Urgent help with complicated situation - Sony Vaio F Series

Specs:

Sony Vaio F Series
Model VPCF13YFX
Intel i7 Q740 @1.73 GHz
Nvidia 1GB dedicated
6GB Memory Ram
Windows 7 Home Premium - 64 Bit OS

Alright here goes, I know somewhat about computers and this is a weird problem for me. I just got done talking with a Sony support guy and I can tell you this, I would rather have talked with a tree. Not being disrespectful but I know that on my end, I know what I'm talking about just not sure how to fix it. My problem deals with the power supply of the computer. This happened about 3 months ago and I still can't figure out how to fix the problem. I've had this laptop for a year now and I know for a FACT it is not my battery. Please don't tell me its my battery and I need to replace it because its brand new! The Sony support tech told me its my battery after I explained my situation 10 times.

The computer will not start without the AC adapter (electricity). Even with a fully charged battery and new battery. The computer won't start with a battery but with the AC adapter it will start up. In making sure it was the AC adapter only I've removed the battery and start up with AC adapter (it turns on). Unplug AC adapter and plug in battery only, computer won't start.

Now with the computer turned on with the AC adpater (only way I can use computer now) my computer will not run at full speed. I know its not running on full speed because when I play games it runs at 30fps versus 60+ when it was working properly. It seems to me that it thinks I'm running on battery and won't run at full speed to try and conserve the battery. When the AC adapter and battery is both connected to laptop and it is started up, the icon on system tray says that it is using battery power when it is not! I unplug AC adapter, computer dies hence not battery powered at all.

Now a side note, I know that if a battery is bad and you run it on AC adpater it'll have an X on the battery icon and an electricity plug next to it. Well mine doesn't do that, it shows that it is running on battery (battery icon 87% charge) but it really isn't, its running by the AC adapter because when I unplug the AC adapter, computer dies.

By the way, battery does not charge anymore with it plugged in laptop. New battery at 100% has decreased by 13% in the past 3 months, I know batteries lose power slowly and this is what is happening and laptop is not charging it.

Power Board going bad?
Mother Board going bad?
Lose wire somewhere underneath?

My head hurts, help.

 

yeah sometimes the vaio does not recognize the battery at all even if it's genuine vaio battery that came with the vaio itself, may be uninstall and then re-install the battery checker and see what happens

P.S. I had a battery not used for 3 months, then plugged in and it tells me the battery is not properly inserted or genuine (even though it's the one that came with the laptop) after a while, it was ok again?

 

I would recommend downloading something like this program:
BatteryCare
I know you're saying it's not the battery but it would be interesting to see what this program says when you have the AC plugged in and yet the windows icon indicates its using the battery.

Also, if you live near a Sony shop, you could take it there and show them that the battery is not at fault, and get them to repair it!

 

You might have 2 different issues which is not related to each other.
If your laptop can see battery and battery still holds charge, but laptop can't run on battery when AC unplug, your laptop MB charger circuit has failed.
This failure won't cause your laptop performance issue. It could be power mamagement settings.
If you ask Sony Tech, or even Best Buy, they would just tell you to replace MB (I guess your laptop is out of warranty now) that cost $$$. You may have to find a repair shop to have them look at charger circuit (if they can).

 

Alright so I DL the BatteryCare program and here are the detailed results.
Model: Sony Corp.
Designed Capacity: 57240 mWh
Total Capacity: 54700 mWh
Current Capacity 47750 mWh (after 3 months of no charge)
Charge/discharge rate: 0W
Tension (Voltage): n/d
Wear Level: 4.44%
Total discharge cycles: 0
Last calibration date: No record
Calibrations performed: 0
Battery remaining time: 1h27m (87%)

This was kind of the answer I was looking for but DO NOT WANT. About the performance, it is not the power management system. I have changed both "on battery" and "on AC adapter" settings to High performance and computer is still sluggish altogether. I, however, could not live with a sluggish computer so I downloaded a program called ThrottleStop and what it did was that it let me disable or enable EIST and C1E which controlled the limitations of the core. I can also set the multiplier with Throttlestop. So with that program I've set everything to max and my computer runs normal again but very very very very HOT and I do not want to continue with these settings any longer so that's why I have come here. God I will not replace this MB, I hate computers/laptops/TV that in the end I have to put more into when I could have bought a different one or when I receive a darn freakin' defective one that in the end my warranty didn't even cover. I need more comments before I will move forward with a plan!

What information do I need to give more so someone can pinpoint the real problem? anyone? Thanks for all the help guys! I'm definitely cooperating. I hate losing money.

 

If you reported the problem to Sony 3 months ago while it was still under warranty then you should be able to persuade them to repair it under the warranty.

You might want to try disabling the sony battery care feature (also in vaio control centre) in the unlikely event that is causing a problem.

As to the power management, there are a number of settings that can impact things (which you may have already tried), such as "thermal management" (in Vaio Control Center), which should be on high performance (that feature is on Z, don't know about the F). In the advanced settings in power management, there's a min/max CPU speed to double-check. Also, the nvidia card could have its own power management settings. You may want to download something to monitor and change the GPU clock speeds to see if that is being throttled, e.g.
NVIDIA Inspector 1.9.6.6 download from Guru3D.com

 

All power settings set to high performance including thermal control. Min/Max cpu for both battery and ac adapter set to 100%, game still runs sluggish without throttlestop. I downladed the inspector and gpu load is only running at 10% max which I find it weird, low fps with such low gpu load. Could the power supply cause computer to slow itself in attempt to save battery power or what is it trying to do? I feel like without a sense of its power its putting itself in retard mode literally, its confused as I am.

 

Now that I carefully examined it through these programs I think it has something to do with speedstep, EIST, C1E? anybody know about these things?

 

Hey sorry to bring up an old thread. and i hope you are still able to respond, I am having the same exact issue and wondering if you ever solved what was causing it?

 

I am having the same problem as reported above by Altezza. I see Justspyn has the same problem. Mine started when laptop was about 1 year old eight months ago.
I had almost NEVER used the laptop on battery.

Any ideas? Altezza, did you solve it?

 

Altezza, sorry to bring up the old thread, but i am having the exact same problem with my VPCF1, i mean the battery problem, what did you do at last? what was the culprit, the MB circuit? have a look at this, it might help:
Sony Vaio F Series VCPF1390X Charger/Battery Issue - Sony Community

i haven't tried it myself.

 

Of course he didn't respond... he doesn't need help anymore. I can't stand people who run into issues, come to the forum and expect help for FREE from everyone and when they get their problem resolved they don't have the decency to come back and report a solution for people who end up in the same boat in the future. Next time this happens to you, I hope you don't get any help at all... </rant>

Anyways, I have a similar issue but not exactly. My laptop WILL power on with a fully charged battery but does not power on once plugged into the charger. If the battery goes dead it doesn't power on at all. Instead the green power light on the laptop flickers rapidly and when I press the power button i can see to small lights light up on the board but no fan spin or doesn't turn on. I've changed out the DC power jack and same result. Could anyone please shed some light on this?

 

Have you found a solid solution for this?

 

I have a vpcf13fx that is behaving like this as well. I have tried replacing the battery to no effect, still will not charge, and shows on battery when plugged in. I took the laptop completely apart but found no signs of damage, junk, burnt chips ect.
I tried disabling all sony battery software and that had no effect either.

It is almost like it is confused and tries to run off battery when plugged in (but uses AC anyhow without charging) and then wants to use AC when unplugged. Could it be just the signal for being plugged in is missing or backwards?