The official VAIO Z battery drain thread

i've also tried fully discharging my battery to 0 (shut off) and recharging to full several times, but it doesn't help with the battery drain thing.

just wondering, has anyone tried formatting the vaio Z and running purely Linux or a non-Windows OS on it, without any sony software at all, and see if it somehow helps? (don't see this having been mentioned earlier, forgive me if i've missed it somewhere)

or has it been confirmed that it's a purely hardware issue?

thanks

 

...It's already been confirmed IN THIS TOPIC, that the "battery drain issue" is not really an issue, rather a "feature".

Sony has designed the Z, and the SR IIRC to automatically use some battery power while it's off. This use is designed "minimize" Lithium Ion battery damage due to storage.

Sony however probably neglected the fact that laptop owners will probably use their laptops every day... meaning batteries and laptops never really get stored away for weeks on end. >_>

 

how about you guys...

I ever used severl laptops, this is the first one has the problem, also it is my first sony!!!!!

Does it can be fixed when sony releases new bios?

 

I didnt even pay attention to it. I keep an eye out for it.

 

I mean if you charge its battery to 100%, then unplug AC plug, leave the z alone for 24 hours, then you start it, you will find the battery % is reduced 10% least, mine is reduced from 10% to 15% everyday.

I already observe 3 times after I find it drains

one day, after it was full charged at night, I unpluged the AC.
the night of the second day, I started the vista, and found the battery % dropped to 88%.
the night of the thrid day, it dropped to 73%
the night of the fourth day, tonight, it dropped to 60%

that means if you leave it unuse for 1 week, the z will lose all battery power itself!!! so bad!!!
What is the problem coming from? from the battery, bios, or z itself?

What should I do? return the z or call sony to change a new battery?
I just search the fourm, find there is the same thread reported on z, a guy changed a new battery, still cannot resolve the problem.

 

there is a whole thread about it...DO A SEARCH!

if it bothers you, return it...if you did a search, why are you starting a new thread??

by the way...251 pages...took me all of 3 seconds to type "battery drain", and this is the 3rd from the top...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109&highlight=battery+drain

 

I did not want to start a new thread, because I alreadly post the thread before find the other threads. I just edit my thread to add a sentence "I just search the fourm, find there is the same thread reported on z, a guy changed a new battery, still cannot resolve the problem.".

thanks for your link

That is true?

 

ahahaha i must have missed that post, but i would say that is 99% untrue! If it was a feature, other companies would be catching on and doing the same. People LOVE making excuses for the problems with their laptops, especially all these sony people, but this one is way better than the "loose charging point so that if you hit it, it won't break!" hahaha man, get real...

and btw, i do love sony laptops, and will be ordering mine in the next week or so, but it is wrong to cover up a problem on anything like they try to do...

 

I don't buy it.

 

...are you guys reading me at all... there is a reason "feature" is in quotation marks. >_>

Seriously. Obviously it's Sony's way for coveringup for their mistake. However, that's the official statement on the issue. So there's not really much you can do... unless anyone can and cares enough to start some sort of class action lawsuit on them.

Sadly PhilFlow, it doesn't really matter than people don't buy the explanation (I don't either, but I know that I bought my Z knowing about this, but frankly, I realized that I really don't care about it either.) because as long as Sony has some "official statement" to fall back on, there isn't much we can do.

Of course I'd rather the issue not be there, but really, other than all the crazy, hypothetical "fixes" listed in this topic, I don't think anyone knows how this can be fixed if at all.

 

It really doesn't make sense. Because the battery drains to 0% then it's not the best way to store a battery by leaving it completely dead.

 

its not supposed to make sense, simply keep them out of trouble for their own screw up!

 

anyone with the newer z or sr models and whether these also suffer from the same problem?

 

They all have this issue

 

My Z (vgn-z540nab, windows xp pro, manufactured 10/2008, purchased from PCnation on 11/20/08) does not have a battery drain problem. I charge to 80% (battery care), put in standby (orange power LED pulsing), leave it overnight (7 hrs), turn laptop on prior to plugging AC adapter in, and I had 79% of battery remaining.

Also, FWIW, I do not have a double-type problem with the keyboard either.

jonas1978

 

Hm... it's probably because you left it in standby?

If anyone bothered to read the 2nd page... this should only occur when you SHUT OFF the laptop, and leave it for a while, and then turn it back on.

Maybe Sony expects that we'll rarely shut down the laptop?

 

That doesn't sound right
standby is SUPPOSE to drain power

 

Good morning - drain problem exists on my z21wn/b - shut down last night at 80%, after startup process this morning, battery at 67%!

 

My z11wn stays at 90%, won charge any more even at the indicator, it says "plugged in, charging" but afer 1h or more, still at 90%. I can't get it back to 100%, even I use my vaio with AC power most of the time, but feel annoyed if the battery cant be charged fully.
How to fix this?

 

Sounds like you have battery care function enabled

 

no, I turned it off. When i turned it on, it was at 80%, status "plugged in, not charging" . the thing is now status shows "plugged in, charging" but always remains at 90%. Is there somethings wrong with calibration?

 

well i think ive got the battery problem aswell, and im on linux too. basically i was using the laptop on the battery with 100% charge, and then i turned it off after some use so it reported like 95% before turning it off. i take it home which is like like a 40min ride, and it says 80% now. its starting to annoy me now. i did a complete discharge twice now. and i do keep the battery out sometimes, but its not always viable when i need to carry it around.

 

I called Sony and the "level 2 tech" support explicitly told me he refused to tell me WHAT the "features" or "technology" was that was causing the battery drain, when I questioned his ambiguous responses. I believe his words were, when I asked him what exactly was causing the battery drain, "No, I don't want to tell you." He would not even acknowledge that it is a Sony-related "feature," as I told him Sonys are the only laptops to have this battery drain problem. Does Sony have something to hide? I really think people should call in and ask because the last phone call I made was ridiculous. Even though everyone seems to have this problem, Sony barely even realizes it exists (or if they do, they are certainly staunchly dodging it.)

 

Jeez, I wish I had seen this thread before ordering my Z540 just a few days ago Does the SR have this issue?

 

I tested a Toshiba R600 which also have the battery care function and I guess, I lost 10-12% in 24h. Maybe the battery care function have something to do with this.

 

Fellas.

Maybe you want to calm down a bit .. this issue does not only exist on sony laptops but e.g. I reproduced it on other brands too like IBM T61 or other actual Laptops, and in fact... its not a real issue for most people either, If you see the advantages of the VGN-Z ... like sitting on a plane (10h to go) to europe watching an HD movie on the lap and everyone is trying to stare on a blurry 15" screen 6 feet away from them .... I dont know where the real issue is....
Just enjoy the benefits!

 

I think this is a clever trick to run down the number of battery charge cycles faster so that you'll have to buy a new battery sooner! I'll most likely be wrong but if I'm not, then this is really SMART!

I too don't experience the laptop drain issues on other laptop brands as severe as the ones found on the Vaios. For the Vaio batteries, you can charge to 100%, you turn in for the night & turn off the laptop, sleep for like 7 hours, wake up & turn on the laptop. You'll generally on average see like a 10% drain in just that "little" idle time.

 

Yes very true. Benefits such as a longer battery life than most laptops out there, even with the battery drain problem.

 

On second thoughts, Sony has always been anal about piracy (such as on music from their Columbia label). Maybe Sony are so anal about battery "piracy" (in this case, the use of 3rd party batteries in Vaios) that they have built-in a tiny hardware device in each Vaio laptop that constantly checks for original Sony batteries when the batteries are attached to the Vaio laptops! That could well be the TECHNOLOGY that they do not want to reveal!

 

Battery piracy? Does such a thing exist?

 

hey, someone file a lawsuit against sony for trying to kill the recharge cycles

.. i'll rep you

 

I have Z590NGB. Recently, I hibernated and left it almost two days without charger plugged in and full battery. When I plug in charger, battery charge status LED won't on. This mean battery is still in full charge.

 

This one seems to be the only exception case on forum. Could you verify? If the case you described is a truth, why others had so common bug? I'm going to buy a Z,but the battery issue blocks me.

 

In sleep mode, i didnt see battery draining problem on my Z31
But when i fully shut it down battery %7-8 draining..
It is very interesting.
I use %80 battery care function.
I will try hibarnate mode..

 

shut down @50% today and half way after work I turned it on and it was 39%. I'm kinda pissed that its doing it. Have we determined if this will affect the total battery life overall?

 

yup , if it's suppose to live 2 years i don't think it will complete 1 year in good condition !!

 

You don't even have to read that post twice to infer that his battery definitely was draining.

 

up>>>>>>>>

 

On my Z590, I see a very mild battery drain when sleeping, and when hibernating, but not when truly powered off (as in hold down the power button for three seconds powered off).

Which makes perfect sense to me -- while hibernating, power must still be provided to the devices that potentially could be allowed to wake the machine up, like network cards and timers.

 

Arth, can you please do this for me?

Charge to 100%, with the power cord still attached shut down the computer, unplug it, let it sit for at least 8 hours, plug it in and quickly start it up and note the battery life upon windows starting?

If it's greater than 1 % you probably have the same issue we all do. If not, I'd like to work with you on figuring out what is different about yours than mine.

Would you be willing to help me?

 

Hey guys, at the end of the day all Zs have the battery drain problem, which is very disturbing for such a fine machine. I wonder if the new Z4s have this problem?

Anyway, as a standard when you guys are testing battery drain, keep this in mind:

My Mum's Asus notebook was off for 1.5 months (battery-in, unplugged) and the battery only went down 15%. Yes, 1.5 months it lost only 15% charge (~0.3% a day). Sony, get this sorted!

 

I just plugged it in and let it charge to 80% (battery service system activated), then turned it off, and in the morning after 9 hours and 10min working on Linux I stil have 79.8% left. So that is fine.

 

My Z seems ok. I didn't use it for nearly a week and it's battery only drained 5%. When I turned on battery care function set at 80%, battery remained at 80% the next day.

 

So dig this. I turned off my computer ("shut down" not hibernate/sleep) with 80% charge remaining. I did not use my computer for about 5 days. When I powered it back up, there was 0% charge remaining. That is quite messed up.

 

i had the same thing as you before some days !! I don't know how can I tell sony that they have to fix it , they and that is really a big problem for me ??

 

I just turned off my computer completely for couple hours at about 42% charge, and left it off for several hours. I turned it back on, and my SOC was down to 33%. I am not sure why its consuming power when its off completely (seems more than what is usually drained during the turn-on process itself).

 

Hum... I have the Z690. My battery usually goes down 1% when left overnight..
Like other users have pointed out, I don't think mine drains itself when taken out of the laptop.

 

Before buying Z, I want to know if the battery drain is occurred when charge to 100% or with battery care with 60% or 80% charge. Or I just have to take the battery out?

 

You have to take the battery out.

 

I noticed a few people claiming no battery drain, can those people please post the specs of their laptops including what version of Vista/XP they are running and whether or not they use battery care/bluetooth/WWAN/etc. Thanks.