POWER DRAIN on Vaio-pocket when powered OFF - READ READ!!

[badde]

I suppose that more vaio-pocket owners have noticed the strange power depletion problem with the device ? When you power it off and leave unused for 5 days, the battery is dead!! Then you have the nice job of starting initialisation again.

Also there's a humming sound inside the device when it's powered off.

I opened a call with Sony. They asked me to format the HD and fully charge,etc.... I showed my goodwill and tried all this, but no change. Then they came with the excuse that this power problem and noise when turning the device off is normal behaviour of the system

I then opened a formal complaint and requested them to solve this problem (if possible) by issuing a solution in the next firmware update. I feel that you need at least to have the choice to put the device in standby or real power down.

I think that if we want to have this problem solved we need to put some pressiure on Sony. So if all users who have problems with this so called "normal behavior",open a complaint , maybe Sony will do something about this :smileygrin:

The vaio-pocket is a wonderfull device and I'm really pleased with it, but this power drain problem needs to be sorted out. I payed big bucks for this thing and I want it work as it should be. It's like buying a car that leaks fuel all the time and the reseller tells you it's normal behaviour!!

Thanks a lot for reading !!

Badde.

[Twisted-Rizla]

Hi Badde

Welcome to the Forum:smileygrin:

You are right to assume other people have had similar problems with the battery (see herefor another thread on the same topic)

It appears to me that Sony are not quite coming clean about the problem.

You are right to urge other disgruntled users to put pressure on Sony because they do, believe it or not, take this Forum seriously and some comments and issues do filter their way through.

Don't suffer in silence fellow Vaio people. Air those opinions, complaints or compliments and hopefully Sony will respond positively.

I'd like to think that the Vaio Members had some influence in Sony's recent decision to support mp3 in future products. There was certainly no shortage of critisism on that topic in this this forum anyway!

[kee-lo_]

Strange how Sony and Apple have had battery issues.

[octhem]

Here's one for you all;

Name me a battery powered electrical product that doesn't have issues with battery drain, or loss of performance.

Leave a car battery for long enough and it will drain, mobile phone batteries drain, allbeit after at least a couple of months - and why does my 6 month old phone now only hold power for a day! Let's hope the VP doesn't suffer from this problem to.

Have you guy's/gal's ever thought that consistant power drain maybe a good idea? I'm no scientist but they do say that to keep batteries in good condition, they should be discharged to 0% then fully charged. Maybe Sony's experience has decided that battery drain and a better performing battery is favourable over; a battery that only holds charge for 5 hours play time in 6 months time.

I think the real issue is having to initialise the device every time it is discharged - and this only happens if the battery is used to the point that it shut's it's self down and is then left for more then a day. If it run's out get it charged within a day and you wont have to initialise it again.

Only my two pence worth, maybe it is a real big issue - just not to me and the way I use it. If you want real issues get yourself an apple crapintosh ipod!

[seb21__]

Nickel-metal hydride,Lithium Ions
or Lithium Polymer rechargeable Batteries?


what for batteries use the VAIO-Pocket?

When I hear your problems, I think the first one.
Bad Sony, bad


Nickel-metal hydride batteries have a max. life time of 1 year,(thanks memory effect)
when you use the battery carefully.

[Pentagram]

It's a Lithium-Ion battery so they shouldn't be discharged to 0% before recharging this actually reduces the batterylife.

Here are a couple of links about battery charging en maintenance.
How to prolong life off lithium-ion batteries
Charging lithium-ion batteries

[seb21__]

yeah, never discharged a battery to zero.
And Lithium-Ion batteries don't have this memory effect (like a NiMH),
or better the memory effect isn't so big.

thanks for the link Pentagram.

[badde]

octhem, I saw your reply and I must agree that every battery drains power after a while, but there's a difference on how fast the battery is getting empty.

I know for a fact that if I don't use my protable for let's say 2 weeks the battery will be at 50%.

But do you really think that using the vaio-pocket for 2-3 hours and then keeping it powered off for 2-3 days justifies a power drain of more than 50% ??

I think not. I expect the thing to stay off for at least 1 week and still having 50% of power available, this will still give me the opportunity to listen music for a couple hours and then charge it.

I also agree that it's better to charge the battery whenever you have the time regardless the % still available. But at the rate the battery drain is going, I'm almost forced to keep it in the cradle all time when I do not want to use it for more than 1 day

What I want to try with this post is to have Sony create a firmware, if it's a software issue, to give the possibility to the users to put it in standby( like it does now) or to really power it off. That way if I don't think using the thing for a couple days, I know that I will still be able to use it again without first recharging it or leaving it in the cradle. See it like the little red light on your TV set : standby or power it off

Badde,

[Hellknight_FA]

I think the Battery-drain-problem is due to the Database which is hold in the RAM of the VAIO Pocket to ensure a fast boot.

On my iRiver H320 (swapped my VP due to this "problem") the boot-time with enabled db-scan is much longer than that of a VP (some users report 2-3 minutes!).

I think this "problem" is a design decission by Sony. Apple had made the same decission for their iPods.

Greetings

Timo

[diverse]

so p*$$ed off with the PV i went and bought a HD3 (and HD1 on offer!) you can switch these off for a week or more and go back and the battery is where you left it!

Ditto an Orange SPVC500, i haven't charged this for months and the battery is where it was when i turned it off!

Sony's "OFFICIAL" line is that the unit should discharge in 10 days, YES, that's the same as using it 2 hours per day or it discharges 10% charge per day which is total BS!

I don't use my unit every day, why should i lose a complete battery cycle becuase it wants to "remember" things!

I have a watch to tell me the time, a calender to tell me the date, I want my PV to play music i want and i don;t want it to keep eating my battery!

Will Sony listen, who knows?