Battery charging icon behaviour

[ericmark]

My laptop a Sony has had battery problems since the day I got it, it would only last a few minutes, but used on mains, so did not really matter, until I realised the power supply was running rather hot, so I bought a new battery.

However before really using the new battery the hard drives failed, and it took a few months to get it fixed. When I got it back it had Windows 7 instead of Vista and battery showed zero charge, it did not seem to charge, but then it gradually went to around 79% after which point it has been gradually going down again, it says plugged in charging when you hover over the icon but it has slowly over last few weeks being going down and down and last time I looked it was 9% the battery icon has also been showing a lower and lower bar reading.

There are a number of things which could be wrong, from a faulty battery, or Windows 7 not having correct drivers for the PC. Now I don't mind buying another battery, but only if the battery is faulty.

Now I unplugged the power supply at 9% and as one may expect it warned me to shut it down or get a mains supply, one plugging the power supply back in the icon seems to be showing an animated battery level showing it moving from near empty to full and back again to near empty, don't remember it doing this before, not sure if due to trying to find and install drivers from the Sony US web site, or if something has changed.

However on returning animated level icon seemed to have stopped and stuck at 10% charged, it has gone up from 9% but not much, and I wonder if I did see the animation or if it was just due to plugging in power and so the post.

Should the charge icon be animated, and any ideas on how to find if fault is battery or Windows 7.

 

[motorbiking]

Is the new power supply pushing out the same watts as the original?

 

[ericmark]

The power supply did charge the old battery so that is one thing I am not worried about, and it runs a lot cooler with the new battery. There are to my mind three things which may be wrong, first the battery and I include the electronics inside the battery as there is no way to change one without the other, since it was not really used before the hard drives were swapped can't really say the battery is good, even if it is new. The second which seems very likely is the Windows 7 operating system is not compatible with the Sony laptop which was designed for Vista with a load of Sony VAIO bits, I have tried down loading the VAIO bits but many of the bits will not work with Windows 7, the third is I have made an error setting up the software, and I need to simply do some software tweak, the Sony instructions tell me to go into the start menu and disable the Windows charging system, however I can't find the bits the instructions tell you to alter, they simply don't seem to exist with Windows 7.

If I could be sure the battery is at fault then that's easy, I buy a new battery, but if the battery is not at fault then I have wasted a lot of money. Years ago I had Linux live disks and one could boot a PC from Linux without installing, I wonder if such a thing still exists, and would it show if the fault is software or hardware related, but I really do not understand where Windows 7 comes into the charging as one should be able to plug ones laptop into the power supply when not running and it will still charge, so not sure a live disk would prove anything?

It is a Sony VGN-AW11XU_Q VAIO laptop but I can't find that model listed so I tried software for the VGN-AW110J laptop which seemed the nearest I could find. this USA site does seem to have loads of software, specially for the laptop, I have tried installing anything which seems it may help. I can't find the software page on UK site, this page lists my PC as being able to upgrade to Windows 7, it also seems there has been a problem with Sony battery packs over heating, and the was a free replacement program.

However as far as drivers go the UK Sony site just takes one round and round in circles without getting to a driver down load page. The RAID hard drives are completely US so can't get any info off them, the physical hard drive I have in a caddy so can use with USB but seems to be nothing about operating system or drivers. Since can't get Sony drivers it seems pointless to revert to Vista even if I could get a disk.

 

[Astra99]

Hi EricMark

Try this link https://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/VGN-AW11XU/list#os2

Let's hope the text between "content" and "VGN-AW11XU" in the link doesn't cause this post to be censored!

 

[ericmark]

Thanks well there is now a change, it puts up a notice, the battery has not been inserted correctly or it is not comparable, click here to go into hibernation mode and remove and reinsert battery, on doing that no improvement and if I don't it auto goes into hibernation mode, so it seems battery is faulty, only way to use PC now is to remove battery. Which may be good if the battery could burst into flames.

So new battery ordered and crossing my fingers.

 

[ericmark]

New battery arrived, I fitted it, and the power supply made the whine it normally does when delivering power, and the orange battery light was on. A few hours latter the battery light was off, so tried to boot, it showed 100% however 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. I went back to before I installed the software linked to on this thread (Astra99) was loaded and now everything seems to be working as expected.

So it would seem the battery or software in the battery was at fault. Since it has not been discharged and charged again can't be 100% sure it's cured, but this is the first time I have ever seen the battery charging light go off. Even before it was my Laptop when my dad had it I noted at all times the battery light was on.