battery issues

eclectichoney

I've had a vaio just over a year - never use the battery, it's nearly always hooked up to an ac power supply. Used the battery about six weeks ago and got a good three hours out of it.

I noticed my laptop has randomly turned itself off a couple of times recently, and i think it might be because the connection with the acadapter came loose, however the battery should allow it to continue working. When i hover over the battery/power icon in the bottom right of the system tray it shows no mention of battery power etc, it just says 'on ac power'. Also the battery charging indicator light is not lit at all. It's as if the battery is not being picked up at all by the laptop, it may as well be taken out!

It's hard to imagine the battery is wasted seeing as i used it recently enough with no problems, could it be something else??

easy knowing it's just out of warranty

vibe666

why don't you do some tests to see what's happening to be sure.

if you're not happy at yanking your (possible) only source of power in windows to test it, boot off a floppy (even a blank one) so that windows doesn't start and then pull the ac power and see what happens.

try fiddling with both the ac and battery pack to check for loose connections too.

afaik, if a laptop is running on ac you'll need to double click the power icon to show the battery info although i'm pretty sure if the battery is fully charged and there is no charge going either to or from the battery (legitimately) then you'll get the same icon.

Sarn

The other possibility is that you were working off the battery while you thought you were using the ac adapter. It's happened to me before in work, where I came back to my desk after a few hours and found my machine off. It was at that point that I noticed I'd forgotten to switch on the plug.

A simple test is to disconnect the ac adapter and see how long you get off the battery. Li ion batteries degrade faster when exposed to high temperatures but that shouldn't have happened unless the battery is faulty.

eclectichoney

Thanks guys. sarn the problem is, when I disconnect the ac cord the laptop just goes black!

Thanks for that vibe - i right clicked the icon and it said:

Current source: AC Power
Battery remaining: Unknown

Then it shows a little picture of a battery and says 'Not present' under it. It's obviously not picking up the battery at all.

I've cleaned the connections, is there anything else I can do?

vibe666

you might just have to take it out the back and bury it and get a new one off ebay, unless you're comfortable taking the battery to bits and checking each component, which if you're here then you're probably not.

eclectichoney

Thanks vibe, looks like ebay it is!

Sarn

This might be of some use depending on what model you have. From
http://www.vaio-link.com/hotnews/hotnews.asp?l=en
November 07, 2006

Voluntary Battery replacement program

Dear Customer.

Sony recently announced that it would initiate a global replacement program for certain lithium ion notebook computer battery packs containing battery cells manufactured by Sony to address the concerns of consumers and customers over the recent over-heating incidents.

The Sony VAIO group will participate to a voluntary battery replacement program for the following battery packs used in some VAIO notebooks:

VGP-BPS2B and VGP-BPS3A (there are exceptions depending on serial number).

The battery packs above are utilized in the following VAIO Personal Computer models:

VAIO models with VGP-BPS2B:
VGN-FE11S, VGN-FE11M, VGN-FE11H, VGN-FE11SR, VGN-FE11MR

VAIO models with VGP-BPS3A:
VGN-T2XP/L, VGN-T2XP/S, VGN-T2XRP/S

In addition to the battery packs bundled with VAIO models listed above, customers who purchased extra battery packs or received replaced battery packs from repair services, may have the battery packs in subject.

We encourage customers to check whether their battery is subject to voluntary replacement.

There are two ways to check whether your battery falls under the voluntary replacement program and to organize and exchange where applicable:

Via Web : click here
Via our toll free voluntary replacement hotline : click here

The voluntary battery replacement program will start during the month of December 2006. Orders will be processed on a first come first serve base, according to battery pack availability.

eclectichoney

thanks Sarn. sadly I miss out by one measly letter. Mine is the VGP-BPS2C