# laptop drains battery even when shut down.

## downer

Hi,

Recently I have discovered a issue with my laptop that I have never noticed before; if I shut it off (completely, from the gnome menu) - no suspend or anything - and leaves it for a few (>5) days, the battery is completely drained when I try to start it again. 

I have noticed this behaviour in the past when I only suspended it and figured that it needs some power to keep the info in RAM, but even then I was a bit "wtf?!" since it would drain the battery in just 2 days or so when suspended. 

Does this mean my battery is bad? It is not a even a year old.

When I have it charged I can do an "emerge -uavDN world" and let it compile with cpu 100% for an hour or so without problem while on batteries, and I figured it would not be able to hold charge at all if it was broken, but maybe I'm wrong?

Cheers,

//D

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## GODhack

You are wrong or you do something wrong.

Remove-insert battery (this is 100% "power off" for laptops)  after shutdown and look if same thing happens again.

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## guruvan

is the laptop left indoors? if it gets left in a cold car or something,  this would be understandable.  otherwise I'd say call the MFR and get a new one (warranty?)

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## downer

 *guruvan wrote:*   

> is the laptop left indoors? if it gets left in a cold car or something,  this would be understandable.  otherwise I'd say call the MFR and get a new one (warranty?)

 

nop, it stays inside the whole time, that is why I found it strange.

I have done some more digging (that means hitting google pretty hard  :Wink: ) and it seems like it is not that uncommon:

Toshiba laptop battery is drained while shut down

Battery drain when laptop switched off

Does laptop battery drain itself when hibernating?

From what I have gathered so far this seems to be "normal" - at least from the HW companies POV?

The first link (from ubuntufurums.org) seems to think this happens more under Linux than Windows? I can't comment on this since I never used Windows on it but went straight to Gentoo.  :Razz: 

//D

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## guruvan

for sure there are items in the box that may continue to drain power while the box is off (just like your tv will suck a fraction of an amp while it's off) but 5 days till dead it not right. not at all. you have to expect that anything that has batteries will eventually kill them even while powered down. but not that fast.

do what GODhack said - take the battery out and see if it still drains. then you know what to ask/tell HP when you demand a new laptop   :Shocked:   :Wink:   :Twisted Evil: 

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## general

 *downer wrote:*   

> 
> 
> The first link (from ubuntufurums.org) seems to think this happens more under Linux than Windows? I can't comment on this since I never used Windows on it but went straight to Gentoo. 
> 
> //D

 

that would imply that the kernel is not shutting the laptop off properly

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## downer

 *GODhack wrote:*   

> You are wrong or you do something wrong.
> 
> Remove-insert battery (this is 100% "power off" for laptops)  after shutdown and look if same thing happens again.

 

I tried removing the battery last night and now when I tested it, it was at 99% (booted from battery). So I guess the battery is good, but something in the computer keeps draining power.

Could it be Wake On Lan or something similar that does it?

Thanks,

//D

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## pappy_mcfae

It could be many things, but I know that my laptop's battery will slightly discharge if I don't keep it plugged in. I think going to a complete discharge that quickly is a sign that there might be battery trouble. New doesn't mean good.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## downer

 *downer wrote:*   

> I tried removing the battery last night and now when I tested it, it was at 99% (booted from battery). So I guess the battery is good, but something in the computer keeps draining power.
> 
> Could it be Wake On Lan or something similar that does it?
> 
> 

 

Hi again,

Back from more testing, this time I turned off the wlan card (with the physical switch) before powering down and left the battery in. It didn't drain nearly as much power this time (<10% in a few days).

I've checked the BIOS for any WOL settings but being a HP it is really crippled and no such setting exist afaics. 

Could this be a problem with the kernel not shutting down the wireless properly? From my googling it seems that Windows is not affected as much as Linux, but like I said before, I have no first hand experience since I havn't run Windows on it.

Thanks,

//D

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## guruvan

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> I have no first hand experience since I havn't run Windows on it. 

 

Then you obviosly haven't suffered enough ;-> 

But just in case you want to try an experiment here's a link to BartPE - Windows XP liveCD....I've not tried it, but it seems like a good thing (surely you have a license for windows - I believe that it's still illegal to purchase a computer with out one in the US)  ;-> 

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

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