Laptop battery

[ericmark]

I got a laptop from my dad so old when I got it, the battery was just good enough to allow me to save work, maybe 3 minutes, not enough to close it down, however near always used on mains power so did not worry, however noted power supply was very hot, so tried without battery and it ran cooler, so ordered a new battery.

It arrived and seemed to work, but within days the hard drive went so it sat waiting for son to repair for around 3 months, in the mean time I got an email from Amazon to say battery may be faulty and I would be refunded. Not a clue if genuine email or if really refunded.

When I got Laptop back battery was completely discharged and operating system had been changed from Vista to Windows 7, I simply don't have a Vista CD. It took some days but it did start to charge up to around 78% then although the icon said it was charging over a couple of weeks it got lower and lower ending up at around 7%, in this time I have been hunting for Sony drivers, the VAIO VGN-AW11XU/Q it seems was not used in USA and British site showed model existed but not any drivers.

However in the Computer software on this site some kind sole directed me to the UK Sony site with drivers for my laptop, reading reports it seemed Windows 7 is well known for having problems with charging Sony laptops. However instead of getting it working, the update caused a report to come up saying either battery not inserted correctly or wrong type, and auto shut down the PC into hibernate.

Since I had got the email about battery I decided to order another new one. However note new one rated 4400 mAh where old one rated 5200 mAh both 11.1 volt, it has 6 cells.

So I wonder what is wrong with the 5200 mAh battery, from what I gather there is a printed circuit built into the battery, if the fault is the printed circuit maybe I could make one good battery from the two old batteries? I think first thing is try the 4400 mAh battery when it arrives, may be nothing wrong with 5200 mAh it still could be a software fault.

However also seen the videos of Dell computers exploding, so I am not very happy with idea of my PC bursting into flames. The suspect battery is made in China, however most are now made there. The Sony site has a list of serial numbers of faulty batteries, my battery is not on the list.

Has anyone else had problems with Sony laptops when Vista is replaced with Windows 7, and what do you think the problem is, could it be the software built into the battery, would it be worth swapping new cells into old case?

It seems not limited to Sony, the HP laptops have same problem. If it was not such a regular problem which it seems is software linked I would just bin the battery, but so many seem to have same problem.

 

[DaveHerns]

Maybe you should post this in the " Computers" section?

 

[ericmark]

I already have asked in Computer section, and I have had some help, this is the thread however the Lithium battery is used in many things as well as computers, and the battery fires and explosion has been reported with items as far removed from each other as Boeing planes and Samsung phones.

Since one can I assume have a bag full of batteries and change them as each goes flat, I would expect the controlling software to be built into the battery rather than the computer. There is a multi-pin connector far more than any other battery I have, which it would seems tells the PC what state the battery is in, from what I can understand with windows there is an animated icon which shows battery is charging, it seems when this is animated it is really charging, there is also a message which comes up when you hover mouse over icon, which says either pugged in and charging or charged etc, however it seems plugged in and charging only means power is available it does not mean it is charging. This would make sense if all the charging software is in the battery.

Clearly I will wait for new battery, but then it's what do I do with old ones, combine together to make one good one, or put it in the bin. At £40 each it's very temping to see if I can get a second battery working as a stand-by.

 

[DaveHerns]

This laptop sounds about as old as my brother's Sony Vaio with Windows Vista, We tried a new cheapo battery ( about £15) .That worked but the laptop was so slow we binned it and he got a new one. Think I took the old battery apart out of curiosity, don't recall much componentry inside it

 

[ericmark]

The Sony VAIO at time of buying was near top of the range, it has a large screen, and since the new hard drives have been installed so clean of any rubbish it is reasonably fast, used in the main for photo processing it works well. Hardly every used on battery, but being able to one of the Tether programs from time to time to auto run my DSLR is an advantage, at least with the old Pentax camera the newer Nikon has an automatic interval timer built in. Using as a desktop also means I have two monitors, the built in and external one. So very happy with it.

Vista was not on a disk, so when new hard drives were fitted did not have Vista to re-install, however my son did have window 7 disks and licences so that was loaded instead. Since not the Sony modified Vista there were non of the special Sony drivers, so when I got battery problems I tried finding drivers, really have no idea if the fault is battery, or computer software.

I did look at charging the battery off the laptop

however could not find a Sony version and they are expensive. Likely best idea would be a lead acid battery an inverter to get 230 Vac and then use the standard power supply.

 

[motorbiking]

If you buy anything other than an OEM battery you are likely to be buying junk, as its very common for all sorts of crap to be used instead of genuine cells. There is a guide to the inside of a laptop cell I put together some years ago here:

Inside the cell you will typically find a balance circuit, overcharge and short protection along with thermister protection on each cell. If you are careful you could open up the pack as per the video and replace the dead cell, using a test meter to check the voltage. It depends how well glued the pack is - its not easy and you have to be watch-maker careful.

 

[ericmark]

Can't get video to play at the moment, I will try again latter.
I get:-

The installed battery may not be properly connected to the computer or may not be compatible with the computer.
Click OK to enter hibernation mode and remove and reinsert the battery.
See the electronic VAOI(R) User Guide for more information about using the battery.

The battery now shows no charge, so with no way to charge it, it is useless. As yet new one has not arrived, so only way to use PC is to remove battery.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Vista was not on a disk, so when new hard drives were fitted did not have Vista to re-install,

Did you ask Sony for a replacement CD? Most manufacturers will provide replacements for a pretty nominal fee, or even less.

Or you could surely have bought the Vista media on eBay.

 

[ericmark]

Watched the video, and yes likely that is best use of the battery, use it for something else.

As to Vista a bit late now, normally the PC's will not let you load an older version of windows than already installed. However may be still worth while getting the disk.

 

[ericmark]

New battery has arrived, fitted and power supply singing as it always does when supplying power, so looks good, I will give it chance to fully charge before switching on the Laptop. Charge light is orange, never seen it any other colour, but never had a battery fully charge, so will wait and see.

For the first time I can remember the battery light has gone off.
The report:-

The installed battery may not be properly connected to the computer or may not be compatible with the computer.
Click OK to enter hibernation mode and remove and reinsert the battery.
See the electronic VAOI(R) User Guide for more information about using the battery.

still came up so I went back to before I loaded the last update and this report has now stopped.

The battery icon shows 100% all seems to be now as it should. It does seem that the battery or software in the battery was faulty.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

normally the PC's will not let you load an older version of windows than already installed.

If you remove the existing installation the h/w will have no idea what version it had been.

 

[ericmark]

I take the idea if it's working leave it alone, and now it's working.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Indeed, but for future reference - you can install any OS whatsoever on any system which it supports, irrespective of what it is, or was, already running.

Doing Windoze upgrades instead of a reformat and install-from-scratch is never recommended.