Battery failure ?.... or something else ?

[SuperStu99]

My VPCF1 was running fine on the battery yesterday and would charge / discharge fine. Today however, unless I use the mains connector, the laptop will NOT boot up on battery alone. The diagnostic shows the battery connected and fully charged and with no faults, yet when I disconnect the mains power, the laptop dies. This laptop is only 13 months old with light use. Would the battery die over just 24 hrs ? or could there be another reason the laptop cannot access the battery power ?

Any help appreciated.

Stuart

[rich912]

Hi Stuart,

Yes, the battery can die at any time but there is normally an associated message to the effect that “no battery is detected”.

Try opening Control Panel > Device Manager and expand ‘Batteries’. Right click each device and select ‘Uninstall’ – then shut down and re-boot. Drivers will be re-installed on boot.

This should hopefully rule out a software/driver problem. Otherwise I would suspect a hardware issue.

You could also try shutting down, remove battery and power adaptor and hold down the power switch for up to 30 seconds. Re-attach battery and power adaptor and re-boot.

Ultimately try a reset to factory defaults using Vaio Recovery Utility – last resort obviously...

Rich

[SuperStu99]

Rich.....

The battery is certainly seen by the laptop and gives all data, it just doesn't draw any power from the battery.

Can you explain 'Hardware issue' better please ?

I'll try these options tonight / tomorrow and report back.

thanks... Stuart

[SuperStu99]

OK...  I've tried the 2 options of uninstall drivers etc... and the power down and hold the on/off button for 30 sec... neither of these have worked.

Factory reset is very much point of last resort. I'd like to acesrtain if the battery is really dead, but I guess the best way to confirm this is to find another battery and slot into the laptop or to use a multimeter to measure any output from this dead one.

Any other suggestions ?

thanks

Stuart

[rich912]

Hii Stuart,

Certainly testing the notebook with another known working battery is the way to go - getting hold of one for free may prove difficult.

If an alternative battery also fails to power the compuuter then  you could have a motherboard problem - possibly the power board.

Let us know how things go.

Rich