VPC F136FM: Battery and Heat

Hi guys!

Im glad I found this forum, since from what I have read, you may be able to help me.

I bought a VPC F136FM recently and I am having an annoying issue with the battery.

I found out that everytime I played some games (for instance Half Life and Heroes of Newerth) for a little while, my battery started draining even though the notebook was plugged in.

When I alt+tab away from the game, it starts recharging again, alt+tab in, drain again.

I related this to heat since I ran a temperature monitor and plotted a graph that shows that when the gpu and the cores reach a high temperature (which happens when I am playing) the notebook cuts the power from the cord, draining the battery. This switch cools down the system (i think when running from battery it spares resources) and after a second on low temp, it starts recharging again, then heats up again, unplugs itself, cools down, and so on.

The light that indicates "battery charging" keeps flashing (1 sec on, 2 sec off +-) when i am in game.

This prevents me from playing because the battery drains more than recharges when in game, and ends up running out.

This has nothing to do with draining battery when turned off, or showing a wrong number on the battery indicator. This is another problem.

Since the gpu is the main "heater" inside this case, this "thing" only happens when i am playing games that demand some graphics. I ran some cpu hungry applications and did not have this issue.

Did anyone else experienced this? Do you have any idea what can i do to fix the issue?

Thanks in advance!

Gabriel.

 

Somebody recently posted that the F13 comes with a smaller power brick that supplies fewer amps than the previous F models. I wonder if this is related.

EDIT: It was baroninkjet. Link to post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/554368-vaio-f11-amps-power-adaptors.html

 

Well said... if that is the case I will be VERY pissed... it would be a major flaw. I don't think sony would make such a big mistake, but you never know...

Anyone else noticed anything like it? I really dont know what to do... My next step would be to install windows xp and see if it is an OS issue with win 7 64bit.

 

I would call Sony about this. I can't personally help you because even though I've had my F13 since October, I've had too much going on to play any games and don't even have any on my computer right now. But this certainly is not an acceptable issue to be having so I would call them.

Edit: Just checking to see if you have overclocked your GPU. If so, you should set back to default and see if you have the issue before calling Sony.

 

no i have not overclocked it. I live in brazil, so i tried they chat support first, which wasnt very helpful. I will try to call them and see what happens. I will post here the outcome.

Thanks

 

Hi!

I'm just writing back to tell you guys I found out what caused the problem.

I bought my notebook from a friend who traveled to the US and brought it to me, but for some reason, the ac adapter were exchanged and i ended up with a 3.3A max adapter, when VPCF136 demands a 6.15A adapter!

The notebook tried to suck the current from the outlet, and when it couldnt find enough due to limitations of the power adapter, it would switch to battery.

With a better adapter i did not experience the problem.

Thats it. Thanks for the support.

C YA!

 

Hi Gabriel,
I feel like I'm pretty much you (from the past) right now.
I'm from Brazil, I have got the same Vaio model and the same problem.
When I'm playing games like GTA 4 the battery just starts draining even when plugged, until it reachs 0 and the note shuts itself down. I've also noticed that the screen brightness keeps changing (as if someone were constanly plunging and unpluging the ac adapter) which makes it clear that it has to with the adapter (when I'm playing unplugged that doesn't happen).

I'd like to know where did you find your new ac adapter and the specifications of it.

Thanks man!

 

Hi Murilo,

You described precisely what i was experiencing. The same thing happened to the screen brightness, and the same thing also happened when unplugged.

The specification for the AC adapter is as follows : VGP-AC19V45: Sony VGP-AC19V45 AC Power Adapter Supply Cord/Charger from global-laptop-batteries.com

I found it in the datasheet http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VPCF136FMB_mksp.pdf

I just exchanged my ac adapter back. Actually, before doing it i tested using a friends ac adapter, for another vaio model, with the maximum current of 4 amps (not 3.3 A like the one i was using) and it worked ok.

You can also buy an universal ac adapter for notebooks.

good luck! c ya.

 

Thanks man!
I'm trying to get a new adapter from the shop who sold me the notebook, those adapters are kinda expensive... sucks that after buying an expensive laptop you still have to worry about those things....

 

which shop was it? they are very expensive... like 80 dollars...

do they have these adapters to sell as spare parts?

 

Na they don't have it for sale, they're gonna import me one.

 

i have a F series with a fat brick..and noticed it charged my vaio z faster than with a smaller brick..