Battery drain when laptop switched off

[sunking101]

Any ideas what could be causing my VAIO battery to drain whilst the laptop is switched off? Something is causing a fairly large drain, I lose about 20% overnight and the whole thing is dead in a week. It isn't the battery, when I remove it from the laptop it doesn't drain. Laptop out of warranty (just) - any ideas???
Could it be the wifi?

[treefr0g]

Sunking, I'd be very interested to know if you have had a solution to your problem.

I have recently bought my first Viao, a VGNFZ18M.

My problem is not quite as bad as yours, I am losing around 10% every 24 hours. I have been down the customer services route, have done a battery test and finally after 3 weeks of phone calls they have told me that my case had been escalated to the top VIAO engineer in Europe (not sure he/she needed to get involved) and that I have no reason for concern as this is normal. Well I am concerned, I'm concerned that I have made the wrong choice of laptop.
If its normal, why did it have to be escalated to that level. Surely they'd have it written on a board in the office, e.g. "Any percentage loss of battery power is acceptable".
I've had the laptop 2 months and so far have only used it to see how much power is left. The Dell laptop which it replaces has not been charged during those 2 months and has only lost 30% of its power. The VIAO would lose that in 3 days which I find totally unnaceptable.

Anyway, I'd like to hear how you got on or if anybody else has experienced similar problems I would be very intereseted to know.

Cheers

[treefr0g]

After my previous post I received an email from Sony Support.
This is what they said.


We have just received another response from our head engineers.

Unfortunately they are still saying this is withing specification.
We are very sorry that we cannot help your further in this matter.

This is the response that we got.
The unit will discharge the fully charged battery when left in the unit.
The connectors on the battery and computer are connected causing an open circuit.
This lets the charge of the battery leak out.
If the fully charged battery is left out of the unit in the bag it will lose approx 10% life in a day.

I'm not sure about the bit about the battery losing 10% out of the unit as mine is losing 1%. It only loses 10% per day when in the unit. I'm not sure about the relevance of 'unit in the bag' either.

I would appreciate any help in this matter as I have no yard stick on how much power a VAIO battery should lose.
My only comparison is my previous laptop which I have previously stated had a neglegable battery loss whether in or out of the unit.

Thanks

[kidcharlemayne]

I'm just joining this post to report a similar problem with my TZ11. The drain on mine is 'only' 7% per day but that still seems absurd. I also got the "within spec" response from Sony. It's hard to know what to do next.

I also wanted to comment on the "head engineer's response" as quoted below

After my previous post I received an email from Sony Support.
This is what they said. 


We have just received another response from our head engineers.

Unfortunately they are still saying this is withing specification.
We are very sorry that we cannot help your further in this matter.

This is the response that we got.
The unit will discharge the fully charged battery when left in the unit.
The connectors on the battery and computer are connected causing an open circuit.
This lets the charge of the battery leak out.
If the fully charged battery is left out of the unit in the bag it will lose approx 10% life in a day.

I'm not sure about the bit about the battery losing 10% out of the unit as mine is losing 1%. It only loses 10% per day when in the unit. I'm not sure about the relevance of 'unit in the bag' either.

I would appreciate any help in this matter as I have no yard stick on how much power a VAIO battery should lose. 
My only comparison is my previous laptop which I have previously stated had a neglegable battery loss whether in or out of the unit.

Thanks

Whoever actually wrote that does not seem to know some basic terminology. I'm no expert, but an 'open circuit' describes an electrical circuit that is NOT made... When a circuit is 'made', such that power is drawn and charge is lost, this is strictly speaking a 'closed circuit'.

I agree also that the "10% loss when out of the unit" is ridiculous and is presumably a misprint for 1%. Not very encouraging when a "head engineer" allows these kinds of errors to appear in public.

So are we the only Vaio owners who have this problem, or are there lots of other owners who haven't noticed or just decided to accept it?

Cheers

[Eloise1]

I have found this problem also with my current Vaio, but I have observed it with previous laptops I have possessed, including other Sony Vaio models.
I therefore accept it as inevitable.
I would prefer it not to be the case however.

[adiechorizo]

I too have this problem with my new vaio laptop. The battery drains when the computer is shutdown! Not very environmentally friendly. I have to take the battery out when I shutdown to conserve power. How can this issue still be affecting new models. Bad Sony .

Anyone worked out a fix?

My Macbook battery holds power well when computer is shutdown

[mariopezzo]

Same problem here.
Vaio VGN-FE48M
The battery can be fully charged ONLY if attached to the PS while the laptop is switched ON
If the laptop is switched off with the PS attached, the battery reaches only 89%
With a full 100% charge at switch off (and no activity at all - no wake on LAN nor wireless and/or bluetooth) the very next morning guess what...89% (I use the laptop every day so I did not try a longer inactivity period).

I called Sony and they told me to reinstall everything from the recovery partition. At first they were blaming a software problem...
Well, I have no more a recovery partition because I did a clean Vista install from the scratch (and an Acronis image, obviously).
Then they decided to send me a replacement battery.
SAME exact pattern.

I have read many posts on the subject and it really seems that something in the BIOS and/or in tha laptop circuits is draining power overnight.
Today I tried disabling ISBMgr.exe...
I don't know if it can really help, but it deserves a try.
I am very curious to see if a solution will ever be found...

[sunking101]

I never got to the bottom of the problem and eventually sold my laptop on Ebay because it annoyed me that it had this fault. My new VAIO does not drain the battery when switched off!

[micdonal]

I reported this same problem to Vaio eSupport about a month ago, re my AR51SU which loses about 17% per day when switched off. Sony engineer reckons this is absolutely normal!!! I've never heard of anything like that before. None of my previous laptops have done it. Sony recommended that the battery be removed when turned off and also when using the laptop on ac power (unless charging the battery). Not sure how long the battery clips will last doing that.

[sunking101]

I reported this same problem to Vaio eSupport about a month ago, re my AR51SU which loses about 17% per day when switched off. Sony engineer reckons this is absolutely normal!!! I've never heard of anything like that before. None of my previous laptops have done it. Sony recommended that the battery be removed when turned off and also when using the laptop on ac power (unless charging the battery). Not sure how long the battery clips will last doing that.

If the battery doesn't drain when removed from the laptop, there is obviously a short circuit somewhere on the motherboard. Nothing but a replacement will cure it. SONY are conning people by saying this is normal, it is NOT normal. None of my previous Toshibas did this and my latest VAIO doesn't do it. Only one of my lapops, a VAIO, has ever exhibited this problem and it was a FAULT. Good luck getting a solution guys.

[jowhale]

I have this problem with a new VGN-FZ21Z and reading through the posts here, have to assume the only solution is yours and sell it on ebay "caveat emptor" :smileygrin:

Which model did you find doesn't have this problem?

I can't find any info on ones that do and don't auto-drain. Makes sense, like a car whose fuel evaporates while parked! Would be hard to sell those models!