Z-Series VAIO 3 months old - sudden power issue

[dinlondon]

Hi all,

I recently bought a Z-Series Vaio (i7 Intel Core,  SSD drive, Win 7 Pro 64), which although not purchased in the UK is covered by Sony's international warranty.  I noticed when I first bought the laptop on a couple of occasions that the battery wouldn't always charge immediately with the adaptor, unplugging and plugging back in would kick start it.  Over the last few days though the charging period required to get to 100% suddenly increased to about 12 hours (before it was MUCH quicker).  Likewise, before I could get the battery to last 6 hours whereas now I'm being told that it's only an hour.  Does anyone have any tips / hints before I go through the palaver of attempting to get support from Sony?

Regards,

dinlondon

[Blencogo]

Hi dinlondon,

It could be just an indicator problem - there have been some difficulties with Windows 7 - but as it used to work OK, I think you are going to need to contact Vaio Support.

Have you checked the settings for the Battery Care Function?  Just look in Control Panel -> Vaio Control Centre -> Power Management -> Battery Care Function.  It is possible to limit battery charge to 50% or 80%.

As I said, I doubt if this is your problem so you will need to phone Sony.  There is one single number for the Vaio International Repair Service to cover all the following countries: -

Austria;  Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Denmark; England;  Finland; France;  Germany; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Luxemburg;  Netherlands;  Portugal; Romania; Russia; Slovakia; Spain; Sweden;  Switzerland

Your  Vaio MUST be Registered in your home country and must be within  the original warranty period.  Extended warranties do not qualify.

Telephone +32 (0) 2 200 3700 between 0800 and 1800 CET

There is a manual for the VIRS available here: -

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/files/vaio/virs.pdf#page=3

[dinlondon]

Thanks for the suggestion.  After buying a replacement battery and trying a separate charger I ended up being faced with the same problem.  I contacted Sony International Repair Service who arranged to pick-up my laptop for servicing.  I'm currently awaiting the outcome but suspect that it's either a software or... more likely... a hardware issue.  Will post again when I find out the outcome...

[flogger12345]

Good luck. At first glanced, it looked like a battery issue.

[dinlondon]

Thanks for the good luck wishes!  I'm tracking the progress of the repair online at the Sony International Repair Service in France.  Current status is: "waiting for parts", which suggests that there is a hardware fault. 

[@3213982902023751]

Hi! I have the same problem with a new Z-series vaio. It's two months old, i cannot charge it more than 85% in 12 hours and the battery lasts more or less two years! what happened to your vaio?which was the problem?

i went to the shop and they say: it's normal. I still have some doubts about it!

thanks in advance!

[@3213982902023751]

Sorry...the battery lasts two hours, not two years! i did a mistake!

[dinlondon · Accepted solution]

First of all, apologies for not having posted the solution... It turned out to be very simple (but something I only discovered after having sent my laptop to be fixed only to face the same problem again.  The clue was the sound of the fan running at high speed - a setting in windows media meant that it was trying to index every image and video clip I opened (including web pages).  By opening task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and ticking (checking) the box in the bottom left which says 'show processes from all users', I could see that windows media was using a high percentage of the CPU - the higher the load the more energy is consumed.  Changing the program settings very quickly brought my battery level back to normal.  Hope that helps

[@3213982902023751]

Thanks for the answer...i check the task manager and i discover that vaio gate uses the 25% of the CPU all the time...I've have disabled it! i hope it's really this one the probem...thanks again!

[dinlondon]

Let us know if it works!  I'm intrigued!  Cheers.:smileyhappy: