Vaio CW Battery Drain

Hi all-

This is also in the CW owners forum, not sure if that's a breech of etiquette, but just saw that there is a big Z series thread on battery drain, and thought maybe people out here had tips on this...

I just got a CW i5 from Best Buy.com a few days ago (its the VPCCW27FX). I have since noticed that it has serious battery drain issues.

My computer seems to lose about 7% of battery life PER HOUR when in sleep mode (although at some point it seems to put itself into hibernation). (I just put it to sleep for 2 hrs, and it dropped from 90% to 77%. Last night put it to sleep at 40%, and computer would not start up this AM w/o immediately going into hibernation again b/c battery totally drained)

Dunno why this is happening - computer seems to be asleep (screen off, blinking orange LED on front, etc.) and certainly is hibernated when I start it up again (vaio splash screen, etc.), but if I am losing 7% an hour, I will need to return it.

Battery life seems to be okay when I am using it though - watched and hour of DVD last night on battery, which dropped the charge from about 80% to 40%.

Any thoughts? I have a week to figure this out before I can no longer return to Best Buy. Love the computer otherwise...

Thanks,
Alex

 

I have found that a lot of Vaio notebooks run multiple components off of USB interfaces... for example the touchpad, webcam, and some even put the ethernet over a USB bus (although the CW has ethernet over PCI-e). Well, as Sony's BIOS allows you to charge USB devices even when the notebook is in sleep mode, then that says that the BIOS never actually suspends the entire USB subsystem, therefore causing battery drain. Try it! Put the notebook into sleep mode then plug in a USB device like a phone or MP3 player, it will start charging.

Try disabling USB selective suspend under the power management options in Windows 7. If your computer doesn't act right afterward after coming out of S3 then just re-enable that option. Some notebooks don't like you to turn that off.

 

So have you found the exactly solution for this problem yet?

 

I will have to try the selective suspend, but I am afraid that is not the issue - I just had my computer fully shut down and powered off for the past 24 hours, and noticed a 30% battery drain (from 43% to 13%) in that time period. I think the BIOS must still be running even when the computer is fully shut down, and I'm guessing the selective suspend won't fix that.

On an aside, there is a tool I found online that lets Windows 7 monitor your computer's power usage. I saw it here: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/05/hidden-windows-7-tool-troubleshoots-sleep-mode-problems/

I ran the program on my computer and several alerts came up, including one that says some of the Sony hardware on my CW is incompatible with Windows 7 sleep mode. If someone wants to help me interpret, I can post the results of the test in this thread.

 

The hardware in the CW models was, IMO, built for Windows 7. The PM45 chipset in the Core 2 models, and the HM55 chipset in the i3/i5/i7 models are rock solid under Windows 7. If you have the right drivers installed it should function properly. Now the battery drain could signal a battery or BIOS problem... But I'm still guessing it's in the drivers you have installed or how you have your settings set. In a weird twist of events I'm now back in possession of my CW and I DO NOT experience any of these problems. I can put my CW to sleep and come back to it 2 days later and still have at least 90% depending on the ambient temperatures of where I left it. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have as to what my settings are or which drivers/versions I have installed.

 

Forgive me for asking but wouldnt a computer in sleep mode still drain the battery?

Sleep mode still keeps the board and ram powered up among other things so what are you expecting to be the acceptable power loss per hour?

 

I just tested my CW with sleep mode for 1 hour 20 minutes.

35% power loss!!!!!! (and i had wireless and bluetooth off)

Something is wrong. I am now going to test with unit completely off and see what happens.

 

Found this on the Sony Support site but it is draining much more than 15% a day for some people.

 

Have you done a clean install of Windows 7? I highly recommend it. It worked wonders for my battery life in general.

 

No I just tried to clean up the factory install. You really think it will make that much of a difference?

Also when you did a clean install did you install any of the Sony tools like the One Care center?

 

Yes, for me it made a noticeable difference. It's my personal policy that every computer I buy gets wiped with a new Windows install as soon as it comes out of the box. Bloatware be damned!
No, the only software I installed that was from Sony was the notebook utilities and the Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device Driver and the Vaio Event Service. With the right drivers Windows knows how to manage itself pretty well. And IMO it's the Sony software that messes Windows configurations up.

 

After doing that did your battery drain at all?

I unplugged my laptop that was off this morning at around 7 am. I plugged it back in at 9:10 and the battery was down to 92%.

 

Ok I did a battery test with the unit off last night. Turned unit off last night at 50% and when I turned it on today it was still at 50%.

So at least Im not suffering from serious battery drain when the unit is off. Now I just need to figure out why in the frack it sucks so much juice in sleep mode.

 

So, now we're narrowing it down. Sleep mode is the mode that drains battery. So this tells me that you're machine isn't properly hitting the C3/C4/C6 state. I have confirmed that the way Sony ships this notebook C3E and C4E are not enabled, so your machine cannot enter the deep sleep modes that offer better power savings when sleeping. Your sleep modes are: C3 is Deep Sleep, C4 is Deeper Sleep, C6 is Enhanced Deeper Sleep. Deeper Sleep is functionally identical to the Deep Sleep State but at a 66% lower core voltage, and the Enhanced Deeper Sleep flushes system memory dynamically, based on demand or during periods of inactivity. Power savings occur as the cache ways are turned off once the data has been saved in memory. Because L2 cache data integrity determines Deeper Sleep minimum voltage limits for the Intel Core Duo processor, once the Dynamic Cache Sizing feature flushes the entire L2 cache to memory, the processor transitions to a new power management state. I would first try to get rid of anything Sony except what is functionally needed, then use the Intel INF update utility to install the latest mainboard drivers. Then see how that functions. Also with the auto-hibernation when sleeping for a certain amount of time... go into the Windows 7 power management control panel, click on "Change Plan Settings" then click, "Change Advanced Power Settings" then branch out the sleep settings. Under the sleep settings change the "Hibernate After" "on battery" to some huge number, I put 6000mins.

 

Thanks xgx for all the help. Im going to try everything you listed tomorrow evening when I have a little time to work on it.

 

Mine is draining while completely off.

There was another poster that had the same issue. I'm starting to live with the screen. If I can get this squared away I probably will just keep this laptop.

 

What Sony programs are not absolutely needed? I'm ready to go on a mass uninstall binge soon as you let me know .

 

That was me. So, I still definitely have a drain problem with both the computer being asleep and off.

Last night, I charged the battery to 100% and removed the battery, thinking maybe this was a bum battery that couldn't hold a charge anyhow. After starting up the computer 20 hours later it was at 95%, and I think most of that is probably due to power used to boot the machine. (I have an i5, and I don't know much about these new chips, but the whole system seems pretty power hungry- it's down to 90% already after 10 minutes used to get to this thread and post)

Regardless, this definitely appears to be a sleep/off and not a bad battery. I'd like to fix it too, and am not really all that keen on doing a clean windows install. I guess I'll start by trying to remove unneeded VAIO software. Could this be a BIOS issue? Also, I can post results of that windows 7 power analysis tool.

Alex

 

that' a good question.

Cknob seems to have only the sleep issue and no problems with the battery draining while off.

 

I was in a thread talking about this yesterday... but here are the only ones you NEED.. some of the ones included like SmartWi provide a convenience for some users..

Vaio Notebook Utilities
Vaio Shared Library (everyone says this is necessary for other Vaio apps to function)
Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device Driver

BUT! Before you go on a mass uninstall binge.. Consider that when you uninstall some programs, they have dependencies on others and others have dependencies on them, so be prepared for some error boxes and windows messages.. I'd recommend a new Windows Installation, to minimize the complication.

 

How about the VAIO Power Management service? It seems like a probable offender. Even though I mostly use this laptop (CW27) on power, the few times I've been on battery I've noticed a fairly precipitous fall in battery (i.e., from 50% to 40% in a period of 20 mins just browsing the web.)

Edit: I'm on a clean install of W7 Ultimate x64 with all of the drivers listed on the CW27 driver support page installed.

 

lmao Ignore this guy. Please only contribute when you have a clue what you are saying.

 

Can you unplug and check the battery drain in sleep mode or when your machine is turned off and let us know the results?

If a clean install fixes this problem, then I'll probably deal with it. If you're still having problems even with a clean install, I will have to consider whether to return this model. (Would hate to do that - I love everything else!)

 

Sure thing. I will do so tonight and report back tomorrow.

 

I'm only using the Vaio Power management to switch CPU fan profiles... I don't usually deal with anything else on there. But for maximum battery life on CW models, go to the power settings control panel and switch to "power saver" set your CPU power savings in the power management advanced settings box to never go above 40%, then you can drop the clocks on your nVidia graphics card to all minimal. In the device manager you can disable the i.Link port, and bluetooth if you're not using them. That should give you a pretty good deal more time.

Also what is the WHr of your battery?

 

I noticed a similar problem with my new CW. I'm not a big user of the sleep feature...never was.

I have a habit of shutting down my pc and laptop when not in use. I noticed that with the power off, my laptop's battery was drained by about 3% after just one hour! Just by chance I toggled the wireless switch to the off position just before shutting off the laptop and another hour later, the battery held at 45%. I shut down again, waited another hour and the charged held once more. I'm going to try leaving the switch on this time and see what happens.

 

Hi, I was planning to take the CW, matched all my needs, was ok with the limitations , but battery drain problems ?!? is a strict NO, now think Toshiba would be a better choice.. Before I confirm the decision can I please get the details of the battery problem.. From the above threads, and more threads abt the same issue, i do have some questions..
1) Does this battery draining problem occur only in hibernate /when computer is turned off completely or only in standby (sleep) mode? (Some threads say only on standby mode, some say always)
2) In sleep mode/standby mode (power button - orange), does the Vaio inbuilt protection softwares (bloatware) like Vaio care turns on the computer for any optimization/ scanning ?
2) If it occurs in hibernate/turned off, Can softwares like Vaio care.. start the computer from OFF state ? (is it that smart ?)
3) In bios is there any option to power down the computer completely, that is to set all the pheripherals like LAN to OFF state when in hibernate and standby.
4) When the computer is turned off or put to hibernate (not sleep mode/ standby) and turned on the next day, what percentage of battery is consumed ? Is this comsumption same as that when the computer is turned off or put to hibernate, the battery is removed and the following day the battery is put back and the computer is turned on ?
5) Are these problems in the new i3/ i5 computers or evident in the older p8700/p8600/t6600 processor cw computers ?

Please respond to these threads so that we may have the better picture of the battery drain problem

 

As a good rule of thumb I always leave wireless and bluetooth off unless I specifically need them and then as soon as Im done using them I turn them back off.

I also have done as xgx has recommended and gone into the advanced power settings and tweaked how much processor power is used on battery, screen brightness, usb suspend and other things. It really helps because the out of box settings suck!!!!

 

I take it no switchable graphics?

 

A possible answer to the Sony Vaio CW battery draining problem (and you're not going to like it):

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/m...wind/#comments

 

Sadly no. And IMO the nVidia graphics SUCKS power. Too much for a notebook this size with this small of a battery.

 

OK, I have an update with the Sleep testing. From 7:55am to 4:00pm the battery level went from 40% to 36% in sleep mode. This is with the 6-cell battery. Seems a bit steep for 8hrs of sleep time.

 

That pretty much confirms it's what I was thinking it was... all in the software/firmware. And if Sony would give us some more FLIPPIN options in the BIOS then maybe we could make our machines a little more power efficient OURSELVES! Could everyone sound off on what BIOS version you have? You can check which one you have from the Vaio Control Center in the Control Panel, under System Information.
EDIT: and also your model.. sorry!

BIOS: R0190Y5
Model: VPCCW17FX

 

My thoughts were the same.

BIOS: R0110Y7

 

I'm guessing you have a newer i3/i5 machine?

 

Correct. VPCCW27X from BB.

 

Is there an option in the bios to choose between the Intel GMA HD and the NVIDIA discrete card?

 

There are barely any configurable options in the BIOS, which is part of the frustration here. The only ones are to toggle the Virtualization Technology and changing boot device order as well as booting other devices (network, USB). Also, I've read that the PM55 chipset does not allow for switching, even though the hardware is in place.

 

Ignorantly... No. Sony has disabled this option.. EVEN though the hardware is there on the i3 330m and all of the i5 models.

Actually in the i3/i5 models they are running the HM55 chipset. The PM45 with the C2D doesn't have on-board Intel GMA graphics, thats where the GM45 comes in. The hardware is there on the i3/i5 models but is being un-used.

 

Thank you both for your answers. I'm sorry to hear about these problems.

 

SOB somebody crack this bios so we can enable integrated graphics and gains some battery life when we are not gaming!!!!

 

x2. I'd pay someone to do it if it gives them some incentive!

 

To add to the general confusion about this whole issue, I did another test... This time unplugging my fully charged laptop and leaving if off for about 20 hours. When I started it up this evening, 100% battery left - no drain at all.

I KNOW it was draining really badly when sleeping earlier, and I KNOW it drained when off a couple of days ago.

So what changed? I turned off the Sony content sharing as well as the media analyzer, also I changed power settings so laptop never hibernates after period of sleep. Not sure how any of these settings would have affected an off computer, so at this point, I'm just left scratching my head.

Last point - booting the computer under battery power uses about 5% of a fully charged battery, and I'm guessing even bringing it back from hibernate must eat some juice too, so perhaps that is exacerbating what looks like a drain when the computer is off....

???

Alex

 

Have you done an appropriate battery "break-in" by charging it all the way to 100% then discharging completely then once again recharging it back to 100%? To discharge completely, run on battery power until windows shuts down or hibernates (whichever is the case), then press the power button and rapidly press F2 until you come to the BIOS and just let the computer sit there until it dies, then the battery is completely discharged. I know it sounds odd, but LiIon Batteries have to be calibrated every once in a while and once after the initial purchase. Also, try downloading "BatteryBar" it will tell you what your battery consumption rate is when you're not plugged up while giving you a more accurate power meter than the default windows one. Also even if you don't buy it, the software won't nag and hound you to buy it and it has GREAT functionality in free mode.

BatteryBar

 

I'll have to actually have one of these machines in front of me (i3/i5), so I might make a trip down to BB tomorrow. Now, I'm not going to say it's possible, but I'll see what I can do for you lucky guys with the i-series processors with GMA HD graphics! I wish I had waited a month before I bought mine now!! Apparently the one I bought was the last of their stock of the C2D before the product refresh, damn you Sony!!

 

Well, false alarm. The battery started draining again this evening. I tried calibrating the battery by discharging it in BIOS. Still no go here. I used the laptop until about 18% then shut it down. I turned it back on after 20min and it booted into windows at about 7% charge. That is complete and utter crap.

I contacted Sony and they urged me to uninstall and re-install the Sony utilities. I'm doing that right now as I'm typing this on my desktop.

I think I will return this laptop to BestBuy tomorrow and cite the battery drain as a defect and try to get a full refund. My Sager NP8662 that I haven't touched in more than a week still had full charge when I turned it on earlier today!

This Vaio is my first Sony laptop purchase and it's going to be the last. Spec-wise it was PERFECT but looks like this short relationship has gone sour.

 

I found this online, not sure if it is the same problem as what you have:

http://www.physorg.com/news184310167.html

 

Some thoughts...

If this were a desktop replacement the battery drain issue would be more acceptable but this is a 14" laptop which people want for portability over a 15.x"/16".

Maybe this was a rush-to-market scenario and Sony just wanting to get these out of the door the did not finish the bios properly. Will they say that , of course not. This is maybe why we also do not have switchable graphics also. Why put in a power conscience cpu/gpu and then take away the very thing that is the selling point of that cpu/gpu?

When I was first made aware of the CW unit that BB had at $950 I found (a different model) at best buy and was looking in the device manager. To my surprise I could see the dedicated video card but not the integrated one. I asked the sales person about the switchability but they were clueless.

I am suppose to pick up the one I ordered on the 8th from BB. I want it for
1. portability
2. screen resolution
3. blu-ray capability in my office(I took back my bluray player and applied the $$ to this)

The only other thing I have in my house SONY is a PS3, PSP. I can live with the battery thing I guess because of the other factors and also last Friday I bought an 11.6" Acer with 1366*768 resolution.

Hopefully, all these issues are bios issues and Sony will have a bios update that will address them. However, I am not familiar with Sony and the way it does things. Being more of a mass marketer they may have a 'take-it or leave-it' attitude.

 

This is inaccurate. In my device manager, the following is found under System Devices: "Intel(R) PM55 Express Chipset LPC Interface Controller". The Sony CW product page also confirms PM55.

 

I guess I read the specs page with some wishful, sorry!.. anyways.. GMA is now integrated onto the processor die, BUT, since it's PM55 not HM, it might not support switchable graphics in the hardware. Which is just sad. It's like having a Prius and losing the keys forever, you're stuck driving the Suburban..lol