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I've got a Sony Vaio VGN-Z21VN. When I put it into hibernate (not sleep) the battery drains - after 24 hours or so the battery is dead.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot or fix this?

UPDATE: It turns out that the battery drains even when my Sony Vaio Z is switched off (about 10% every 24 hours)

There's a 50 post forum thread on this 'design feature', but no way to fix it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109

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Do you know if you can wake the computer by using some wireless bluetooth device (or Wake on LAN)? – Arjan Oct 23 '09 at 10:57
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Good point! Didn't think of that. Have just disabled that. – Neil Davidson Oct 23 '09 at 11:07
Is there any way of finding out which other devices might be set up to wake the computer? – Neil Davidson Oct 23 '09 at 11:13
Draining 10% each 24 hours would take 10 days for the battery to drain all the way. So, it drains faster in hibernation? – Arjan Oct 25 '09 at 8:41
Another thing that can use battery power, like WoL, is Intel AMT, if your laptop has Intel vPro enterprise features. – paradroid Dec 2 '10 at 6:54

5 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Shut down the computer, rather than hibernate it.

If it drains after 24 hours, then the fault is a bad battery.

If it does not drain after 24 hours, then it's not really hibernating. The computer is powering up for some reason.

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It drained, not totally, but it wasn't a bad battery just a known Vaio fault (see Arjan's edit to my original post) – Neil Davidson Oct 25 '09 at 11:38
FWIW, it's not just a Vaio fault. Every laptop I've owned since 2000 has done this. Remove the battery and it drains 1% per week instead of 3-10% per day. – CarlF Jan 19 '10 at 5:29
up vote 4 down vote

The command powercfg -energy will give a report on power settings and usage. It should show any issues. Take a look at that, looking for the warning messages.

EDIT: The -energy option only applies to Windows 7 I think. I withdraw my answer from your case, but I'll leave it here in case anyone else can use it.

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I guess we don't even know what OS the questioner uses... – Arjan Oct 23 '09 at 12:26
up vote 2 down vote

It turns out that the battery drains even when my Sony Vaio Z is switched off (about 10% every 24 hours)

There's a 50 post forum thread on this 'design feature', but no way to fix it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109

share|improve this answer
Welcome at Super User! Please read the FAQ and note this is a not a forum, and hence answers may not be shown in the order they were posted. I've merged your answer into the question; you can delete this very answer. And when you really think you're done, I guess accepting Dan's answer indicates that? (But, see my comment about that 10% -- so are you done...?) – Arjan Oct 25 '09 at 8:43
Thanks Arjan. Not sure what to do here - there were two correct answers. First, your point about the wake on lan, and secondly Vaio issue. Happy for you to delete this comment. – Neil Davidson Oct 25 '09 at 11:40
up vote 1 down vote

In the case of my old HP laptop, this would happen either hibernating or powered-off. It turned out to be a known BIOS flaw, and updating the BIOS 90% fixed it.

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up vote 0 down vote

Even with the best batteries, as long as they are inside a laptop they always WILL deplete, although at a much, much slower rate.

Because they never really are in an disconnected circuit, there's always a closed circuit somewhere which allows electricity to flow thus draining the battery. Simple electronics, really.

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