Sony Vaio VGN-NS110E Battery - How to use

Hi friends,
I am a Sony Vaio user and I have a few questions regarding how to make the best use and care of the Battery. Have tried google but unfortunately no perfect answer
hoping that you guys here will be able to help me.

First of all - Is it okay to keep the Laptop plugged in even when it is fully charged and in use. The Battery even when completely charged shows charging while in other Brands it shows that it is on AC power, so I am a bit confused. Because if it is still being charged then the over-charging might harm the Battery and reduce it's life considerably.

Second - If it's Ok to keep it plugged in when using, at what interval we should let the battery discharge completely because I think it is important to let it discharge completely once in a while.

Third - After charging the Laptop completely and Shutting it down (while continuing charging and unplugging it only after it's Shut down) when I check it after 8-10 hours of no-use the battery is around 15 percent down, i.e it loses 15 percent of charging even when it is Shut down. But if I keeps it in Hibernation it loses only around 10-12 percent of battery at most. Which i find quite amazing as it should lose more battery in Hibernation mode as compared to Shut down, isn't it?

These are my questions and I am sure many other users like me will also be getting these questions on their minds and looking for an answer, so it will be of great help for them also.

A quick reply will be really appreciated.

Kind Regards:
Amit Bindra
India

 

Hi Amit,

Welcome to the VAIO club.

I will head straight to the third point you have stated to tell you about a universal problem with all Sony VAIOs in the world.

It's called "self discharge" problem.
Sony has never documented it but when challenged with it, they called it a feature. [And all of us Sony fans are still frustrated about it.] Nor have they solved this issue. Basically, the laptop is never switched off. A notebook on hibernation or "off" should be drawing zero power from the battery but Sony notebooks have this "feature" to keep drawing power until your battery is totally flat. Their excuse is this increases the lifespan of the batteries but they don't actually tell you how that is so. In fact, lithiums are known to be dangerous if the voltage drops too low as opposed to Nickel Cad/Hydrids.

To have a better idea, do a search on this forum on "Battery drain issue" and you'd find a lot of information about it.

Based on my knowledge so far, there has been no solution nor official word from Sony about this issue. And it's frustrating considering how they totally screwed up the PR on exploding batteries too.

For the first and second points...it's alright to keep it plugged in unless you're deadset hardcore about protecting your batteries. In that case, charge your batteries to 50% and take them out. Store them in somewhere cold preferably. Just remember that you're supposed to have this machine ready for use on batteries anytime so do consider the pros and cons of killing yourself to protect the battery. Sony has a wonderful application that allows you to set the charge level of your batteries. I tend to do this...I have it set to 50% charge all the time unless I'm on business trips and I yank it up to 100% for longer battery power.

 

Hi whwtan,
Thanks for the reply.
So you mean to say that keeping the charging on while working is OK, isn't it?
But then won't it result in over charging of the Battery as the battery is still being charged when 100% instead of going to AC power?
I usually switch off charging as soon as my laptop is fully charged and only switch on charging when the battery is less than 10 %.
Which method is better for battery life?

P.S. - I don't have time to remove the battery and keep it inside the fridge, so that option is gone.

 

No one else to help

Please remove my confusion.

Regards

 

I have the VAIO SR and I think what whwtan is saying is that if you enable the Battery Care function found in the VAIO Control Center-->Power mangement-->Battery Charge Functions-->Enable Battery Care Function. Under Advanced you can set for either 80% (Battery Care Function) or 50% (Super Battery Care Function) charge levels. I have mine set for 80% which is Labeled as "Battery Care Function". When set to either one of those, the battery will charge to that level and then stop charging. This assumes that the your NS model does the same thing as my SR.

 

Thanks a lot mate for your help This was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks a lot to both of you.

I am really sorry if I sounded rude

Kind Regards

 

No problem. I just stumbled onto your thread and thought I could help.