Hi bingefeller,

What is the % available showing when you hover the pointer over (or click) the battery icon in the system tray?

If you have Battery Care activated the default will be to charge to 80% only – the legend will state 80% available not charging.

To check whether Battery Care is enabled open Vaio Control Center > Power Management > Battery Charge Functions. To alter the settings click the Advanced button.

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

Which Vaio model do you have and is it still running the original operation system?

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

I'm uncertain whether this is connected with the problem but your model should have the battery care utility. Follow this link and type 'battery care' in the search field for confirmation.

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VPCEJ2B1E_B/tips-and-solutions

To try and get this working click the download tap on that link and expand pre-installed drivers and utilities. Download and install Sony Shared Library and Sony Notebook Utilities and install in that order.

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

Sony Shared Library doesn't leave an individual install footprint and is not listed in Control Panel under Programs and Features. It does create the following files:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\Version.txt

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\Sony Utilities\Data.prof

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\Sony Utilities\Match.prof

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\Sony Utilities\SnyUtils.dll

Whether or not these files are listed there is no guaranteee that the installation of this or the Notebook Utilities  is not corrupt. I have never heard of anyone encountering problems after re-install the utilities suggested, however for peace of mind create a manual restore point prior to proceeding.

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

I am uncertain of the way forward on this so have asked Support for some input.

In the meantime can you confirm that the SFEP driver is properly installed and reported as working?

To do this open Control Panel > Device Manager > expand Human Interface Devices. You should see ‘Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device’.

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

No I don’t think you have a battery problem as such.

As the Battery Care function and some other functions are missing from Power Management I believe it is a software issue.

Let’s see whether Support can come up with any ideas on this...

Rich

Hi bingefeller,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I’m informed that your model does not have the Battery Care utility, so the support page is somewhat misleading.

Support suggest trying the following:

A battery reset (if possible): put the battery in a different unit and charge it to 100%, discharge it on that other unit. Put the unit back in the original unit and use as usual.

This also maybe related to ISB utility, which you can disable from msconfig under startup, battery will need to be removed and unit booted on AC power for this step to work.

Finally I would recommend a clean system reinstall.

Digging around on Google I have found a few reports of the same or similar problem. One particular thread has a number of suggested fixes, some of which seemed to have worked for some people.

http://qa.social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/a983eb5d-fbc5-4b36-9fc5-9d24d4db6982

It’s a long thread but the following suggestion stood out as possible solutions:

1) Disconnect AC

2) Shutdown

3) Remove battery

4) Connect AC

5) Startup

6) In Device Manager under the Batteries category, right-click the ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery listing, and select Uninstall.  Do this for each instance (I had 2 batteries installed, so 2 instances.  Most users will only have 1).

7) Shutdown

8) Disconnect AC

9) Insert battery

10) Connect AC

11) Startup

I hope this is of help.

Rich

Message was edited by: rich912

Message was edited by: rich912