Acer Switch 10 sleep mode, consumes battery

ironman_gene
ironman_gene Member Posts: 8 New User
in 2015 Archives

I have my Switch 10 for almost 2 months now, however I found out that if I put the device into Sleep mode it consumes too much battery.  This is the scenario, I have it on 50% charged when I fell asleep.  I pushed the power button and it turned off the screen.  When I woke up the next morning it says "battery critically low" and have to recharge the device.

 

Has anyone experienced this issue?  I am pretty sure my power management setting has the following:  when I press the power button - put the device to sleep.  Same setting for if I close the lid - put the device to sleep.

 

BTW, I never removed the keyboard, I hope it does not drain the battery due to this, my understanding is when I place the device to sleep, it should consume very minimal battery and not drain it in a couple of hours.

Answers

  • Ryanrr
    Ryanrr Member Posts: 831 Practitioner WiFi Icon

    ironman_gene,

     

    I am not aware of what would cause the system to discharge from 50% to critically low over night. It also could be affected on how you have your sleep settings setup. With Windows 8 if you press the power button it will put it in hybrid shutdown, which should minimize and not cause any battery discharge.

     

    I would suggest disconnecting the dock to see if the situation changes. If not, then please contact technical support as there may be a problem with your battery.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,234 Trailblazer

    Many times when people see battery usage while sleeping it's because they tweaked power settings to allow quick wakeup of the network. The device keeps the wireless up enough to not require a full reconnect/DHCP cycle when waking up.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • ironman_gene
    ironman_gene Member Posts: 8 New User

    Hi, As an update, I removed the keyboard (dock), and yes I still woke up the next morning with a drained battery. BTW, I reset the power configuration to balanced.  

     

    I guess something is definitely wrong with my battery.  I am the one who also complained that I can only get 4 to 5 hours from my battery and not 7 hours, that is just plain movie playing.

     

    I will have to contact Technical support for this.

     

    Thanks.

  • Euthypro
    Euthypro Member Posts: 3 New User

    Just joined the forum looking for info on what may be the same problem. I just bought a W4-820 which seems to drain the battery while sleeping. Also just bought a Switch 10, and noticed something odd. When the sleep button is pressed, it really doesn't go to sleep. I happened to be playing some music, and while the screen darkened and all lights went out, the music kept playing. Tried all different ways to put the tablet to sleep with the same result.

     

    To check whether is is only this one tablet, I tried the same on the W4. Same result. The tablet does not sleep. That may explain the drained battery. Maybe this is a Windows 8.1 trick, but I'd doubt it.

     

    Tried to make it hibernate instead, but hibernation seems to be missing as an option from these tablets, and can't be enabled from "Power Options." For now, found a workaround by installing "Classic Shell" which provides a hibernation option from their start menu, but am looking for a solution.

     

    Cheers

  • Plastixx
    Plastixx Member Posts: 66 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    These Atom SoC devices do not support hibernation or even normal "sleep" mode. When you put the tablet to sleep or press the power button what it really does is go into a low power state called "connected standby". Connected standby is intended to make the device function more like Android and iOS devices that are "always on".

     

    Being able to play music while in connected standby is normal.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    just curious, your device consumes battery even if shut down?

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • Euthypro
    Euthypro Member Posts: 3 New User

    Plastixx,

     

    OK, so "connected standby" means the tablet can still stream online music even after being put to "sleep." In that case I can understand the battery usage. Been testing different apps, desktop and modern. Some shut off, some don't. Media Player will shut down. "Music,"  on the other hand, will not. If it can stream music, obviously the wifi doohickey is still doing it's thing. Seems like if one wants to conserve battery, it's best to shut the tablet down unless it's going to be used soon after.  

     

    As for hibernating, once Classic Shell was installed, pressing the now available "Hibernate" option will cause the tablet to save any work in progress and any open apps and shut itself down. When restarted, it comes back to the state it was in when put into "hibernate." From my long years with PCs, that is what "hibernate" has always done. Seems to be available, and only blocked by software.

     

    Appreciate your taking the time to explain and discuss.

  • Euthypro
    Euthypro Member Posts: 3 New User

    Ironfly,

     

    At least in my case, the battery is not drained if shut down. 

     

     

  • techburz
    techburz Member Posts: 3 New User

    the same issue with my wife's switch 10.

    before shutting down it still has 30% batt, but in the morning it is 0.

    is shutting down not with the power button really shuts it down?

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    What the power button does is determined by the setting in Control Panel>Power Options>Choose What The Power Buttons Do and make sure When I Press The Power Button has Shut Down selected.

  • techburz
    techburz Member Posts: 3 New User

    hi,

    yeah power button is set to sleep.

    what I mean is shut down via OS

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    You trust the OS ?

  • xyzaid
    xyzaid Member Posts: 42 Troubleshooter

    ha interesting topic

    unfortunately i opened another one dealing with this severe battery drain problem before...

     

    anyway, as i've this same battery drain while in connected standby, let's try to see if it is possible to solve the problem without sending the unit back to Acer Smiley Wink

     

    can someone tell me if it is possible to monitor what is happening while the unit is in connected standby mode ?

    (powercfg does not seem to be able to do the job as it run in windows mode)

     

    for now i understand some modern ui software can still run while in connected standby so i'll try to uninstall most of them to find out if one is the culprit...

     

    ps: by the way, has someone solved the first-key-lost problem on the keyboard of this unit ? ;-)

  • ironman_gene
    ironman_gene Member Posts: 8 New User

    I want to give an update on my post here regardign placing my tablet into sleep mode. It seems there are other means in doing this. I have recently, experimented with using a magnet on my tablet, a ref magnet to be exact. Now you might be thinking what does a magnet have to do with this. Read on and you might find this insightful. I was thiking how come when my tablet is in netbook mode (keyboard attached) the screen shuts off or the tablet seems to go into standby mode everytime I close it out or use the keyboard as the cover (you get the idea).

     

    I tinkered with the keyboard by letting a paper clip go around near the edges, (since that is the most sensible way to find out if there is a magnet), yup found it on the lower right a quarter and an inch from the edge facing you or coming from you I should say, is the magnet. I tried using a ref magnet next to place it opposite (without the keyboard attached) on the edge of the screen, to see if my tablet would go to sleep (or mimik a closed lid). Yup it did. I finally got hold of a thinner magnet cut it into 1 by 1 inch and glued it on my leather case cover. Now when I close my leather case my tablet sleeps (or at least mimiks a closed lid). BTW, my power setting for close lid and power button are both go on standby also I got a leather case for my tablet this Christmas.

     

    Now you might be thinking why I posted this update. Remember my issue that I said when I place the tablet into standby mode, I just hit the power button (set to go on standby). Now since I have a modified leather case with the magnet as trigger to put my tablet into standby mode, there are NO BATTERY DRAIN! I found this out by accident, when I used it before going to sleep, after using my tablet I was falling asleep, I closed the leather case cover with the magnet, of course my tablet went into standby mode. When I woke up the next morning it is on the same battery %. If I remembered right it was 45% last night when I fell asleep, and when I used it the next morning, it it still on the same 45% battery! Wow, this is great, now I don't need to use the power button to place it on standby and have a battery draining. I just use the "close lid" method.

     

    Hope this is helpful and insightful to you all out there. BTW, I a writing this on my time off my day job, so Happy Holidays !

  • xyzaid
    xyzaid Member Posts: 42 Troubleshooter

    well well

    it seems the acer switch 10 is not the only tablet which has the battery drain trouble...

    after reading this 37 pages thread (!) about the Asus T100, Windows 8.1 seems to be the culprit :

     

    http://www.transformerforums.com/forum/asus-transformer-book-t100-battery-issues/40870-asus-t100-sleep-battery-drain-problem-share-your-battery-life-settings-info-37.html

     

  • artmanr
    artmanr Member Posts: 20 New User

    I have a smart cover purchased via Amazon. Seems to shut off the screen when the cover touches the top of the screen. I assume there is a magnet in the cover as described above.  I too notice battery drain in this sleep mode with the cover closed. The keyboard is not attached for this...just the tablet and cover.

     

    What setting should I change. if any, to max out battery life when using it as a tablet? 

    I previously removed the Acer power management app as well as other programs that I dont use.

     

    Any advice breatly appreciated.

     

     

     

  • xyzaid
    xyzaid Member Posts: 42 Troubleshooter

    just an update to this problem :

    it seems that if the tablet is not on its dock, then the battery drain problem does not appear....

    to be confirmed after one week.

  • SRLH
    SRLH Member Posts: 1 New User

    Anyone find a soution yet?

    I have the SW5-012 Switch !0 model with 64GB, not running any external connections, two weeks old.

    Acer Support suggested BIOS upgrade to V1.13, 2014-12-17 to solve sleep issue

    The manual suggests disable Fast Boot Up

    Tried both, sleep drains battery like crazy, with or without keyboard connected, keyboard closed or open

    HELP Please!

     

    Also how to show the remaining time left? Only get % remaining.

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