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General discussion

0%, plugged in charging

by magnerpolo Nov 4, 2009 12:36AM PST

I'm on a sony vaio fw and running vista. battery is at 0% available, charging. but it doesn't actually charge unless im in sleep mode and this doesn't always work either. I reset my BIOS, reinstalled notebook controls for battery settings and the problem still exists. The charger will hold the computer on so I don't think its the charger and my battery is one year old and was working fine about a week ago. At seemingly random times I will get a hard shut down, even when connected to an AC power source. the battery even when charged will drain quickly and not give me the time estimate when i hover over the icon. At times the AC power will hold the computer on for hours, other times it wont even get past loading vista.

Is this my battery, charger, motherboard? A problem in vista? on a side note i wouldn't be surprised if the culprit in this is the old wiring in my apartment building, happened originally when i did not have the laptop plugged into a surge protecter.

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4 Posts
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Since Vista is not running in all situations.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 4, 2009 12:43AM PST

This points to battery, motherboard, "brick" or connection issues.

But here's the thing that most people want to forget. The battery in this laptop is only a 300 cycle unit. So after a year, if the owner used it daily on battery power the battery is usually gone.

Call Sony and get an estimate. Figure worst case at about 500 bucks.
Bob

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ok
by magnerpolo Nov 4, 2009 12:52AM PST

I use my laptop extensively so I would not be surprised if this was the case. I just wanted to see if buying a new battery would be throwing away 80 bucks when I needed to replace the battery. Since my laptop cuts out when plugged into an AC power even without the battery, I would assume that the problem cannot be fixed simply by replacing the battery? Although this would be nice, I dont want to go burning a 100 dollars. whats the likelihood that this could solve the problem with the computer cutting out even with no battery in? maybe i should go test it on a building that doesn't have 40 year old wiring.

Also my laptop isn't under warranty (by like a month go figure) and from what I've heard sony refuses to solder a new jack to the board and will force you to buy a whole new one.

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Let's say that's true.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Nov 4, 2009 2:31AM PST

All laptops I've seen run without the battery. If the LAPTOP JACK FAILURE (see google) is suspect there are shops that do nothing but that repair for a price. I won't write how much but it's a good deal compared to AUTHORIZED REPAIRS which they never solder parts but change boards. Not to start a discussion but solder work is considered an ART and various governments have started a crusade against lead based solder which has lead to more solder joint fractures and shorter life spans in electronic gear.
Bob

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same problem
by therendien Nov 12, 2011 11:16AM PST

I had the same problem, looked on the internet and didn't find anything. I eventually just took the battery out, blew off all the dust, popped it back in, and it started working.

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