battery problems

[little a]

hello all

recently updated my vgn-sr410j to windows 7 (originally came with vista). i'm having trouble figuring out if the battery in this laptop is really dead or if the trouble i'm having is windows 7 related.

right now the battery charges only to 15% or so even if plugged in constantly (overnight, etc) and most of the time it just stops charging after a few minutes (or once it gets to anything over 10%). if i unplug it and plug it back in i can get it to charge a bit more, some times up to 23% or so.

i ran the energy test under command mode for windows 7 (powercfg -energy) and got this back regarding the battery:

Battery:Battery Information
Battery ID Sony Corp.
Manufacturer Sony Corp.
Serial Number
Chemistry LiOn
Long Term 1
Design Capacity 54830
Last Full Charge 46620

the above would lead me to believe this battery is in fact still good but for some reason it is not charging all the way. any ideas? thanks

 

[Matt77]

How's it run w/o the battery? The charger could be damaged.

 

[little a]

How's it run w/o the battery? The charger could be damaged.

good, no problems. it could be a charger problem but it would surprise me. i can run it without the battery no problem right now

 

[Matt77]

Does the BIOS give you the option to do a battery cycle?

 

[little a]

Does the BIOS give you the option to do a battery cycle?

no, unfortunately it doesn't

 

[carnageX]

Download HWMonitor from CPUID and see if it gives info about your battery. Should show max and current capacities.

 

[little a]

Download HWMonitor from CPUID and see if it gives info about your battery. Should show max and current capacities.

it says: designed capacity 54830, full charge 46620, current capacity 9530; wear level 15%, charge level 20%.

so if i understand this correctly, if it were to charge completely as it is today, it would go as high as 46620, right?

 

[carnageX]

Yes that is correct.

Tried with the computer off to charge? Also, test the outputs of the charger with a multimeter to ensure it's workoling properly.

If your charger outputs correctly then I would say something is bad with the battery.

 

[Matt77]

DC jack?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Could be numerous things... From a bad charger, to a battery cell being worn entirely (resulting in the lower capacity, but is bad enough to screw the battery) to the charging circuit of the laptop...

I have a laptop here, well, two, one laptop actually refuses to charge the battery fully, and the system can't sense the charge level properly anymore. Put the same battery in another laptop and it goes for ~3 hours fine. So it's mostly the circuit on the motherboard in my case.