Battery drain in Toshiba laptop

[Fabbs]

Friend bought a Toshiba laptop in Summer 08.
Battery fully charged yet laptop unplugged only lasts about 45 minutes.

Toshiba replaced the battery, same problem.
They are offering to have her ship the unit back, they will check the motherboard.

Reactions? Ever heard of a faulty motherboard gobbling up juice?
Any other things that should be checked?

[Cry Havoc]

Could be a number of unlikely things. Anything that's pulling more juice than necessary could be the culprit. Checking hardware on a computer is pretty difficult unless you have very solid knowledge of computers. I'd just have them replace it.

[TDMVPDPOY]

drain the battery and recharge it again and see how long it takes to drain again...

wattabout performance settings? or updating drivers etc...

hence could be a shit battery

[jacobdrj]

DO NOT DRAIN YOUR BATTERY!!!

Draining a Lithium Ion battery is a NO NO! Don't ever let it get below 5% if you can help it. If it does, remove it from your laptop to prevent damage to the cells, until you can charge it.

As far as the battery drain: What is your hardware configuration.
Mainly: Screen size & type of screen (Cold Cathode? LED?). What processor do you have (CPU)? AMD or Intel? Dual core? Single core?

Also, look on the battery: what is it's mah (milliamps) or amps rating? How many 'cells' does it have? What is it's wattage rating? At least some of that information is written right on the battery label.

[ElNono]

Lithium Ion should last at the very least for 3 years since manufacture date (at an average 20% loss/year).
Battery drain does no matter. What matter is 1) the amount of charge cycles, 2) temperature and 3) the amount of current used by the device.

Considering it's a laptop, my best guess is either a problem with the charger circuit or a problem with heat dissipation. It's unlikely you received two bad batteries, but it has happened before. If it's under warranty, he should probably ship it and have it serviced.

[jman3000]

I have a Toshiba Satellite with a 17 inch screen.

Fuck that thing sucks up battery life like a mofo.

I should have read the feedback on it on their website because apparently their power supply go out after a year. Dozens of people complained about it, and what do ya know it happens to me just a little over a year from purchase.

[jacobdrj]

What is the rating of the battery. If it is less than 6000 mah, it figures that you just have a big laptop. 45 minutes is standard for 17" screens unless you have a 9 to 12 cell battery.

[jman3000]

I could get around an hour while using both processors and maybe an hour and a half using one.

And it's not the battery that went out... by power supply I meant the actual brick.

[jacobdrj]

I could get around an hour while using both processors and maybe an hour and a half using one.

And it's not the battery that went out... by power supply I meant the actual brick.

Oh. Yeah. Those things can go bad. My brother had one melt on him, and a freind's went up in flames.

Try getting it replaced once more. If it does the same thing, send them the whole system or demand a refund.

[iggypop123]

i hate my toshiba satelite but its so much cheaper than a macbook so im ok with the negatives

[jacobdrj]

Toshiba's, HP's, Dells, even Macs... They all have these issues with the bricks failing due to heat periodically. Only company I have never personally encountered this problem was Acer of all things! Go figure.

You could get an aftermarket brick for your Toshiba. Just make sure it can handle at least 100W.

[PM5K]

If it's under warranty, and she can live without it for a little while it's probably best to send it back to Toshiba.

However, if for whatever reason you want to troubleshoot it we'll need a lot of additional information, model number of the laptop, charger, serial number of the battery, specs of the computer, how she normally uses the battery (Is it always plugged in, or does she discharge and recharge the battery often)?

As mentioned it's certainly not impossible that you got two bad batteries or that the laptop has some other hardware problem.

ETC ETC ETC

[jman3000]

Oh. Yeah. Those things can go bad. My brother had one melt on him, and a freind's went up in flames.

Try getting it replaced once more. If it does the same thing, send them the whole system or demand a refund.

They are under a 1 year warranty... and guess what? Almost ALL of them go out just a year after you own them.

After reading the comments on their website I nearly shat myself reading the dozens of dozens of people saying theirs went out a week after the 1 year anniversary.

[jman3000]

I think my brick was a 120... not 100% sure.

When I bought the damn thing 2 or so years ago it was a bit over 2K and probably at the bottom of the top of the line.

[Fabbs]

However, if for whatever reason you want to troubleshoot it we'll need a lot of additional information,
Qosmio F55-Q502 model number of the laptop,

Brick is Toshiba part #PA329OU-3ACA charger, also on the brick the bar code says PK10000EH00-A00-086C-22098

Will have to send next post serial number of the battery,

15.4 widescreen TruBrite display specs of the computer,
3072MB 800MHz SDRAM
Intel Core2 Duo Processor P7350

Mostly plugged in. Occasionally (like once every 3 weeks) she will disconnect and travel with it on battery. Only lasts bout a half hour. how she normally uses the battery (Is it always plugged in, or does she discharge and recharge the battery often)?


As far as the battery drain: What is your hardware configuration. Huh? Vista, the crappy original one.

Next post Also, look on the battery: what is it's mah (milliamps) or amps rating? How many 'cells' does it have? What is it's wattage rating? At least some of that information is written right on the battery label.

[Fabbs]

Toshiba's, HP's, Dells, even Macs... They all have these issues with the bricks failing due to heat periodically. Only company I have never personally encountered this problem was Acer of all things! Go figure.

You could get an aftermarket brick for your Toshiba. Just make sure it can handle at least 100W.
She's gonna send the laptop back.
What is a good replacement brick? Current Toshiba one gets hotter then H.

[Cry Havoc]

So you're buying a new brick?

[Fabbs]

So you're buying a new brick?
told her to make Toshiba replace the brick.
Whoever pays, id still like to know what is a good brand brick.

[SonOfAGun]

This is why I love lenovo.

Once or twice a year they flood the online outlet store with "returned" components such as batteries.

I got 2 extra 6-cell ones for like $20 and they appear to look and preform 100% new.