Battery drain when machine is off and unplugged

[Vmax8]

Running a W500 Windows 7 RTM 64bit.

This machine loses battery charge after only a few hours when it's unplugged. It's properly shut down and not in hibernation or sleep. When the battery is taken out after shut down and put back in, no loss.

In device manager I enabled "allow the machine to shut down this device to save battery power" whereever possible and disabled any device to wakeup the machine.

Did anyone come accross this problem too? Any solution?

[Hackster]

I've just replied to this question on another forume where you posted it. The battery drain is dues to the network adapter driver configuration to monitor network for "magic packet" and boot up automatically. This can be disabled in the driver configuration accessible from Device Manager.

[Vmax8]

Of course I disabled the wake-up on LAN already, but this doesn't help

[Hackster]

Are you sure we are talking about the same thing? I meant going into the adapter properties, clicking Advanced tab, selecting "Wake on Link Settings" in the "Property" list, and selecting "Disabled" in the "Value" drop-down.

[Vmax8]

Yes, we are talking about the same thing. Did exactly what you described.

[Hackster]

Strange... Did you by any chance order the configuration with Intel AMT enabled? If so, it should probably be disabled as well.

[Vmax8]

I can't see any BIOS entry for AMT to disable it.
However I needed to install the Management Engine Interface (Intel AMT 4.0) in order to stop an error in Device Manger.
So I have no idea if AMT is enabled or disabled.

[Hackster]

Considering that the purpose of AMT is to provide remote management capabilities, it is possible that it's what is causing your battery drain. I ordered my configuration without it (AMT is another possible security hole, as far as I am concerned), so I can't help you with disabling it. Maybe someone else who has AMT-enabled configuration will be able to shed some light.

[Vmax8]

I can't recall ordering it with AMT.
I did a parts lookup on the Lenovo warranty page for my machine and it's without AMT.
On another forum I got the suggestion to check the Anti-Theft settings in BIOS. One of the three settings was enabled. I disabled it and will do some tests.

[Ronon]

Hi,

I had the same problem, but it disapeared after updating bios to the latest version.

[ausmike]

I have also found the 'hard way' what some of the 'causes' for BATTERY LOSS....

TO HELP BATTERY DRAIN -(?) ...
there are several places where these newer machines could use up the battery when its 'shutdown' ; and normally even if everything is totally shut off , you would expect some loss - as internal CLOCKs, etc will be needed to be powered over 'extended shutdowns'; but its expected to be 1-2% over months on none use

** this post is based on the latest W500 (4058)machine , with latest bios 3.09X **
####(read caution on this topic - as if you not sure , YOU MAY/WILL VOID WARRANTY###
A) BIOS
1) Config -> Network
DISABLED - Wake On Lan (mentions on above posts)
DISEBLED - Flash over LAN ( if you going to never use LAN bios flash)
DISABLED - Wrielss lan and WIMIAX ( if you always on wired network)
2)Config -> USB
DISABLED - USB BIOS Support - if you never going to boot from a USB Dvd drive
ALWAYS ON USB = DISABLED
3)Config -> POWER
There are several things in this section that needs to be 'evulated' to suit your requirements ie ( dont jsut settle for factory defauts = "AUTOMATIC" .One of things I have "DISABLED" here = TIMER WAKE with battery (read caution here please)

4)Config -> Memory test = DISABLED

5) Config -> Docking = DISABLED

[Fleche]

I have a couple of W500s in our office, both are running XP with factory image.
Both are losing about 8% per night despite turning everything off in the BIOS like previous posts suggested, also updated to the latest BIOS a well.

[Fleche]

Confirmed this happens to all our Thinkpad W500s Model # 40624GU. (About a dozen of them)

Lenovo tech support wants to replace some part, but it's on back order, so still waiting for that.
In the mean time, I found this.
Once the machine shuts down, and I pull the battery out briefly and puts it back in, the battery does not drain.

So, I'm suspecting something on the laptop is not getting powered down correctly.

[ausmike]

Sorry I havnt replied to your post::

couple of things (more like trips and tricks) for THINKPADS ,,,,,,since I been a thinkpad user since the FIRST XT models came out !!

1) for XP laptops (especially x64 prof XP) >>>>> DO NOT USE THINKVANTAGE POWER MANGER !!! > nothing against that software but XP with thinkvantage= major major issues of LEAKAGE of voltage !!!

2) ENSURE that the POWER MANGER in XP is configured to " not always charge" and set to charge ONLY if it pwer gets below like eg =80%) .....

I found these things out , as I always travel a lot ,(my proifle would be a dead give away how many hours flights I do every month between the two countries)


These i found out by simple tiral and "ah ha " moments

in short , do not load XP (windows power manager AND thinkvantage pwoer manager!!!) but am not sure these are same issues with Vista.....as I mostly run LINUX and Windows X64x dual boots

[giorgosvam]

Just a wild guess: try if disabling the "High Definition Audio Controller" under "System Devices" in the hardware manager stops the battery drain.

Service Pack 2 for Vista introduced a bug which caused this device to draw power when put to hibernation while mains was connected (and only then). Unplugging the battery shortly after hibernation had finished or hibernating while not connected to mains prevented drain. However, drain did not occur when shut down properly, irrespective of whether mains was connected or not when shuting down.

George

ausmike: is your experience of battery drain when using PM on XP limited to certain thinkpad models? Which ones?

[ausmike]

Had couple of T series with XP a while back....T43P CTO and T41P with XP x64.. BUT dont use these much now for Prdn work....

[Fleche]

Issue is now fixed.

Restart your laptop,
hit F1 to get in the BIOS
Verify your BIOS version is 3.10 dated 2009-10-02 or later
Hit F9 to load Setup Defaults
(Optional) Then go to Config->Display-> and set the Graphics Device to Discrete Graphics
Then hit F10 to Save and Exit.