Updating BIOS for Sony Vaio's (New Battery)

Ash0770 here!

Hi everyone, after my battery and battery charger dying on me I decided to buy a new charger and battery. My SONY VAIO VGN-CR21S/W is a beauty.

I received my battery 24 hours before my charger so by the time my charger came, my battery was dead, oops... Little did I realise, my new battery wouldn't charge as I needed to install the discs and update the BIOS but for that you needed 30% battery or more, not even plugging it in would do it. After looking endlessly over the internet I realised that the battery I had bought was not compatible with windows 7 and the seller even explained in bold letters "DO NOT BUY IF YOU HAVE WINDOWS 7 AS IT WILL NOT WORK". That didn't phase me as I like to prove myself right... or wrong! I also found that many people had the 'Your battery is plugged in, but it's not charging' problem, but none of the solutions worked for me. So here was my solution...

1. Open the BIOS Update disc that is included with the new battery on a different computer, transferring the files to USB stick and putting them on my laptop. (The reason for this is because I can't use discs at the moment so ignore this one)

2. Open the BIOS Update and you'll notice that it'll say "Your battery isn't included." or "Not compatible with Windows 7!" or "Battery is under 30%" and will not let you go any futher. Close all programs, and right click BIOS Update and then properties. Tick 'use as administrator' or whatever you call it and also 'compatible with windows vista' instead of windows 7.

3. Go into config and change 'Capacitypercent' to 0 (Zero) and then save. Put your new battery in your laptop and open as administrator.

4. Accept agreement and click 'File Mode' after a few minutes, your laptop will reboot, your battery will start charging and everything is looking fine and dandy; looks like you could use it on a Windows 7 laptop!


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Other methods would be:

- Take out AC Charger
- Shut down laptop
- Take Battery out
- Put AC Charger back in
- Turn on computer and click start
- Control Panel, System, Device Manager
- Uninstall ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery
- Shut down
- Take out AC Charger
- Hold down the Power button for 60 seconds (God knows why but apparantly it works; drains the leftover power )
- Put the battery back in
- Put AC Charger back in
- Turn on and click start
- Control Panel, System, Device Manager and click 'Action'
- Scan for hardware changes and see if your battery now charges.



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If your laptop works on AC Charger without battery, then it's either battery or software problem. I'd hate to see you guys buy a brand new battery again to find out it was a software problem like me!
If indeed your battery is new and it is the correct laptop battery then I suggest backing up, and doing a clean install (there is plenty of tutorials or information online if you don't know how to do that)

Also, check if your battery light is flashing or glowing or anything when plugged into AC Charger (With battery), if it doesn't, then you might have a motherboard problem; which is nasty!


That's my input for now, if i've helped one person out, i'll be happy! Nothing worse than stressing out over a problem and you can't find a solution!

Adios!