Sony Vaio "REPLACE BATTERY" Help?!!!

fussyonion

OK, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop in October 2009 and have never had any issues with it, until yesterday.

I turned the laptop on and saw a red cross blinking on the battery icon so I clicked it and it said THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR BATTERY. YOUR COMPUTER MAY SHUT DOWN SUDDENLY. CONSIDER REPLACING YOUR BATTERY.

I was stunned because my laptop is only 13 months old!
I brought the laptop back to where I bought it (Sony Centre), they had a look at it & couldn't see anything physically wrong with it; they gave me the number for Sony and I when I got home, I rang the number, which was premium rate, by the way.

I explained the problem and the woman on the phone went through different things for me to do in order to fix the problem, but nothing worked. She also "helpfully" reminded my my laptop was 4 weeks out of warranty. (Warranty expired end of Oct '10).

She didn't know what was causing the problem and told me she would ring me tomorrow (today) to discuss it further.
My big issue is: this laptop is only 13 months old, surely this shouldn't happen? The guy in Sony said it's very strange.
My warranty has expired, but surely if this shouldn't happen then Sony should help me out?

Another thing, are batteries expensive? And what's the proper way to look after it? i.e, should you only charge when the battery is literally dead?
Please help me if you can and if you've had this problem, I'd be interested to hear what you did.

Alanstrainor

Batteries are wear and tear parts. They will eventually die, some die sooner than others.

Now you mention that the laptop displayed an error about the battery. But have you actually experienced any loss of battery performance? Most laptops, well at least Dell and Sony will have these messages pop up just to encourage you to buy a new battery. If you haven't noticed anything then i wouldn't worry.

People have different opinions on how to take care of batteries. The only thing i would say, is that if your laptop is going to be plugged in for a prolonged time, say a few days or more then i would remove the battery. But other than that, just do what you normally do tbh.

x in the city

fussyonion wrote: »

OK, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop in October 2009 and have never had any issues with it, until yesterday.

I turned the laptop on and saw a red cross blinking on the battery icon so I clicked it and it said THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR BATTERY. YOUR COMPUTER MAY SHUT DOWN SUDDENLY. CONSIDER REPLACING YOUR BATTERY.

I was stunned because my laptop is only 13 months old!
I brought the laptop back to where I bought it (Sony Centre), they had a look at it & couldn't see anything physically wrong with it; they gave me the number for Sony and I when I got home, I rang the number, which was premium rate, by the way.

I explained the problem and the woman on the phone went through different things for me to do in order to fix the problem, but nothing worked. She also "helpfully" reminded my my laptop was 4 weeks out of warranty. (Warranty expired end of Oct '10).

She didn't know what was causing the problem and told me she would ring me tomorrow (today) to discuss it further.
My big issue is: this laptop is only 13 months old, surely this shouldn't happen? The guy in Sony said it's very strange.
My warranty has expired, but surely if this shouldn't happen then Sony should help me out?

Another thing, are batteries expensive? And what's the proper way to look after it? i.e, should you only charge when the battery is literally dead?
Please help me if you can and if you've had this problem, I'd be interested to hear what you did.

october 2009,, is not old for a battery at all

and they are expensive..

Erper

try test the battery with some program, just to see whats the story with it...
i was doing stress and test battery on old laptop who was giving me 30min of battery... after test i extend it for hour more...

dephics

Anyway the battery is out of warrant and you will see the battery capacity going down after a year of using.
Take the battery our and Check the code on the battery pack, It should be PCGA-BP2NX,The original costs around 100 pound and the OEM battery about 40￡. If you want to a extended high capacity battery it should be PCGA-BP2NY(Check it's fit models)

GarRo247

They are very expensive, the Sony ones can be €80 to €120. Generic ones can be €30 to €60 The average battery life is 3 years but extreme use can reduce it to as far as 6 months. Waiting till it is fully dead to charge it is the quickest way to break it, the longer it charges for the quicker it will need to be replaced. So plug it in as soon as possible not when it dies. If your using it at a permanent power source leave it out while your using you laptop, only have the battery in while travelling. A battery can only be charged for a certain amount of hours in its lifetime, so avoid draining it or charging it when possible. The battery life can also be reduced by extreme heat which can happen from using it on a fabric surface. like you lap, a bed, or a chair, so always try to use it on hard flat surfaces where the fan and vents have access to air.