Battery information incorrect and loss of battery

[miguel.carvalho1]

Good afternoon to everyone.

I don't know if anyone has had, or has this problem but I'm driving crazy with it!
Moving on to the explanation:

I have a Vaio VGN-SR29 XN/S with just a bit over 7 months. In the past 3 months I encountered 1 problem quite weird. It turns out that when I power off or hibernate the PC, with less than 50% of battery, when the switch back on, long after or shortly thereafter, inexplicably the percentage of battery informed by Windows (either original Vista or 7 installed via upgrade kit) is well below the rate it had when it was shut down.

Turning to practical examples because it is easier to understand: Some minutes ago I turned it off with 47% of battery. I turned it on immediately and the percentage shown was 28%. I'm working with it now for about 55 minutes since then and this percentage remains unchanged which means that the battery appears to be good, in fact this one is new since Sony switched it because the former one had a problem. Lifetime is also quite good, about 4hrs, but because I use the battery a lot I need to know how many hours I have, which represents a problem that maybe turns out to be greater than would for many of the people.

A fact which rules out the possibility of the operating system and installed drivers being the problem is the fact that I already made several shut downs with battery percentage of around 15% and when I switched the computer immediately after the low battery indicator light starts flashing. When Windows starts up there is a much lower percentage (around 6, 7%) and it remains this way for about 20/30 minutes, depending on usage, changing the percentage to a lower number only after this period of time.

UPDATE (because I wrote this some days ago): Friday night I charged it to 100% and stored it. I just turned the PC on and the percentage presented to me was 81%. This is a lot of battery lost in just 2 days. This problem has also been around since the beginning but doesn't occur so many times as the other mentioned problem.

I have updated everything including BIOS. The PC has already been to Sony 2 times. The 1st time they exchanged the motherboard and it came with the same problem. The 2nd time they did do anything other than testing it and changing the keyboard that was damaged due to previous repair. That is, right now I have 1 big problem. The store where I bought the PC, says it's not worth sending back and I suppose that even coming into direct contact with Sony, will not do me any good since they always say that there is nothing wrong with the laptop.

I appreciate any suggestions and opinions because I'm totally clueless. Thanks in advanced!

Greetings to all!

[Iain_L]

Same battery indication here on a VPCCW1. Using the Sony options, as I run it mostly on the AC adaptor, it only charges to 50%. If I then turn the laptop on without the adaptor plugged in, Windows 7 often reports a value much less than the 50% that was showing when the computer was switched off. For example, last evening when I shut the laptop down, it had 50% charge, this morning on swich on, it shows 24%.

Changing the charging options has no effect either; I can turn the laptop on having last shut it down with 100% battery charge, and the battery is reported much lower by Windows 7.

Iain

[miguel.carvalho1]

Hi Iain.

Seems we have the same problem. For what I seen in other recent topics we are not the only ones with it. Can this be a BIOS problem from the latest models/versions? I question this because I upgraded my BIOS recently through Vaio update. I just don't know if this happened with the older BIOS because I hardly used the PC with that version.

Can someone from Sony give some answers, because in my case, the repair centre says it is all OK but as a user that had already other 2 laptops, as a programmer and computer engineer I know this behaviour is not normal at all!

Thanks to all.
Miguel

[itbroker]

Welcome to ClubVaio Miguel Carvalho,

Can you perform the following step-by-step tests to measure a possible battery drainage ?

1) The unit must be running on battery/AC power and achieve a full battery charge (100%).
2) Check battery level and write down.
3) Shutdown the unit on battery/AC power
4) Unplug AC
5) Wait 01 hour. Also, you can take note of this measure every 02 hours.
6) Start the unit on Battery/AC
7) Write down the results (rate) of the battery discharge
😎 Repeat the steps 3 - 7 'til full-discharge
9) Please, write a thread with these results here or send me a PM.

This simple test can give us a better picture about a possible battery drainage.

[miguel.carvalho1]

I itbroker.

Thank you very much for your answer. Let me see if I got it straight. I will pose some questions so that I don't make any mistakes in the procedure:

- In step 5, when you say wait 01 hour, you mean with the unit powered off, so that the battery can "rest"?
- In your second step 5 (maybe you meant step 6) I should plug the AC back (with the battery) on and then turn the PC on again?
In step 7 you say that I should repeat from step 3 to 6 till full discharge, but if I keep plugging the AC how shall the battery discharge, or am I missing something?

Thanks one again and sorry for not understanding the entire procedure.
Miguel.

[itbroker]

Hi Miguel,

Let's see...

- In step 5, when you say wait 01 hour, you mean with the unit powered off, so that the battery can "rest"?

Powered OFF

- In your second step 5 (maybe you meant step 6) I should plug the AC back (with the battery) on and then turn the PC on again?

Turn ON the laptop ONLY using battery

In step 7 you say that I should repeat from step 3 to 6 till full discharge, but if I keep plugging the AC how shall the battery discharge, or am I missing something?

The whole cycle 3 - 7 should be made using just the battery

Sorry about any the misspelling...

[micdonal]

I had a similar problem (but not quite the same) with my Vaio AR51SU when it was new.
When fully charged I could turn off the laptop and the next morning when I turned it back on the battery would read as little as 83%. I suspected a drain but was unable to trace it. I contacted Sony support and ended up speaking to a Sony engineer, who told me that it was absolutely normal!!! I told him that this was the first laptop where this has happened and that I was not too impressed with the explanation given. He then said that the ISB battery utility can sap energy even when the laptop is switched off!! He suggested unlcipping the battery overnight if I didn't like it.
On a slightly different note (with a different laptop) after about 9 months (mostly using the AC adaptor) my battery would not fully charge and I was told that it was probably knackered - at just 9 months old! That's why they only gurantee them for 6 months! I was given a test to perform and I hope it will help you.
Charge the battery as far as it will go and then disconnect the AC adaptor and use the laptop on the battery until it shuts down by itself then remove the battery for about 15 minutes. (If the laptop shuts down when you disconnect the adaptor the battery is dead flat and possibly finished). When the laptop shuts down re-connect the battery and connect the AC adaptor and leave it to charge overnight (still switched OFF). It is important to take the battery out whilst flat so that its inbuilt callibration unit can be re-callibrated.
In the morning look at whether the battery has charged more than before. If it has it may now work ok, but if it hasn't it is probably on its way out.
An important tip where LiIon batteries is concerned is to use the laptop on battery until very low at least once a month and re-charge it. They don't last long if they are not used. Good luck.

[miguel.carvalho1]

Hi itbroker and Quackers88.

Thanks for your replies. Sorry for the very late answer but I've been loaded with work thus I couldn't make the testes.

Quackers88, I'm sorry to read that information, but I want to believe that you spoke with the wrong Sony engineer, because as I said, as software engineer with knowledge from Hardware, and as a user from 3 different laptops, I know (and you also know) it is not normal.
As for your test, I already tried to calibrate the battery lots of times but I will try it your way, maybe it will work.

itbroker, sorry that I didn't make the test yet but because I need the laptop on a daily bases this test will kill a day's work because although the battery is acting kind of strange, as I reported, it still has good lifetime so only turning the laptop on, shutting it off, waiting an hour with it turned off, turning it back on and repeating these steps will take a awful lot of time so I will try to do this this weekend.

Thanks all for your replies and suggestions.
Miguel.

[micdonal]

I hope you get things sorted out, Miguel.
On the plus side though, even after the questionable diagnosis, my battery is still good after 2 and a half years!

[Slinn64]

Hi

In a seperate thread I've had similar problems and had to re-install the Sony VAIO Battery Checker software. In case it helps you may also need to put back the Sony software.

Try running VAIO Care Recovery and Restore programme (from the start menu), use the Recovery option  - Reinstall Applications and Drivers – and re-installed the Battery Checker (check box option).

Perhaps first see my other reply message to see if there are any similarities

Vaio Battery does not seem to keep its charge?  (this has pasted into here as a link - if the link doesn't work try using the text to search the forum)