battery problems on my new FE

My new FE550G is having problems with the battery. When I unplug the ac adaptor it loses it's charge VERY quickly. I'm talking an hour an a half max battery time. The first time I used it it last almost 2.5 hrs and now it seems to drain at a rate of at least 1% per minute.
Is this normal or is there anything I can do?

oh and the only other small minor annoyance is that notebook hardware control will not work right on this thing. It causes windows to boot up , an error pops up when NHC loads and it reboots automatically.

All else is well though

 

Do you have any USB devices connected to your notebook?

There are issues with the USB drivers in Windows that can cause quicker than normal battery drain. From what I've read these problem really show in Duo computers.

 

nothing in plugged into the USB now but I have used a usb mouse but it wasn't plugged in at the time of the battery drain.

 

You can try reducing the brightness levels down....that helps.

There is also a VAIO battery tool that will automatically adjust certain aspects of the system when you are running on battery.

But if the FE is anything like the FS then 2.5 hours is just about correct with typical usage.

 

if it runs for 2.5 hours with the same exact setting, then there could be something wrong with the battery. Might want to exchange the laptop since the FE model is just out.
Usually it goes from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours or even less after 1 year or more, depending on how much you use the battery.
Regarding the NHC, I'm not sure if it's updated for use in dual core laptops, but could it be that the voltages are too low?

 

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm an idiot. I left the settings the same for plugged or unplugged so obviously it was draining fast with the screen being so bright. When I put it on optimized for battery with a lighter screen it got almost 4 hrs of battery time on a standard battery

 

I understand that, my v505 has this problem lately too.

it's like, last time I could use it at school for more than 2 hours, and the next time it could only hold just 1 hour and half, actually just 1 hour, same settings, all of sudden.

This is weird, i mean, it is normal for a laptop being used for almost 2 years, but it happens between 2 days?

I thought it might be the temperature since I did walk in -20 degree with it, but 311, it's florida...it can't be

 

please read link. power drain problem exists regardless of platform (napa and sonoma...core duo and 'old' centrino pentium m). laptops with build in camera and usb hubs experience issue all the time. laptops without only experience issue after something plugged into usb port. problem appears to be with microsoft and they have issued fix (registry...which i've never done). http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2693&p=2
if somone does the registry fix, could you please report if it changed battery life. thanks.

 

It looks like Microsoft has finally decided to deal with the USB power drain problem. Yes, there is a current registry fix, but to my understanding it is not "public" or endorsed. According to this article from Tomshardware.com Microsoft is working on a patch for all notebook users.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/02/14/microsoft_to_release_patch_for_power_drain_bug/