battery problems

[Matt77]

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.

Always check the BIOS for battery tests, if you haven't already.

 

[TechWiz]

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

Hi there,
I see that you are working with a Sony Vaio. Interesting, I have never seen this happen before. First ensure that you battery is plugged in properly at all the ports. Wall, base, computer. Second, if this does not help. You need to replace the battery.

TechWiz

 

[Matt77]

Hi there,
I see that you are working with a Sony Vaio. Interesting, I have never seen this happen before. First ensure that you battery is plugged in properly at all the ports. Wall, base, computer. Second, if this does not help. You need to replace the battery.

TechWiz

I think he's tried that. And it's best to cover all bases befor buying a new battery, less money spent, the better!

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Always check the BIOS for battery tests, if you haven't already.

Most generic laptops have no such thing you know, most only display battery charge levels, not even the capacity design, just a flat out charge percentage, if you are lucky enough. I have a feeling you have not played with enough machines in the last ten years and only a few machines to get the idea that the system has a battery test.

The only laptops that do "tests" tend to be ones that check the wear level, and that isn't even an indicator of if the cell is damaged, it's nothing more than what the battery circuitry reports to the system.

 

[carnageX]

Most generic laptops have no such thing you know, most only display battery charge levels, not even the capacity design, just a flat out charge percentage, if you are lucky enough. I have a feeling you have not played with enough machines in the last ten years and only a few machines to get the idea that the system has a battery test.

The only laptops that do "tests" tend to be ones that check the wear level, and that isn't even an indicator of if the cell is damaged, it's nothing more than what the battery circuitry reports to the system.

This.

 

[Matt77]

Most generic laptops have no such thing you know, most only display battery charge levels, not even the capacity design, just a flat out charge percentage, if you are lucky enough. I have a feeling you have not played with enough machines in the last ten years and only a few machines to get the idea that the system has a battery test.

The only laptops that do "tests" tend to be ones that check the wear level, and that isn't even an indicator of if the cell is damaged, it's nothing more than what the battery circuitry reports to the system.

EVERY laptop I've played with so far (at least 10 kinds from different manufacturers) had a cycle mode in the BIOS. SmartBattery or something like that...

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Out of the last 1,859 laptops I have serviced, NONE have had anything that actually tests the battery. This is from cheap $200 crap lines to $2500 over priced high end laptops.

 

[Matt77]

Am I lucky then?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

No, you are special....

 

[Matt77]

Try not to bump