The official VAIO Z battery drain thread

What version of Vista/XP is Fedora 11?

 

Is anybody else experiencing significant battery drain when the laptop is completely turned off? Want to make sure its not just one or two people. If I am on the minority, I need to call Sony Repairs to get this taken care of before my warranty expires. I may do so anyway, but would still like to hear people's experience.

 

Arth, I know you mentioned not having this issue, what are your settings?

 

I dual boot between Windows (for games) and Fedora (most everything else).

In Windows, I have made sure that ALL devices are set to not wake up the machine. In the Device Mangler(TM):

Network adapters -> Intel(R) 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection:
Power Management:
"Wake on Magic Packet from power off state" is unchecked

Network adapters -> Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN Properties:
Power Management:
"Allow this device to wake the computer" is unchecked

Similar for all Bluetooth devices and USB hubs, but those should be off by default and not selectable.

In Fedora, ethtool reports "Wake-on: d", which is "disabled". When shutting down, I do it with the good old shutdown -y -g0 -h, which ensures a HALT get sent.

After shutting down from Fedora, and the machine being unplugged for two days, the battery was at 99% (which is quite acceptable, considering the natural drain and the juice it takes to start up).

I haven't noticed any battery loss when shutting down from Windows either, but I haven't had the machine off for more than half a day then. I never hibernate, but either sleep or shut down completely (which hibernation doesn't do, despite popular belief).

 

yes, if u read prior posts, u will see that the majority of z owners have this problem...

 

Don't despair VAIO fans. The battery drain is a REAL issue which affects all Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell notebook PC owners too.

http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=X_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=6727&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

No notebook PC manufacturers and Microsoft are willing to admit it is real. It's like UFO. The truth is out there!

I personally believe it has more to do with Microsoft thousands of patches. Look into our discussion and you will know why.

 

Besides the VERY long charge time for the 6 cell battery , almost 4 hours, the battery has a drain problem...

When I thought I had found the perfect laptop, I encounter these issues...LOL, quite ironic...

 

Hello,

Been a very happy Sony Vaio TZ user (TX21/B HDD/DVD combo 1.2 Ghz no 3G) since September 2008 -without- battery drain issues.
And believe me, I would have known since I use hibernate almost exclusively on it and there is often times when I am not near a power plug for 5 to 6 hours at a time due to me working in the field constantly.

The long battery life of the TZ was the main selling point for buying it for it's premium price with relativly low specifications (i.e for half the price I could have gotten a Vaio with a real GFX card amongst things)

The only thing I have changed prior to having the battery drain issue (14% per 5 hours in SHUT DOWN - wake up functions DISABLED on all devices) was install Windows 7 RC. and during the past few days I noticed my battery draining alot faster then it should and discovered the shut down battery drain issue.

I have Windows 7 RC installed for about 5 days. Works great, better than Vista actually and the install (drivers+software) is complete.

I have ghost images for a complete XP SP3 and Vista SP1 installation.
I will try to discharge the battery to 0% in CMOS and charge it to 100% whilst having Windows 7 installed.

If that does not work I will roll back to Vista and see if the battery drain persists (Vista did not have that issue for me)

Will report back on the outcome in a day or two.

 

Interessting observation. I am curious about your results. After arrival of my Vaio Z, I immediatly installed Win7. I yet have to check for the battery drain issue in my Z. Is there a freeware tool that registers the battery power level... It should give me an instant insight if I have the issue since I should see a significant drop after waking up my laptop form hibernation or standby....

 

"Is there a freeware tool that registers the battery power level... It should give me an instant insight if I have the issue since I should see a significant drop after waking up my laptop form hibernation or standby...."

http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html

 

Thank you, great tool!

 

Slightly off topic here, but with my SZ, I notice that if I charge the battery to 100% indicated, shut down, remove the charger/AC adaptor and restart on battery, I drop down to about 89-90% instantly. Is this common with the Sonys, or is my battery dying. It's happened since new, so I took it back to Sony about a week after purchase, and was assured it's normal. Sounds like bollocks to me.

It's an absolute cracker of a winter's day here on the Sunshine Coast, 20 degrees Celsius, not a cloud in the sky. Must be time for a beer.

Regards to all.

 

Battery charge is determined by its voltage level. When switching into discharge mode (running on a battery) voltage drops. So some difference between charge level when on AC and when switching to battery is natural. How much is OK, hard to tell. 10% you observe sounds like too much and is likely an indicator of weak/defective battery (in particular charge control IC in battery).

 

Good and bad news for the drain issue I experienced right after installing Windows 7, first the good news.

Decided to tinker a little bit more with Windows 7 to resolve my issue.
I.E it wasn't present in previous OS so it should be software related.
Came across the action center -> Maintanance -> Troubleshooting .
The system will take some time to run whatever it is doing and suggests some fixes for system issues.
Didn't expect anything, but time was on my side.
It reported to me that I should download and install: SODSPI-13932100-US.EXE from the Sony US website.

huh ? Interesting; I tought.
Since I'm from the Netherlands I checked the local vaio support site which did not list any file starting with SODSPI , so I downloaded it from the US site instead. After installing that I did a test .
100 % charge on AC. Turn off TZ, remove AC adapter and I let it sit for 14 hours on my desk.
Turning it back on the charge level was at 99 % , a 1 % drop.
Seems proper again.

The downside ?
I have lost the item that controls the system bus speed in the Vaio control center ( from 533 to 400 mhz and vice versa )
The option is completely gone and re-installs of the control center did not make it re-appear again *sigh*

Additionally, running the previous maintanance troubleshooting wizard again reports that SODSPI-13932100-US.EXE is incompatible ?
Which is odd since it did sort of solve my issue and I didn't experience any incompatibility warnings installing it (As administrator)

I will do a ghost image before further tinkering, I want that 533->400 Mhz option back

On a sidenote: Check out the application called GMAbooster.
It allows you to change the speed of the onboard graphics chipset from 166 (200 being default on the Vaio) up to 400 mhz without increasing voltage.
Battery drain is supposed to be neglible for bumping it - and on Windows 7 you can integrate it the power plan switching with some fiddling.

 

For Win-XP any chance to fix that, too?

 

All my devices are set to power off in device manager, since i bought my Z in Japan the battery drained a lot. About 14% per night that is quite huge issue for me and doesn't expect that battery will hang such treatment for one or two years.
Made all update bios and power management tool, nothing change... still think about vista wrong setting.
I noticed that the drain is a bit reduced when shutt down Z and on hibernation a maximum drain.

Action Center is a part of sony software? cant find on my Z

 

Action center is part of Windows 7, it is built upon the security center from Vista, except it's actually usefull for something this time around.

 

previous user claimed that he didn t have drain on his Z, anybody else can confirm? i hardly believe that every Z user has drain effect, indifferent to operating system... since it seems to be a faulty design flaw with battery circuit.

 

i recently purchased sony vaio z750, and it's first time i use in on battery i charged it fully during 2 days(lst time i used it was last night) but now i have just started with a battery life of 87%... so it seems sony didn't do anything for that issue despite the update of Z model.

 

Actually live in France, but bought a Z70B when was student in Tokyo but hardly rememer that the first days i used the Z i didn t find any battery drain... it s happened the next updates later.
Still my battery drain 14% per night, maybe the next year laptops will fix it, drain seems to be more after few month as the battery is damaged by this charge-discharge.
Now using my Z every 3 or 4 days because i use desktop at office most of time, i found my z 33% most of time...quite disapointing

 

Solution is to take the battery out each time....

 

And what good does this taking out each time do? Once the battery starts to drain, losing its ability to retain the charge, not much you can do.

cheers ...

 

I haven't heard people complain about battery drain when it is taken out...

 

Well, I just fixed/tested my battery drain problem last night. It only dropped 4% over 12 hours. All I did was sleep my comp after uninstalling vaio power management and turning off wi-fi. I am using a custom balanced windows power management and the only thing i changed was to allow the computer to sleep while plugged in (even though my laptop wasnt plugged in) for data sharing underthe advanced settings.

BTW i have a z series. Hope this helps someone.

 

I am currently in the market for a new laptop, the FW specifically, and I'm not sure if this has been posted before but I've come across an official response from Sony regarding the battery drain issue. This response apparently applies to all Vaios (the article doesn't limit the issue to any particular model). This has definitely made me think twice about buying a Vaio because I rely on the battery on a daily basis and I don't always have access to an a/c plug. Here is the quote from the support site:

"The battery of a notebook computer will continue to drain even when it is completely turned off because the computer constantly uses a small amount of power to maintain different built-in tools and functions. This is by design and is normal operation.

To avoid having the battery drain completely, periodically attach the AC Adaptor and recharge the battery.

NOTE: The battery will drain an average of 10-15% a day, even when off, depending on the environment, temperature, and power requirements of the enabled software tools and functions."

Here is the link: http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=C223674&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KNOWLEDGEARTICLES_1_1&dialogID=117014236&stateId=1%200%2047118395

 

Is this Sony's way of covering their backsides?

Come on Sony, my Mum's Acer drains only 5% in 1.5 months! And it is an Acer

 

Same issue on my japanese zm but made researches on various forum and you will find numerous post on thinkpad user forum like t61, and certified that issue (same 10% or 15% drain overnight when powered off) was solved with previous lenovo patch and drain didn t exist before many update. Reply from lenovo support claimed that the Energy Star 4 is designed in that way.

However, few months ago when i first investigate for vaio z drain issue, i found post ( ll try to catch the reference to refer here) that the issue is a "feature" and automatically drain the battery when not using to safe level, since charged battery conservation may cause trouble. In that way z user borrow another z and made test on 2 to 7 days and found that drain stopped arround 40%. On z i charged to 80% i always notice a 38-40% battery after one week and never find completely drained battery.
Note i ve 80% battery care enabled, my opinion is that battery drain fast to match a 40% battery that matche with safety recommandation for long time storage, so Sony forgot we use notebook every days and 15% overnight lost is ridiculous.

Charged z wednesday and found tonight 40% battery... drained to fast but same as 7 days.


I disabled battery care mode and repeat 5 or 7 days drain since i do not use laptop now. Someone can confirm a 40% battery stabilization?

 

i don't think so , coz i tried to turn off my laptop with 32% and after 2 days my battery completely died , i can't turn on my laptop till i attach the AC .

 

have you battery care enabled or just regular setting? i ve no switch with disabled battery cacre to see if i can reproduce what you experienced.
Anyway, in new options found in unlocked bios there may be an option to completely switch to powered device.
I also found post with vaio p user with same problem, i believe that is commun to software management in new vaio, not sure that a bad design in battery circuit has been expanded to all vaio.

 

i think it's something relating to the battery care function ( it's hardware and software feature ) , and when we disable it , we disable the software but the feature in the battery is still on ( the design of the battery that support care function is different from the normal one ) ,
coz every vaio and Lenovo which have a battery care function also have battery drain

 

I have read somewhere that if you don't use your battery, battery should be loaded at 40 % level and kept in a cool place (refrigerator) so that fast draining to 40 % would make sense but as the above poster says it is not the case...

 

Found on
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/790ed4c1-15fc-44a8-b429-e01af8f42767
Battery drain is caused by the HD Audio controller and microsoft has issued a fix and seems effective on Lenovo notebook with exactly the same amount of battery drain.
Here is the corrective http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970030/en-us
not yet installed on z for the moment, but believe that issue is related to software bug and vista.

 

but some people here faced the same problem with XP + win7 !! and i'm sure it's a software problem plus to the hardware feature of battery care ??

Edit : i just read the article and it's may be the solution !! did you try it ??

 

I did try it , but unfortunately the problem is still exist

 

Since a couple of days I am leaving the battery out of my Vaio Z21. In about a week a Sony-employee form the Brussels Centre will call to ask how much power is left in the originally 80% loaded battery.
After a first complaint the service told me that a drain of about 10% a day was normal when the battery was left in the notebook without being used! I think this is ridiculous and certainly not the aim of buying a notebook. So I really want to know how much will be left after a separation of some 12 days!
I will tell you the outcome PLUS the reaction of the Sony Service.

 

No it does not help.

Even if you dsable the hd aduio the battery drain stays.

TDO

 

Can't be software issue. How can the software cause the problem if the notebook is off.

We really need an electrician to open up and find out where the current flows.
I don't understand why Sony can't be nicer to its customers. I mean don't they want future business from them?

 

Because "off" means many different things, but on modern computers, seldom "unpowered".
Should, for example, the network cards be powered to be able to start the computer when receiving a magic packet? How about the lid? Or the space bar? Or the timer? Or the HDMI port (whose specs specifically allows for powering on remote devices)? What about the inverter for the LCD? Or detection for whether you've plugged/unplugged it from a docking station?

Software controls most of this, by flipping the bits that decides how shut off the machine should be.
At the very least, when you don't have a mechanical on/off switch, there needs to be power to the touch switch for the power button and the relay that it activates.

 

I think we are thinking of different things.
I was referring to software installed on Windows.

 

As suggested i tried the fix 2 days ago but no minor change... only noticed less drain when powered off ( hibernation drain a lot on my z)
We are supposed to admit that event powered of computer should not drain any power since devices are set to power of with main power, but if you refer to Thinkpad forum they noticed that Vista is able to change the sleep state of any device even with disabled bios option like wakeup lan.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=48423&start=30
So the energy star specification recommand to keep device on sleep state, unfortunately for the Thinkpad notebook the HD Audio was the responsible for this issue (exactly same 10-15% per night), i m still confident that issue will be resolved, maybe with the combinaison of the new unlocked bios feature.

 

Read again. It is software installed in Windows that flip many of these functions, affecting how much of the device should be powered when it is "off".

 

This might be the solution: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=402955

 

I'm concerned since I didn't know this before I just bought my Z790 yesterday. I'll see if there are any changes to the battery after I get back home. I left it at 82% with no system changes to Vista Business. I shut it down and unplugged. The BIOS is lame so there are no changes to power settings, etc.

I think someone should start pulling components to see what's sucking battery power. If it's done properly, I think we can narrow it down to either one of the components or the motherboard. But based on some other threads, this has been going on for years so it could just be Sony's fault.

If this isn't fixed, I may just have to eat the restocking fee and look for another laptop.

 

Not related to the battery drain issue but you can unlock all BIOS settings by following this link http://feature-enable.blogspot.com/2009/07/enable-vt-on-insydeh2o-based-sony-vaio.html by setting 0x25a to 1 as suggested at the end of the procedure

 

Can anyone with a Z790 confirm this issue exists or should I safely assume that this happens with all Sony laptops?

 

If you ordered from Sony Style, there's no restocking fee.

 

I bought from a brick and mortar Sony Style store which specifically stated there was a restocking fee. Sucks. Why the policy difference?

 

Have you tried this? How difficult (or scary) was it?

 

Per my findings, I had charged the Z790 to 82% at 7:30AM. I shut it down. I booted the computer at 9:30PM without the battery and plugged it in after Windows had finished booting. I found that the battery was down to only 79%. So a 3% loss in 14 hours doesn't seem bad.

Theoretically, in one week (168hrs) it would lose 36% in power from a 100% charge while it was unplugged. This isn't as horrible as some other Z owners have seen.

I'll try this again overnight and see how much I lose this time. I guess if the laptop is in storage for more than a week, removing the battery seems to be the only solution to keep it from sucking power for whatever component it may be.

 

Really easy, not scary at all

Many did it with no problem whatsoever http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=345282