BATTERY PROBLEMS IN SZ1XP

[rraguram]

Hi,

I got my new SZ1XP VAIO and I have to say I am quite pleased with its offerings so far except with the battery life.

The first thing is that the battery doesnt get fixed to the base system firmly and whenever I take the laptop somewhere I can hear the battery toggling up and down.

The battery life during the SPEED MODE is normally 2.15 hrs and it quickly drains down, if I try to run more than 2 applications.

During the STAMINA mode, the battery was reading abt 3.15 hrs.

Does anyone have the same problem with the battery or should I consult with the technical support team?

Other than that, all the features are working for me -- fingerpring, TPM, built-in cam etc., I am enjoying this as much as I can and the screen is awesome.

Cheers

[stephanius]

Interesting.

First off, is the battery locked? There are two sliders, one with a spring that will be in lock position unless held to the open position and anothe one that stays in lock or unlock. Make sure the later is in lock and the battery is fully inserted.

If that is the case, and the battery moves a bit but does not lose contact, it is probably manufacturing tolerance. If it annoys you, fold a piece of paper, put it between the battery and the unit on the side where the connectors are and push the battery into place. That should eliminate the leeway that allows the battery to move. Learned that one from Nokia phones ;-]

Next, about battery performance, what are the conditions? WLAN, Bluetooth Optical drive in use? Screen brightness on original preset or higher? Any Express Cards, PCMCIA card, USB devices connected? Additional Memory installed?

[rraguram]

Interesting.

First off, is the battery locked? There are two sliders, one with a spring that will be in lock position unless held to the open position and anothe one that stays in lock or unlock. Make sure the later is in lock and the battery is fully inserted.

Yes, I've made sure the battery is fixed in right position. Furthermore, spending huge bucks on this lappy, I wont go for the option of inserting paper between the battery and laptop. Also, it really irritates me whenever I carry my laptop.

Apart from it, on battery mode with STAMINA, I have wireless option enabled, LCD turned medium brightness. Nortan and few application were running in background which comes by default. Nothing apart from it. Whats more surprising is that, I have a label attached to my laptop mentioning the battery lasts for 6-7 hrs which is double the one, I am getting right now.

Any ideas?

[tschlag]

I have also bought this model recently.
My battery lasts 2 hours but it does fit perfectly in the back without any problems.
rgds

[Wissut]

I saw on the sony sony website that SZ1XP battery could last for 5.30hours.. but that's probably when you turn it on and do nothing with it e.g. WLAN, Bluetooth off, not running any application, nothing connected etc

My SZ1XP battery lasts for about 3 hours 15 mins as well in Stamina mode, so I don't think you need to worry about it. It's probably the same for everyone

[mtdbo]

Stamina max 3 hrs: no bluetooth, no wlan, the fan cool that run ever. Really not enough, and sony declare 5-6 hrs. I made my choice also evaluating the battery performance.

[stephanius]

I hear you, I know the bit of folded paper sounds silly. However if the battery does not loose contact when it is busy irritating you it is not a technical problem as such. Therefore the Sony support people or repair centers will not be able to do anything.

A part of the performance problems will be the difference between the testing procedure for these battery benchmarks and your actual use. There is a link to the conditions next to the battery benchmark time on the www.vaio-link.com specs.

Another part may be a problem with the first charge of the battery, either yours or the factories. You have a good chance of fixing that by disabling all powermanagement, screensaving power options and the hibernation options and then letting the SZ run until it is as empty as it gets.
Do NOT try to switch it on a few times after this, rather plug in the AC-Adapter and let it charge until it says it is at 100%.

[ymat]

I also have the rattling battery case problem. It does worry me when I'm carrying the laptop. I'm also concerned if the contact between the battery and the main body may be damaged or loosened as time goes by, because the battery case is never really secured in place.

For battery life, so far I haven't had problems with it. I use the stamina mode pretty often with either wired or wireless LAN, medium screen brightness (the default brightness with Vaio ultimate/maximum battery mode isn't enough for me, I get headache very easily with such a dim screen), Sophos anti-virus at the background and various programs running , e.g. web browsers/chat programs, MS Office applications and SonicStage. Occasionally I also use the optical drive to read/write stuff. In all cases my battery did last for at least 5 hours (often more). I'm so sure that the battery will last under stamina mode that sometimes I don't carry the AC adpator with me if I knew that I would only use the laptop for a few hours. I think maybe I'm just lucky to have a battery which matches Sony's descrption? Or maybe I'm not running too many programs at the same time, so the battery lasts?

I've also tried using the laptop on battery at Speed mode. The battery lasts for a bit more than 2 hours only, so to this end it seems to be consistent with other SZ users' experience.