topic Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness in PCs & Accessories

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:12:34 GMT

Hi guys,

I was using my laptop off the battery this morning as I forgot to turn it on at the mains. The battery pack was still connected to the computer, it just wasn't turned on via the mains. When I did turn the mains switch on, whilst the AC adapter was still connected, I noticed the battery icon said "plugged in, not charging." Funny thing is that the battery did appear to be charging!

If I have the computer running off the mains, then plug out the plug on the side of the computer, to use it on the battery, then I plug it back in it always seems to say "plugged in, charging."

Is this behaviour normal or do you think it's a sign of an impending failure on my battery>?

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:15:51 GMT

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

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:58:22 GMT

Hi Rich,

The % is now at 100%.

I tried checking Battery Care but I don't have it for some reason in my Vaio Control Centre.... I go to Power Management and all I see it Power Options and it says "Configure energy-saving settings on your computer" THere is an "Advanced" button, and when I press that it takes me to Windows 7 power management control panel.

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:06:04 GMT

Hi bingefeller,

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

Rich

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:07:00 GMT

Hi Rich,

I have the VPCEJ2B1E. It is still running the original OS - Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1.

The battery is showing 100% - fully charged.

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:48:06 GMT

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

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:00:43 GMT

Hi Rich,

Apologies for not replying to this thread sooner.

I was using the Laptop off the battery tonight and it ran down to 40%. I plugged it in and it has the "plugged in, not charging" message. As I said earlier - the battery actually is charging as the power has now increased to 45%....

I didn't download anything from the link you gave as it's kind of confusing to be honest. I'm worried that I might do something wrong.. Is there a way I can tell if I have the Sony Shared Library on my machine?

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:30:47 GMT

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

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:11:15 GMT

Hi Rich,

I installed everything in the order you suggested and I still don't have the Battery Care function!!!

All I see is this:

Any ideas?

Just to let you know - I was getting the "Plugged in, not charging" message last night again but this morning it is up to 100% power...

Message was edited by: bingefeller

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:10:41 GMT

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

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:57:07 GMT

Hi Rich,

Yes - I do have Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device installed.

Do you think it is a problem with my battery, given the fact that it does charge even when it says it's not?

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:01:19 GMT

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

Re: Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:57:46 GMT

Thanks for all your help, Rich. It's much appreciated. I didn't know you could forward these message board topics to the Support Team.

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:02:47 GMT

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

😎 Disconnect AC

9) Insert battery

10) Connect AC

11) Startup

I hope this is of help.

Rich

Message was edited by: rich912

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

bingefeller — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:28:45 GMT

Hi Rich,

Many thanks for the reply. I think that I will try the method where I uninstall the ACPI and see what happens. Just one more thing - if I uninstall this ACPI will it automatically reinstall when I put the battery back in?

Thanks again!!

Message was edited by: bingefeller

Plugged In, Not Charging Weirdness

rich912 — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:35:00 GMT

Hi bingefeller,

That would certainly be my approach.

Good luck and let us know how you get on...

Rich

Sorry, missed your edit. Yes Windows will automatically reinstall this on boot.

Message was edited by: rich912