Sony SZ450 battery

I have never seen the battery show more than 91% at any time. I charge it then unplug the cable turn on from hibernate and it usually shows 90%. DO other people have this problem or is there something wrong with my battery?

Thanks

 

Calibrate your battery. The Battery Guide will help you out.

 

I had the same problem too with my brand new SZ450. After a complete charge, the battery showed only 91%. I did four complete charge/discharge cycle before the calibration was correct at 100%.

 

Actually, I want take back want to said earlier about solving the problem because I just realized it hasn't in certain situations.

I noticed that when I charge the notebook when my computer if off/hibernating, the max battery is still 91%. When I turn the computer only, it'll be around 88-89%.

I only get 100% when I charge the battery when the computer is on. So, after 4 complete charge cycle, I had been charging my battery only when my computer was on so I thought the problem with fixed. Just now, I realized that I'm still having the same problem. Even at 100%, I notice that it drops to 91% extremely quickly (in about 5 minutes of minimal usage).

I'm not too sure where the problem is? I don't think any additional complete discharge and charge cycle will help, but I will still try anyways to make sure. Is anyone having the same problem? Is this a software (calibration issue) or hardware?

 

Or maybe you have a battery wear on it already?

 

I just bought it brand new from Amazon.com, so I don't think the wear would be significant. But, having said that, it would also be good to know the battery wear level. The only program I know that measure this is Notebook Hardware Control, but it's not Vista compatible. Does anyone know of another program that is Vista compatible and detect the battery wear level?

I was about to mail my battery for a new replacement until I read this thread. I feel that the odds of having two people with SZ450 to have battery level charging up to only 91% is a little slim. So, I'm thinking that it might be something else (though not sure what it could be). I just don't want to go through all that hassle to replace my battery if that isn't going to solve anything.

 

Good questions - but I haven't found an application that works with Vista and tells you the battery wear.

 

I've read this somewhere I forgot, but Sony laptops will charge the battery from 0-90% at a normal rate, anything after 90% its slower, this was for the safety of not overcharging them which can explode. x.x

 

That's pretty interesting Ryu. That makes sense to me especially what happened to the recent massive Sony battery recall.

I FINALLY found a program that is compatible with Vista that can detect battery wear level. It's called EVEREST Ultimate. My battery wear level is at 0%.

Recently, I've been charging the battery with my computer turned on so it has been charging to 100%. I get a little over 3 hours on stamina and a little over 2.5 hours on my standard battery with normal usage (surfing the internet with WAN, using a few programs including Word, Outlook, etc.).

Thanks for all your help. I think I'll be keeping my battery. For now, I don't really think there is a problem with my battery, and the battery isn't significantly under performing.

 

doughsu,

Theres also a utility called RMClock which will tell you the wear and tear state of the battery, including a good throttling management over XP power management and sony's power management. Your able to under-voltage the CPU in this util which I recommend doing. Honestly I found that this util has given me an extra half hour of battery ofcourse depending on what you really do at the time.

 

But it doesn't work with Vista does it?

My battery seem to have performed better recently, after bit more usage. Before it was like 90% under hibernate (full charge) and turned back on. But now when fully charged when hibernated - it now says about 98% when I turn it on.

So I guess there isn't much wear on my battery just yet (not that it's confirmed).

My battery lasts about 3:30hrs under normal usage, Stamina, 4/8 brightness, muted, Firefox over Wi-Fi. But I bet you I can get over 4-5 with browsing only. But never tried browsing that long before.

 

I noticed this same issue with my SZ460. Most of the time when I go to battery it will start at about 90%. It seems to have gotten better over time though and I just unplugged to check it. Started at 100% and quickly went to 99% but held there. Maybe give it some use time? I've had mine for almost 2 months.

 

I'm on XP sorry, but I would imagine it will work on Vista, guess I'm wrong.

1/2 brightness is very dark

 

1/2 isn't THAT dark, its okay when you are used to it. But it lasts longer with the battery. So worth getting use to plus don't need it that bright anyway. Only when I'm doing intensive photo/video editing then I need to see the detail or when sat outside and the sun is bright - need the full blast brightness then.