Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I've noticed something strange...

When i am away from the computer for short periods (anything up to 5 hours) i normally just shut the lid for the system to go to SLEEP. This drains a bit of battery power (as it should) - roughly 1-2% per hour. While it is sleeping the little sleep symbol (the moon) shows.

When i plan to be away from the computer for extended periods, (typically 12-36 hours) I prefer to put the machine into HIBERNATE. This is supposed to save everything to disk and then shut down completely - which apparently it does since there is no little moon and the machine wakes up differently.

Here is the kicker.
When I come out of HIBERNATE I notice that the battery took a significant hit..???Shocked. Why is this? I am talking about dropping from 96% to 48% over a period of roughly 24-30 hours!!!

Surely in Hibernate the drain on the battery is supposed to be nothing??

Anybody know?

I would expect minimum battery drain for hibernation as well. Under 5% per day. Sorry not much help here as I don't use hibernation on my X60s.

Hibernation should not drain battery AT ALL. The computer is OFF.

Was that drain you experienced a one-time event, or did it happen on several occasions?

It has happened more than once.

Like you guys this puzzles the hell out of me.

I will experiment again tonight and see if i can get it to do it again.

I will report back on how to replicate the problem - by the way, i wait for Hibernation to finish before i close the lid - that is i wait until all disk activity ceases and until all lights are off.

Is it possible the computer isn't going into hibernate as quickly as you think? Maybe it remains in standby for 20 hours and then hibernates?

dr_st wrote:Hibernation should not drain battery AT ALL.

Well, not intentionally, but there is always a very slight spontaneous discharge. It's very slow, like a percent or two per week for a good battery.

gusrad, because you lose more charge during "hibernation" than during standby, I suspect the machine is neither hibernating nor standing by when it's supposed to be hibernating. The only way the battery can discharge faster than in the standby mode is if the laptop is actually on. So, perhaps the machine somehow turns itself on for a while during hibernation, and then goes back into hibernation.

The idea that the machine spontaneously turns itself on i.e. comes out of hibernation, does something (like a scan, etc) and then, eventually goes back to hibernation after a period of sustained non-use makes the most sense to me.

Just for clarity,
I select Hibernation from the shutdown menu.
The machine gives a beep, the moon symbol flashes and the HDD is active, then after a while, HDD activity stops and all the lights goes off, the fan stops and the machine is off. Only then do I close the lid. All indications are therefore that I Hibernate properly.

What could cause the machine to wake up from Hibernation??
I use NOD 32 as an anti virus and have never experienced that with NOD 32 on any of my other machines. The other component that may cause this can only be Vista or some Thinkpad software - any ideas?

P.S. just to be sure - there is no such battery drain when i use shutdown instead of hibernate - so there is no "leak" or short somewhere.

Check event log in administrative tools it will tell you if the machine powered on without you knowing. Btw i keep my machine on hibernate when I am not doing anything I have never seen this before the battery is always the same as before

Hmm, when I hibernate a black window pops up and says "HIBERNATING" with an activity bar that fills up. When it's done it shuts off. I get to hibernate through power management settings (the battery is dead), or by clicking FN+F12.

Just a thought and maybe something to experiment: I can take out the battery and after putting it back the machine resumes where I left off. I use that to switch batteries.

Now, how can the battery be drained when it isn't even in the machine?

MichaelMeier wrote:Just a thought and maybe something to experiment: I can take out the battery and after putting it back the machine resumes where I left off. I use that to switch batteries.

Now, how can the battery be drained when it isn't even in the machine?

Exactly, when you hibernate the machine is OFF. When you go into Standby the machine is still on in very low power mode.

Is there something in between?