The official VAIO Z battery drain thread

If you get 10 hours with zero (or less than 2% drain) please immediately post the exact, precise procedure that you followed, such as position of video switch, wireless switch, what power plan you were on before shutdown, any changes to standard settings, drain and charge procedure, when a/c cords were connected and disconnected, etc. The entire, exact procedure, please.

I just followed ufogeek's BIOS drain fix to the letter and had 8% drain in 8 hours, no change whatsoever, so please post tomorrow (Saturday) morning as soon as you have any data.

Actually 6 hours with zero drain is usable information, please post every step you took as per above with complete details, so that I can make sure that there isn't something that I have done differently than you.

 

^^^^^ ditto.

In my opinion this is fixable with a bios firmware update, since it is pretty clear has nothing to do with the OS.

I don't want to speculate, but what could possibly drain the battery like that. It must be something with a very low voltage that stays on while the laptop is off. Otherwise is just an open circuit somewhere between the battery connectors, but I guess that would drain it faster than that.

 

I am not an electronics engineer, but, yes, there must be some component draining power. Finding it would just entail having access to the motherboard with a battery installed, shutdown using voltmeter test leads. This is something that SONY could do in their test lab (in Japan or wherever it is) or anyone could do anywhere, if they were not concerned with shorting something out while testing it.

An open circuit between the battery connectors shouldn't drain power since it is open, I don't believe?

 

I tried BIOS fix too and nothing changed - still loosing 8-10% in 8 hours. BTW Im on Win XP.

 

OK, you and I (and others) all seem to get 8% to 10% for 8 hours.

Also, since the machine is totally shutdown, the OS no longer is loaded and has no bearing on the battery drain. VISTA vs XP would not be an issue when shutdown.

 

Im totally agree - this "feature" is not OS-dependant!

 

I can confirm that this works, I allowed the battery to die to 0% in the bios till it shutdown, then charged it with battery care function on to 80%.. left the laptop off for about 10 hours (unplugged), then plugged it in and turned it on.. and it reports i have 80% charge still no leakage.. this seems to be a definite fix you guyz..

 

Let me try and understand this, please be patient with me. So, I press F2 after I turn on the computer, bios will appear, and I will leave it on until it runs out of juice and shutdown by itself. Am I right? thanks.

 

well run on your OS till you see like 10% left in your battery, so go on speed mode and kill the battery till you have very little left. then restart your computer hit F2, and just let it sit there till your computer shuts off automatically, then recharge.

 

That is not a true fix.
That is a software utility to limit battery drainage to 80%.

By doing that, you can't have a 100% charged battery.

Test it.
Using the same "battery care" settings, charge the battery to 100%, then turn it off for the same 8 or 10 hours.

You still will have lost about 10% leakage.

The utility is not "fixing" anything.

You have to understand what that utility is doing.

 

I believe the battery care function DOES NOT limit battery drainage to 80% or 50% or whatever settings you picked. It DOES limit the maximum charge of the battery, that is, the battery will charge only up to 80% if you picked 80%. This is stored into the battery's memory somehow so even if you charge the battery when the notebook is off, it'll still make sure the max charge is 80%.

If someone used 80% on the battery care function utility, does a full charge (meaning battery is at 80%), followed the same testing procedure and experienced no drainage, then he/she really had no battery drainage. The utility in no way limits battery drainage.

Edit: (Clearing up what the utility actually does)
The purpose of the Battery Care Function is to prolong the overall life of your battery such that it's maximum capacity when it's new should still be same or pretty close to it 2 or 3 years down the road. That's what is meant by battery degradation. By not allowing the battery to charge to 100%, you keep the battery at an optimal charge level and thus prolonging it's life. There are guides that say 40%-50% is the optimal charge level to store your battery. By using the Battery Care Function to limit the max charge to 50%, you are maximizing the battery's overall life.

 

Yes that is correct.. you can turn off that function for all i care.. killing the battery to 0% then recharging it works if you have battery care function on or off.. just try it whats the harm

 

Does letting the battery hit 0% cause any harm? Do you see any change in battery capacity once you did this?

I remember reading somewhere that letting a battery hit 0% can kill it for good but perhaps this doesn't happen to Sony's batteries.

 

Don't notice any problems, and it definitely didn't kill it..

 

I did the drain to 0% in BIOS and it didn't help. Wll you post your step-by-step precisely so that I can check my procedure? Did you recharge to 100% in VISTA or just plugin the a/c adapter right after draining the battery to 0%?

 

well i just turned on my laptop this time without the AC adapter plugged in and it lost 8% so don't think it worked.. im gonna try to find out why the first time i did it it didn't drain.. think it probably has to do with powering on with the ac adapter plugged in.

 

Probably won't hurt doing it one time, but I wouldn't make a habit of it, for sure, it could kill it doing it repeatedly. Since we all have a 1 year warranty on the notebook and the battery, it will be SONY's problem for 1 year if the battery dies. Especially since we are working on a fix, and they are not!!

Could be, sorry to hear that, but glad to hear that the battery maximizer software doesn't have anything to do with any reported success either.

I think a power-on without an a/c adapter plugged in could consume 3% possibly.

I will do this, since I have already done the drain tp 0% and don't want to do that again to the battery:

1.) Shutdown
2.) Remove the a/c cord as soon as the lights go off
3.) Wait 8-10 hours
4.) Plug in the a/c adapter and power on
5.) Check percentage

Will report tomorrow.

If it is just not having the a/c adapter attached during shutdown and power on that is causing the drain (or even most of it) I can live with it.

 

Alrighty, I'll give it a shot. After it shuts down at 0%, should I charge with the laptop shut down? or should I charge in the OS? (I'd like to use the laptop for a little bit before I go to bed)

 

i think several peope have reported that turning on the notebook with ac causes minimal drain, but turning on with battery produces the drain. similar to what turbo reported.

 

yeah i charged it with the laptop shutdown, and wirless off...

i

 

you have to turn it on without plugged in .. so you didn't fix any thing

 

I charged with it shutdown from the BIOS when it hit 0%, but I don't know that this was the procedure that tubo264 did, that's why I asked for his procedure to be posted.

If that's the case, I can live with it, but I have now left the a/c adapter attached during shutdown, and still lost 8% in 8 hours. I have not left it attached during the powerup, which I will tonite.

We're not sure yet, we are simply trying some different things. If the shutdown and powerup cause all or most of the drain before and after an 8 to 10 hour time, it could be liveable.

 

Just adding that I appreciate efforts being made. As someone probably buying the Z in the neat future, it's nice to see people trying to come up with a solution or at least to improve the situation. I'm happily stalking the posts to this thread, LOL.

 

Well this morning when i turned on my Z, Plugged IN, the battery didn't. so i restarted it with it unplugged and it lost 3% with wireless off. This 3% loss probably occurs when you turn on the laptop, all the settings are running on high such as LCD and CPU until you get into the OS and power management kicks in. If you have wireless on i believe you may see an 8% hit in battery life. so doesn't seem like there is a solution for this but a 3% hit ain't that bad.

 

I just got a letter from Sony that my TZ 170C is subject to a voluntary recall for overheating issues due to a possible short (other sites suggest that specifically it is poor positioning of wires near the hinge causing a possible short). The recall covers a very large number of the TZ and SZ's (North America and worldwide). Is there any possibility that our drain issue is related, or would any possible short be an all or none thing?

 

TZ recall issue is unrelated and should not be part of this thread.

 

So, you are saying the 3% was with a fully charged battery, and the 8% might be with a fully charged battery with wireless on? Without waiting for any drain time to occur, right?

This may be correct.

I did what I said I would do last night:

1.) Shutdown
2.) Remove the a/c cord as soon as the lights go off
3.) Wait 8-10 hours
4.) Plug in the a/c adapter and power on
5.) Check percentage

No loss, 100%.

So, it does appear to be an abnormally high percentage of battery use just for shutdown and power-up. That is my conclusion of the issue. About 4 times what other notebooks use to shutdown and power-up from my testing.

 

aamsel, that is pretty interesting. but I thought that in all the tests ran so far the AC was being unplugged after the laptop was completely shut off, or I am wrong?

 

You are correct.
The modification was to allow the a/c adapter to be plugged in during the shutdown and startup process, but to have it removed during the complete 8 hour (or longer) time period in between.

Also, I performed the CMOS (BIOS) drain to 0% 2 days ago, which may or may not have had any effect.

 

we definitely need more people to test this. We might as well try all combination:

- ac at both start-up and shutdown
- ac just on SD
- ac just on SU

5% for SD and SU seems high.

 

I said this in the SR drain thread, but I figured it was the power down/up that was doing the draining, not anything else.

I notice if you put the notebook to max battery before shutdown then reboot, it will obviously use less battery compared to powering down and back up with everything full settings.

 

Yes, 5% for shutdown and startup is high, about 400% higher than other makes and models, but at least we know (or are close to knowing) that the Z does not actually drain power with the battery in it shutdown over 8 hours.

The drain does appear to be purely excessive startup and shutdown power only, which is decent news.

 

this is good news! I'm gay

 

I did the BIOS trick but I have not tested the drain yet. I will tonight. I did test charge loss for shut down and startup. I got 1-2% loss. This was removing the AC power before I shut down and then turning the notebook back on 10 seconds after it was completely off. I didn't put the AC power back in until I confirmed the loss.

 

That is more good news.
I have not tried that variation of the test, but 1% or 2% is a surprise.
I had an 8% loss in 8 hours yesterday, including shutdown and startup. Since I got 0% loss in 8 hours using the a/c adapter for the shutdown and startup I attributed the previous 8% to simply the power used for the shutdown and startup, which I thought was correct. I could still be wrong, however.

More people need to try every variation of what I and others have posted here.

Regardless, I am going to stick with a Z, since I otherwise like it a lot.

 

I just wanted to confirm aamsell test. Last night I tried the same.

1.) Shutdown
2.) Remove the a/c cord as soon as the lights go off
3.) Wait 10 hours
4.) Plug in the a/c adapter and power on
5.) Check percentage

No loss here!!


This is getting really intresting!

I also still love my Z so much I cant return it! No way!

 

woohoo!
another reason to choose Z over SR!!

 

Yes, that is precisely what I did for 8 hours.
That is great!
Had you done the CMOS (BIOS) drain to 0% first as I did?

 

>Had you done the CMOS (BIOS) drain to 0% first as I did?

I did this 2 or 3 days before your test. Went to BIOS and just let the battery drain until laptop died.

I still dont understand what the results of your test point at? Exsessive energy consumption on start up??? But I tried to shutdown (using battery) my Z and starting it immediately (still using battery) - no loss!!!! More and more questions.......

 

Dont start it back immediately. Wait 2-8 hours and than start it and you will notice the difference.

My guess is the Vista startup + Sony util processes drain battery initially than keeps it steady below 40% (takes longer for bars to go down)

Anyway my Z easily lasts me 5+ some hours on Wifi and surfing and thats all I wanted anyway! I love it

 

>Dont start it back immediately. Wait 2-8 hours and than start it and you will >notice the difference.

Sure I tried this too! I just wanted to point at the fact that the battery loss occure only if there is a COMBINATION of 3 factors:

1. Shutdown on battery.
2. Wait 8-10 hours.
3. Startup on battery.

Shutdown on battery + Startup on battery = No loss
Shutdown ac (then disconnect) + Wait 8/10 hours + Startup ac = No loss

BUT

Shutdown on battery + Wait 8-10 hours + Startup on battery = Loss

Right?

 

Right
: the ten word requirement sucks :

 

In this case I dont understand how this can be possible.

 

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. I just did that same test and I got 6% loss with Shutdown battery + wait 8/10 hours + Startup battery. The other cases, I got very little to no loss.

Quite honestly, the percentage it reads may say that we've lost 6-8% but the battery still lasts as if I started at 100%.

 

Sounds fine to me, I am going to stay with it, so I am done with the testing.

 

Whoops! I meant to say "6% loss with Shutdown battery + wait 8/10 hours + Startup battery". I got no loss when doing the same procedure with AC during shutdown and startup.

 

that's great news. now I'll be waiting, maybe long, for a price drop or some deal.

 

yeap, seems pretty bad, i charged my battery last night, removed from the laptop. this morning i inserted it back to my laptop and went to class..

after 4 hours, when i turned on my laptop the battery level was at 93%

 

93% after 8-12 hours unplugged I think thats pretty GOOD! (btw I hope you slept 8 hours!)

 

Is it true that previous SZ series have not battery drain problem? The case is that I am choosing between Z and SZ and after reading this forum I am confused.