept some where in the cupboard. For me as of now its a INR 100,000/- worth Paper Weight.

6. My ThinkPad doesn't have this battery drain issue at all, whether u keep it disconnected from power for 24 hours or 48 hours (Sat + Sun). It still sits at 100% battery level on Monday !! Awesome it is.

 

1. Post their laptop model
VGN-SR26GN

2. Country of purchase, and how long you had the lappie for
New Zealand, 7 months.

3. Whether you have Battery Care on (if applicable)
Had it on from day 1 but it does not stop the battery drain whether it is on or not.

4. The amount of drain you are getting a day (or some other time period if preferred)
~15% every 24 hours with battery attached.

5. A short, personal request/statement regarding this issue
Sony, fix this issue! You guys offer "premium" products and services, and as customers we pay a very "premium" price. Time to fix this annoying issue!

6. If possible, another short statement comparing this issue to another brand laptop
I have a 2-year-old Acer laptop (budget) running Vista Premium. It was left alone for 4 full weeks with the battery attached in the cupboard. Upon turning it on, it had only lost under 2% battery life.

 

1. Laptop model : VGN-Z750D/B

2. Country Purchased From: USA Period of usage: 1 Month

3. Battery Care Function Set: Yes @ 80%.

4. Drains while Power Off @ 10 % with in 12 Hours. NO drain when battery is detached.

I guess that if Sony Cares and/or Listens, they would release a Bios Fix, or a System Patch that can resolve this issue for once and all, Paying huge amount for such silly malfunction is just very bad and unjustified whatsoever.

Willy

 

1. Laptop model: Vaio VGN-Z4
2. Country purchased from: Germany
3. Battery Care doesnt matter (battery drains while it is on or off)
4. drains approx. 6-8% in 12h with the extended battery while laptop is in hibernation or shut down
5. Fix required!
6. Already had two low budget "no name" laptops, two Asus laptop and one IBM Thinkpad - no drain with these brands so far

 

VGN Z11WN

Battery care set to 80% drain around 10% of the battery each 24 hours.

I had thought it was a bug with the software that displays teh battery % because no one would be stupid enough to make a self discharging laptop... It seems having found this threaad that I was sadly mistaken!

At least I know wheere the power is going!

PLEASE fix this sony.

 

1. VAIO SR490 CTO
2. Purchased direct from SonyStyle USA site back in August 2009
3. Battery Care on and set to 80%
4. Drains about 7% in 10 hours. More if off or hibernate longer
5. Bought this laptop in part becauase of the advertised 6 hour battery life. It is nowhere near that and this drain issue only adds to lack of good battery life. Spending the top $ like I did for this unit and then have this problem has soured my experience with Sony.
6. I currently have an HP DV2 and I do not see this issue when in hibernate or off. Also, I had an older Dell E1505 that never had this issue either.

 

1. VGN-SZ750N/C

2. New/refurbished in USA 14 months ago

3. battery care 80%

4. about 8% per day when off & battery installed. NO drain when battery removed from computer. Same results on second Sony battery (bought thinking original battery was defective.)

5. Please fix, Sony! My faith in you is getting weak.

6. Considering replacing unit if not fixed soon. Its replacement won't be Sony. Problem defeats primary purpose of "portable"computer.

 

1. Vgn-nw150j
2. new refubrished from USA, 2 months ago
3. battery care 80%
4. about 10% every night
5. that's a well known problem in many Vaio models (just look it up and you'll find several forums as this one). I've got a new battery from sony, but the problem still exits.
6. currently in Israel so I'm having trouble contacting Sony US and sending my laptop for inspection at their labs...

 

1. VGN-SZ780 CTO
2. SonyStyle USA, about an year ago
3. Battery care running at 50% mode
4. With the WIRELESS set to ON, the battery drains about 7% over 24-hr period. With the WIRELESS set to OFF, the battery drains about 7% over 24-hr period.

Thanks!

 

1. Vaio Z 690 CTO, with P9600, 4 GB ram, Hitachi 7K320 HDD, and factory installed Vista 32x.

2. Customize order on line in USA. Order date: 6/14/09

3. I Have had the battery care function set to 80% since the first week of receiving my Z, after 2 full charge-discharge cycles.

4. I have my Z docked (my AC adapter is plugged 24/7) i am experiencing a battery drain of around 5 - 8% per night (~ 8 hours).

5. Currently, I'm trying to avoid battery drain by having my Z docked 24/7, only taking it off the dock when I bring it to work. However, it would be extremely useful if Sony can release an update driver or Bios update resolving this prominent problem, given the premium price Sony is charging for this model. Considering the limited charging cycles for the current generation lithium ion batteries, a battery drain fix would help enormously in preserving the battery life. It somewhat defeats the purpose of taking all the effort to make a Battery Care function, when the laptop is still slowing draining the battery even when powered off.

6. My $300 ASUS EeePC has no problems holding the battery charge. And only drais 1-2% every two days.

Thank you.
__________________
Sony Vaio Z690 CTO: Intel P9600 | 4 GB RAM | Hitachi 7K320 HDD | Premium Carbon Fiber Lid |

 

Brandnew VPC-X11S1E.
ultra-slim Vaio x-series.
Battery drain of about 15-20% per day even when the machine is shut down.
Gave it back.

Next Try a used Vaio VGN-TT11LN

better drainage rate! about 4-5% per day.

All in all it is a nuisance!

 

1. VAIO Z31WN/B.

2. Sealed brand new from ebay, arrived 01 Oct 2009 (2 months from this post)

3. Battery Care switched OFF.

4. Battery drain rate is around 12-18% every 24 hours

5. This is a total inconvenience, I don't use my Vaio often, but when I do use it, battery has lost half its charge. Secondary PC for mobility use, what's the point if it doesn't have enough juice when I need it. Battery will be completely depleted within a week if left uncharged! Same problem with my SZ3.

 

1- VGN-SR290NTB
2- SonyStyle USA, 01/01/2009
3- Battery care running at 80%
4- about 10 to 12 percent over night, No drain when battery when battery removed
5- It's very annoying to leave it all the night on AC and forget the adapter or to remove the battery and forgetting it. Hey Sony it was the most expensive laptop against all other brands of the same category. And what can i do if I set the battery care to 50% and came after 24 hours with 33% of charge.!!
6- My dell insprion 510m which completing it's fifth year with me, drain only 1% over a whole week.

 

1. VGN-Z590 CPO
2. Sonystyle USA, April 2009
3. No battery care
4. 12% per 24 hours
5. I have to store this thing with the battery removed for it to be at all useful. This is completely ridiculous given the mobile nature of the device. It's a shame Sony doesn't seem to care about its customers.
6. Name any other brand. The battery doesn't drain. There should be more about this from review sites as well.

 

1. VGN-NW11S
2. UK, October 2009
3. No battery care
4. 20%-30% or more in 8 hours of hibernation
5. This is completely unacceptable.
6. I've never seen anything like this with any other brand of laptop I've owned (Dell, Toshiba).

 

1. vgn-890
2. sonystyle.ca october 2009
3. no bc
4. 15% a night 12hrs
5. fix it!
6. oh c'on, my 5 year old toshiba does not do that!

 

1. Vaio Z51WG/B, with P9600, 6 GB ram, Hitachi 7k 400GB HDD, Factory Installed Windows 7 64bit.

2. Purchased in the UK from Sony on December 4th

3. I set the battery care function to 80% since the first full battery charge.

4. I am losing about 10-12% of the battery charge over an 8 hour period during the night. Bluetooth is enabled on my laptop as I have a bluetooth mouse, however, I expect this to be switched off when the switch off the laptop.

5. Currently, my laptop lasts about 1 hour 40 minutes on battery power which is the worst I've ever encountered in a laptop. The advertised battery times cannot even be achieved by Sony Stores in Edinburgh, and are downright misrepresentations/exagerations in order to promote sales.

6. I have a £300 Phillips Freevent running Windows Vista Ultimate, which achieves a full 3 hours of usage on a single charge and loses virtually no decernable power from the battery over night when the laptop is switched off. I also have an Apple Macbook which achieves a 2.4hour runtime on battery and again suffers virtually no battery drain when the laptop is powered down. The loss of battery power when the laptop is not bein used is clearly a fault in the design of the laptop, and one that needs to be broadcast to potential buyers to make them aware of this fault when buying.

Just my 2c, but it strikes me that the only way to improve the situation is to flood the internet with reviews of the z Series laptop highlighting the built in battery defect. Maybe if whenever anyone types in "Sony Z Series Review" into Google, they get a list of reviews from sites saying there is a battery fault in these models, Sony will take action either to whitewash the issue or correct it.

 

SZ/Z, various models over the last few years.

Battery care off.

Normally I fish the laptop out from the dock when I leave, but if I should forget and put any of the above in a laptop bag overnight when switched off, I start off the following day on about 85% after bootup.

As much as I may rag on my Macs they do not to this. Neither does any other machine I'm aware of at the moment, or recently.

 

............

 

1. Vaio VGN-NS12M/W 3GB-RAM 120GB-HD, Vista Home

2. Purchased in Italy brand new around end of 2008

3. Battery care turned off, but *DOES NOT APPEAR TO WORK ANYWAY*

4. I am losing about 10-15% of the battery charge over a 8 hour period during the night. Everything switched off.

5. Currently, my laptop lasts about 1 hour 30 minutes on battery power because the battery probably weared off by staying always attached to A/C to overcome the dramatic auto-discharge.

6. I have a Dell inspiron M70, absolutely no probem there.

I suspect my battery is fault, because it wont fully charge to 100% even if battery care is turned off, but 6month warranty already gone.

 

..........

 

1. VGN-Z710DD
2. Canada. Had it for 2 months now.
3. Battery Care is OFF
4. Losing 5 -10% through an 8 hour period.
5. Because of the amount of loss, I am forced to remove the battery during my travels between Canada and Japan. Executives using executive (so-called) equipment should not be faced with silly issues such as this.
6. I'm a dedicated Sony user. So I cannot compare with another laptop. I'm hoping the next Z series will solve these issue (and probably create new ones). If not, then dedication will deplete.

 

VGN-FW11ZU

Purchased in the UK. Laptop owned for over 12 months

Battery care has been in use since day 1, set at 80%.

About 20 to 30% over a 24 hour period

Sony, a fix needs to be provided to fix this issue. I will not be buying another Sony laptop when it is time to replace my FW11 due to this issue, despite my first choice being a Sony laptop (I absolutely love my FW11 model because of the screen, keyboard, and size - but the awful battery drain when it is off would prevent me buying another Sony laptop again).

I have a work supplied HP business laptop, my daughter has a HP laptop, my son has an Asus laptop - all of those models DO NOT suffer from noticable battery drain when powered off, even for several days (or weeks).

This issue was occuring in Windows Vista which was supplied with the laptop, and is just as bad with Windows 7 which I have upgraded to.

 

I have a new sony cw that suffers from the same battery drain issues. Never would have bought if I new before hand.

 

1. VPCCW21FX
2. Brazil, 2 months
3. Battery Care on - 80%
4. 10% in 8 hours
5. Sony this is my first Vaio, and my last if this issue continues
6. I have Macbook, Toshiba, Asus, Acer...and none have this problem with battery.

 

1. VPCZ112GX/S
2. US, 5 days
3. Battery Care on - 80%
4. 8% in 12 hours
5. I have had other sony laptops before and the battery drain issue did not exist on that machine. This laptop is amazing, and its sad that this battery drain issue exists for so many of your laptop lines. Its a shame that I can't recommend this wonderful machine because of this serious design flaw.
6. I have had a Lenovo, Dell, Macbook Pro, Fujitsu, Sony Vaio laptops in the past. NONE have such a severe battery drain issue. I can understand 2 to 3% over a few days. But 8 % of 12 hours is ridiculous.

 

1. VPCCW27FX
2. USA, 7 days
3. Battery Care off
4. 40% in 24 hours
5. I purchased this believe this was the best laptop for my needs out there and i truly believe it would be if it wasn't for this extremely critical issue that you need to take care of. I've had a lenovo Y530, acer Aspire 7720 and dell 600, 610, and 630 and i've never experienced such a major flaw in a laptop such as a battery outright draining. It kind of defeats the entire purpose of having a laptop! This will be my last Sony Vaio product if this issue isn't at least ackowledged and addressed in a reasonable time frame. I will be sure to let all of my friends and relatives know my experience as they all come to me for tech and IT questions. Its up to you guys to determine whether i steer them to or away from your products!

 

1. VGN-AW31S
2. Sweden, 6 months
3. Battery Care on
4. About 15-16 % drain every 24 hours with battery attached.
5. As a professional video producer i have bought my VAIO as an editing tool in the outdoor field and the battery drain is a disaster in my production work. I have for many years used professional Sony HD equipment and the Sony reputation has dramatically been damaged due to this battery issue.
6. For many years I have worked with laptop workstations from Dell an HP, but never experienced such a battery drain from them.

 

1. VGN-Z750DB

2. USA, since 8/30/2009

3. Battery Care is disabled

4. 100% -> 75% in 3 days (roughly 8%/day)

5. I thought I had a defective laptop... I disabled BC specifically due to this battery drain problem, because I try to get as much time as I can from a " mobile business" laptop. The tech support pointed me to a link that explained it as a "feature". Having to always keep the laptop plugged in to A/C when not in use is totally NOT acceptable for a " mobile business" laptop.

6. I had a HP ZE5200 laptop from 2003 - 2009 and it never had a battery drain problem. The only battery problem was the inability to hold charge due to the age of the battery.

 

1. VPCCW23FX
2. Brazil, 1 month
3. Battery Care on - 80%
4. 10% in 8 hours
5. This is my firto sony vaio, and its more expesive than other brands... I'm not satisfied whith this problem...
6. I had a Toshiba and a Acer before, and never had any problems whit battery drain.

 

The battery drain during hibernation is real. It is an operating system issue. It began with Vista and continue with Win 7.

With Vista, it was the HD audio controller which caused the drainage. It took Microsoft 3 years to come up with a bug fix. The bug fix was quietly issued last July (article ID: 970030). After this patch is applied, the battery drain stops. This bug fix works for my IBM X61s/Vista. However, some VAIO users said that it didn't work.

Unfortunately, this bug fix doesn't work for Win 7. I know because I have a Lenovo X200/Win 7. It might take Microsoft another 3 years before it could issue a bug fix for Win 7 users.

If you don't intend to wait 3+ years for an official solution, here are the workarounds:

1) Detach your power adapter before you hibernate your notebook PC or,
2) After you hibernate the PC, detach the battery briefly and reattach it.

Most PC brands tech support will try to convince you that the drainage is normal; it is not. However, it is a Microsoft OS issue.

 

1. Sony VAI VGN-SZ330 P/B
2. United States, 2.5-3.0 Years of Ownership
3. Battery Care Unavailable for this model (I don't see any options for it).
4. Fully charged battery. Boot up 10 minutes later = 80% battery charge. 1.2 Hour of use before shutdown (DOS application & light web surfing with wireless lan).
5. Used IBM Think Pad T Series. No such draining and has a much larger display. Easily 2-3 times the battery life. Heard of this problem through out the entire Sony Vaio line. Will not purchase again, unless resolved.

 

1. VGN-FW390
2. USA, One year
3. Battery Care enabled
4. 10-15% drain in 12hr (shutdown or hibernate)
5. Laptop came with Vista, upgraded to win7. I experienced the same problem with both OS. This problem is aggravating, and I will not buy another Sony product until they address and fix this.
6. I love everything else about this computer, but every other laptop I have owned or used does not have this issue.

 

1. Vaio SR-190
2. United States purchased in august 2008.
3. battery care is on
4. latest event was 59% charged and could not turn on laptop 1.5 days later since it had discharged completely to 0%
5. this annoyance is a constant reminder of why i will not consider buying a vaio for my family members or friends who ask me about computer advice.

 

1. Vaio VPCX131
2. United States purchased in Oct 2010.
3. battery care is on
4. latest event was 80% charged and left for overnight 10 hours. Battery turned on at 73%.
5. Cant believe sony still havnt fix it. But this remind me the compliants on the official PS3 forums. I was there for 4 years, did SONY fix or even have any words regarding the compliants? NOTHING. Not a single one!!! The only one they admitted and fixed are the one which made on news in Engadget, Yahoo. Guess that's typical.

 

................

 

...

10char

 

1. VPCZ1390
2. Canada, a month
3. Battery Care at 80%
4. 10-12% a day
5. This is unacceptable, it needs to be fix ASAP
6. I have had HP, Dell, IBM and the maximum I have seen is a 2% drain per day.

 

1. VGN-FZ31S

2. Italy, late 2008

3. Battery Care is disabled

battery drain sucks!

 

1.VGN-FW51JF
2. Netherlands, 1 year old
3. n/a, i have the balance power plan selected
4. 20% loss in 24 hours, running empty in a few days while laptop being completely switched off
5. I expect a laptop to be portable so that I can carry it with me while traveling, this laptop is like having a car you can only drive from fuel station to fuel station... I consider never buying a vaio again unless the battery issue is fixed.
6. I have a 7 year old compag laptop which has never had problems with the battery. I use a Lenovo T60 for work with good battery life even in hybernation or standby. I can not understand that a newer laptop like the vaio cannot match older laptops.

 

1. Vaio VGN Z820 Win7 Pro
2. United States purchased in Jan 2010.
3. battery care is off, wake timers disabled.
4. When notebook is off and battery installed there is a 15% drain per day after one week the notebook won't even boot without being plugged in (battery is dead). when the battery is uninstalled there is a 2% drain per week on the same battery.
5. Can't believe Sony still hasn't fix this issue. Very disappointing!

 

1. VAIO SVT11113FGS
2. Singapore, 3 month
3. Battery Care ON
4. 10% overnight
5. a fix or a workaround; it shouldn't drain that much
6. As mentioned, it should not drain as it's still new