Portégé Laptops

[deeznutz]

Is anyone else getting constant and excessive battery drain while their laptop is off?  I'm talking about 50% left when the laptop has been off for only 3 or 4 days.  My other laptops have been off for over a week sometimes and when i power them back on, it would still have 85%-90% battery life.

Is there an update to fix this?  I bought this laptop for travelling and need the battery life.  It is of no use if the battery drains this quickly when the laptop is off.

[Daschiba]

agree, that's an excessive drain!

subject your off is off and not some kind of hibernating/deep sleep.

however, its probably not the notebook to blame rather a battery discharge

due todeceased cell or faulty battery power control unit which is a tiny circuit

board assembled in all Li-ion batteries.

downtrack the suspect by

1 charging the battery to 100%

2 shutting the system down

3 taking the battery out and

   leaving it for the same time you

   experienced your problem occuring.

4 put battery in again and see charge level

   which should be almost the same

   (i.e. quick fully charged)

a smarter way (if you know how to handle a volt meter) is measuring the battery

voltage full charged and after a short use.

regards

Damian

[rhesuspieces]

I have a wireless mouse. I sleep or hibernate the laptop and put it on a shelf across the room.

If I go back and move the mouse (it's still on) the laptop will wake up and run until the battery

is drained.

This fooled me for a long time. I turn off the mouse before I sleep the laptop and I haven't seen

the problem since.

Silly me!

[deeznutz]

Damian, I did what you outlined and when I put the battery back into the laptop, it was almost the same, 98%, as when I took it out.  So it wasn't a bad battery, it's something with the laptop that is constantly draining it even though I Shutdown all the way.  Anyone know what this could be?

[tishatossie]

I guess Toshiba support still havent figured out the real cause to the battery draining problem yet.  I called them up, man, getting to talk to someone was a real challange, and a lot mental distress even when you get a chance to talk to someone.  In most cases, the easiest way for them was to ask you to send it in.  Battery was losing 10% - 15% a day with it completely turned off, and they were telling me it was normal; very genius.  

[Daschiba]

basically there are too few posts regarding that problem,

so at the time it has to be considered on the user side

and not a general running factory fault.

next step:

- subject your shutdown is entirely OFF (i.e. NO hibernate/standby)

- Bios [LAN wake up] if OFF!

- battery fully charged

put in battery use it for half an hour just playing a

HD video. should be more than 60% still. if not -

battery cell damage possible which wastes current

only on demand.

if still good, than you should seek additional advice from the

the technicians at your next Toshiba service provider store

because your motherboard will be the next suspect then...

regards

Damian

[jkn1946 · Accepted solution]

Here I go again, venturing into an area I know little about -but, could there be "Sleep 'n Charge" for a USB port? Perhaps added by a bios upgrade if not original?

If so, it could be turned off via the power management utility or thru the bios. Just a wild suggestion.....

[deeznutz]

Jkn, you were right!!!  It was the darn Sleep n Charge!!!  I disabled it in the bios, shut down the laptop and didn't use it for 4-5 days and when I turned it on today, the battery was still around 95%.  Before this, the battery would be below 50%.  Thank you!

[jkn1946]

I can't believe I actually helped someone - after all of the help I've gotten from various forums including this one I've finally been able to return the favor in some small way.

Thanks for letting me know that the suggestion worked!

[cbwilsha]

Feels good, doesn't it jkn? Don't underestimate yourself.

C.B.