Specific short battery life problem with Sony VAIO laptop

Question

(I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 Bit)

I have some problems with my laptop's (Sony VAIO VPC-F22S1E) battery . It's fullly charging about 3-4 hours (while using) and 2-3 hours (when shutdowned) . And it's duration is only 1-2 hours . After 2 hours using, it's completely empty (actually i'm praising, if it longer for 2 hours). Also, i'm checking Ubuntu's remaining battery time panel,

As you see, it says 1 hour 39 minutes. But when i check it 10 minutes later, it's 1 : 09 , and 20 minutes later 1 : 35 . As you see, it's very unstable.

I went to Sony's technical service. They measure somethings and tell me "battery's all values are normal, there is no problem with your battery" . This is my battery details :

I'm not sure why there is a problem.

---

Details

(command > results of command)

lspci | grep VGA > 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 540M] (rev a1)

My PC usage details

1. I'm not playing games on my PC (seriously)
2. I'm a web developer, and always working with text editors (Sublime Text 2)
3. Apache2 web server always online on my computer, but i'm not sure how much battery using
4. Bluetooth always disabled .
5. I'm using Wireless network connection, always.

(please comment, if you need other details)

What i need ?

1. Advices for finding problem with my battery
2. Finding my battery drainer applications, and kill them.
3. Advices for charging (for example, should i use voltage protected power socket? and Shouldn't i use my computer while charging it)

Why it's NOT duplicated with other questions.

Because every computer user different, installed different applications, using at different places and users have different computer knowledge (I'm not a Linux expert because of this i need step by step answers , generally).

Done a quick search but couldn't find any enough information about my problem. Beause of this, i'm asking this question. Please don't tell me "IT's duplicated with blah blah blah , close this question !" .

Thank you :)

---

About (Sony VAIO VPC-F22S1E)

The graphics chip, HD Graphics 3000, in the processor is disabled (no Nvidia Optimus). The Geforce GT 540M can therefore not be disabled.

Solution

Do the following steps and i hope your laptop battery consumption will be better

powerstat: Power Consumption Calculator for Ubuntu Linux

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:colin-king/powermanagement
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install powerstat

After that checking you power comsumption

sudo powerstat

Check the output mine was around 16 to 18 Watts

Now making battery life better

 sudo apt-get install ethtool

Put the given below in rc.local before exit 0

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

rfkill block bluetooth
ethtool -s eth0 wol d
exit 0

This save around 1 to 2 watts battery.

Install power top and check its suggestion ( Optional )

After that saving real battery consumption

 sudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/power

and paste the following lines in it.

 #!/bin/sh

 # Shell script to reduce energy consumption when running battery. Place
 # it in /etc/pm/power.d/ and give execution rights.

 if on_ac_power; then

 # Start AC powered settings --------------------------------------------#

 #NMI watchdog should be turned on
 for foo in /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog;
 do echo 1 > $foo;
 done

 # CPU Governor: Performance
 for foo in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor;
 do echo performance > $foo;
 done 
 # End AC powered settings ----------------------------------------------#

 else

 # Start battery powered settings ---------------------------------------#

 #NMI watchdog should be turned on
 for foo in /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog;
 do echo 0 > $foo;
 done

 # Select Ondemand CPU Governor
 for foo in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor;
 do echo ondemand > $foo;
 done
 # End battery powered settings -----------------------------------------#

 fi

Save and Exit & Now you need to assign execution permission of power script

 sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/power

After that

 cd /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d
 sudo cp anacron /etc/pm/power.d/
 sudo cp intel-audio-powersave /etc/pm/power.d/
 sudo cp laptop-mode /etc/pm/power.d/
 sudo cp sata_alpm /etc/pm/power.d/
 sudo cp sudo cp /etc/pm/power.d/ /etc/pm/power.d/

Disabling ‘Wake On LAN’ in Ubuntu might save a Tiny Bit of Power on your Laptop

 sudo cp /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/disable_wol /etc/pm/power.d/
 gksudo gedit /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/disable_wol

Once opened locate a code called ‘wol g’ (you can search for it in the editor) as shown below then simply change the letter ‘g’ to ‘d’.

After that you can see the pic below my battery life after full recharged. 5 Hours 25 Mints

After that reboot your laptop and after fully charged check the battery life and run again power stat

 sudo powerstat

I hope it will be better now

Now mine is

Summary: 10.86 Watts on Average with Standard Deviation 1.07

Comments

[Eray]

@Web-E, thank you. Please check Details section of my question.

[Web-E]

Secondly your battery capacity is reduced to 85%. It can't hold charge as it was at first time. On each recharge life cycle some cells in lithium ion battery dies. Thus reducing capacity. about update: Nvidia 540m is generally a optimus enabled GPU.Notsure why you are having only one entry in lspci. If it has optimus use bumblebee

[Alex]

I've read your comment and details edit here and edited my answer to highlight the section about Bumblebee. If you have a GeForce 540M card active on your machine, that is no doubt responsible for some power drain.

[Eray]

@Web-E , On each recharge life cycle some cells in lithium ion battery dies what do you mean with recharge life cycle exactly ? Notsure why you are having only one entry in lspci. If it has optimus use bumblebee and? :)

[Alex]

I think by recharge life cycle he means a full charge (aka for every 100% of charge your battery undergoes). In simple theory, li-ion batteries should last forever so long as you keep them charge. In practice, certain complications cause batteries to lose capacity and "die out" a little bit every time you charge them. For this reason, laptop batteries have to be replaced every year or two depending on usage.

[Eray]

@Alex, so why Sony's technical service said me "all values normal" ? Why they couldn't see, it's capacity dropped to 85% and it's need to changed. Isn't it their mistake?

[Alex]

Yes, well, from my experience Sony is not a fantastic company and the only VAIO laptop I ever owned was a piece of junk. So you may just be dealing with poor customer service here. That being said, I don't really know all about batteries and it could be that the values don't actually mean the capacity is at 85%. I was just explaining what he meant by recharge life cycle. Either way, a battery that only holds 85% of its factory capacity is still in decent shape and shouldn't be too much to blame for these issues.

[Eray]

@Alex , no no, you're right, don't misunderstand me :) And Ubuntu saying, it's capacity is 85 % . I'll read and follow your answer a few minutes later.

[Darryl Williams]

Check out this askubuntu.com/questions/206240/battery-too-much-wasted

[Qasim]

Possible Duplicate askubuntu.com/questions/285434/…

[Eray]

I just installed Bumblebee and restart my computer. Result : 640*480 screen resolution and this error : none of the selected modes were compatible with the possible modes: Trying modes for CRTC 310 CRTC 310: trying mode 640x480@73Hz with output at 1920x1080@51Hz (pass 0) CRTC 310: trying mode 640x480@73Hz with output at 1920x1080@51Hz (pass 1)

[Eray]

and result of sudo bumblebeed is [ 9553.465399] [ERROR]No Optimus system detected, quitting.

[Eray]

i solved that problem, and remove comments about that. Btw, i have an option on BIOS screen, something like Intel Accelerated Graphic ... . Is it means integrated graphic ?

[Alex]

I did some more reading on the link you sent me - which I should have done in the first place - and it states that it does not feature NVIDIA Optimus and that the Intel HD3000 integrated graphics are, for some bizarre reason, disabled permanently. Sorry, but it looks like you'll have to let your GeForce card run. Still, try to use PowerTOP to see what exactly is costing so much battery life.

[Eray]

this is results of PowerTOP : i.imgur.com/qMAVp.png I'm not sure, how can i read this results.

[Eray]

Can you tell me why we are installing ethtool and doing some modifications on /etc/rc.local ?

[Qasim]

rfkill block bluetooth > this will disable blue tooth from activating and you can still activate it by enabling blue tooth from blue tooth panel icon. ethtool -s eth0 wol d < and this will disable wakeup on lan feature which probably no one use it. so it save power consumption around 1 to 2 watts, i hope you understand my point