stop laptop suspending when battery gets low

A

Andy Fish

Hi,

I have a sony TR5 laptop which is about 3 years old now. Although the
battery will last a good 2 hours, the battery meter drops to 0% after about
1/2 that time.

That's not a problem in itself - I've seen it on other laptops before. I
simply went on to the "alarms" section of the power control panel and made
sure that it didn't hibernate when the battery level goes below 3%. I have
to suffer the occasional unexpected shutdown when the battery actually runs
out but I can live with that.

That was fine until I reinstalled windows XP and now the PC always
hibernates when it thinks the battery is low i.e. after an hour, regardless
of how I configure the low battery alarms.

is there something else that is taking priority over these settings. It's a
PITA only being able to use 1/2 the battery life of the laptop.

TIA

Andy
 
D

David Webb

Check your owner's manual to see if there's a calibration procedure required
when you install a new battery. If so, try it using your existing battery.

Good luck!

| Hi,
|
| I have a sony TR5 laptop which is about 3 years old now. Although the
| battery will last a good 2 hours, the battery meter drops to 0% after about
| 1/2 that time.
|
| That's not a problem in itself - I've seen it on other laptops before. I
| simply went on to the "alarms" section of the power control panel and made
| sure that it didn't hibernate when the battery level goes below 3%. I have
| to suffer the occasional unexpected shutdown when the battery actually runs
| out but I can live with that.
|
| That was fine until I reinstalled windows XP and now the PC always
| hibernates when it thinks the battery is low i.e. after an hour, regardless
| of how I configure the low battery alarms.
|
| is there something else that is taking priority over these settings. It's a
| PITA only being able to use 1/2 the battery life of the laptop.
|
| TIA
|
| Andy
|
|
 
M

mike

Andy said:
Hi,

I have a sony TR5 laptop which is about 3 years old now. Although the
battery will last a good 2 hours, the battery meter drops to 0% after about
1/2 that time.

That's not a problem in itself - I've seen it on other laptops before. I
simply went on to the "alarms" section of the power control panel and made
sure that it didn't hibernate when the battery level goes below 3%. I have
to suffer the occasional unexpected shutdown when the battery actually runs
out but I can live with that.

That was fine until I reinstalled windows XP and now the PC always
hibernates when it thinks the battery is low i.e. after an hour, regardless
of how I configure the low battery alarms.

is there something else that is taking priority over these settings. It's a
PITA only being able to use 1/2 the battery life of the laptop.

TIA

Andy
Did you save the drivers for the laptop before you reloaded it?
Did you visit the vendor site for sw updates? Driverguide.com?
It's not unusual for the vendor (Sony) to overlay a separate power
management utility.

FWIW, the failure mode of LiION batteries is increased series resistance.
The electrons are in there, but the laptop won't let you have them
because it thinks the voltage is low (due to series resistance under
load). So, your battery is "bad". Yes, the vendors could design around
that issue, but then they'd make less money. Some clever dude could
make a fortune with a battery utility that was aware of this problem...
at least until the bankruptcy due to the first lawsuit
they got caught up in through no fault of their own.

mike
mike
 
P

PA Bear

How old is the battery? How long have you been using it? Was it
remanufactured/recycled battery or a brand new one? Did you purchase it
from Toshiba? Do you leave the battery in the bay even when running on AC
power? Do you store the battery at 100% charge?

Why did you find it necessary or choose to reinstall Windows? Did you do a
Repair Install or format & reinstall? Is the machine fully patched at
Windows Update? Are there driver and/or BIOS updates available from the
computer manufacturer's website that you've not install yet?
 
A

Andy Fish

thanks for all the responses (and thanks to mike for the explanation)

basically I reinstalled because it just seemed to be full of crap and I
wanted to clean it out - it runs much faster now so that part of it was a
success. Because the dvd drive is broken I could not use the sony recovery
DVD so I had to install vanilla windows xp.

I reinstalled all the sony drivers and also the sony specific power
management, and I've checked on their web site and there are no more
updates. I've also done all the windows updates

the battery is the original battery that came with the laptop and there
aren't instructions on how to recalibrate. I don't particularly want to
replace the battery because I know it's good for 2 hours which is fine for
me - it's just a PITA not being able to use the last hour of it

Andy
 
P

PA Bear

Reposting a few items:
If the machine and the battery are 3-years-old, I'm afraid it's time for a
new battery, Andy. Expect to pay ~$150US. With proper treatment, the usual
lifespan of a LIon battery is only 2-3 years. (I just had to replace a
3-year-old one.) See http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm for some
tips.
 
A

Andy Fish

yes I normally leave it plugged in with the battery in all the time, and yes
I realise this isn't the best way to prolong the battery life - it's just
the most convenient

to be honest I think i'll live with it rather than shell out for a new
battery

like i said it's a PITA That I know the battery will last for 2 hours but it
suspends after 1
 
P

PA Bear

Save your work...OFTEN.

Andy said:
yes I normally leave it plugged in with the battery in all the time, and
yes
I realise this isn't the best way to prolong the battery life - it's just
the most convenient

to be honest I think i'll live with it rather than shell out for a new
battery

like i said it's a PITA That I know the battery will last for 2 hours but
it
suspends after 1
 
M

M.I.5¾

PA Bear said:
Reposting a few items:

If the machine and the battery are 3-years-old, I'm afraid it's time for a
new battery, Andy. Expect to pay ~$150US. With proper treatment, the
usual lifespan of a LIon battery is only 2-3 years. (I just had to
replace a 3-year-old one.) See http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm
for some tips.
--

Rubbish.

Properly looked after Li-ion batteries can last 10 years or more. I have
several examples that are 14 years old and still give full capacity.

The things that cause batteries to fail are:

1. Use. Li-ion batteries only have a (typically) 300-500 cycle
charge/discharge life (or 600-1000 half cycle).

2. Lack of use. Leaving batteries unused causes the internal resistance to
rise due to oxidation. How quickly this occurs depends on many factors
mostly related to the actual construction.

But worst of all

3. Heat. Even modest amounts of heat will kill a Li-ion battery. Which is
why they should be removed rom a laptop if it is being used on AC power
(unless being charged - best done with laptop otherwise off).
 

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