Why does the PSP's battery drain so much passively?

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:32 pm

I know there's a good amount of homebrew/hacky people here, so I was hoping someone might know this. Why does the PSP's battery get drained so much when the system is off? I've had a PSP-1 and a PSP-2 and if I leave them off for 3 weeks or so the battery is totally dead when I try to turn it on. The GBA SP and all the DS variants don't do this. I've got a bunch of random guesses about why this happens, but I was wondering if someone here might actually know.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:39 pm

dodgy battery? are you charging it all the way up and wearing it all the way down?

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:47 pm

Well considering that the PSP's battery is a Lithium-Ion based battery, you'd think that it would hold it's charge better than the old Ni-Cad based batteries from the late 1980s-early 1990s era. I've noticed that a fully charged PSP battery will eventually discharge slowly regardless of whether or not it plugged into the PSP. Same battery discharging issue analog applies to the Sony Camcorder Li-Ion based batteries as well. ^_~

Various condition factors such as the age and how many charge/discharge cycles the PSP battery has gone through will limit how much of juice it will hold (if brand new compared to one several years old). Of course, by using emulation on the PSP and overclocking the CPU to 333mHz will shorten the PSP's battery duration -- that is why I use the extended capacity 2000mAh PSP battery packs on my PSP-1001 series one (compared to the standard 1800mAh PSP battery packs when they first were available for purchase).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:48 pm

jpj wrote:dodgy battery? are you charging it all the way up and wearing it all the way down?

Yes, I always charge it up all the way when I charge it. I tend to not play the system for a while (PSP release I care about seem to be intermittent at best), and the battery is always dead when I pick the system up again.

I have a hard time believing this is random chance, as I've heard of this happening to other people.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:00 pm

I've come across fully discharged PSP batteries if I don't touch my PSP for weeks on end. So yeah, it's a common occurance, Cthulhu. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:47 pm

Are you turning the machine off properly? I've come across people asking this before - once here, actually - and in all cases, iirc, it was because the owner was only putting the PSP into sleep mode.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:53 pm

Maybe I'm losing my mind but this happens to me too and I'm usually pretty anal about turning the thing completely off because the sleep mode is deceptive. I was actually surprised to see people questioning it here, I thought it was just common. I'll only pick the thing up about as often as you do, several weeks or months apart. I'm fairly certain that it can just slowly lose it's charge after very long periods of time but I don't know enough about the battery itself. Maybe you're supposed to take the battery out if you store it for these long periods? Maybe official Sony forums could be a place to get a definitive answer.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:30 am

Happened to me many times.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:09 am

Depends on the age of the battery. Pretty much every Li-Ion battery I've ever used will do that after it's been worn in a bit. I don't own a PSP, but every laptop I've ever owned has gotten to that point. The projected/ideal usage for these batteries is that they are used every day or two. If you're not going to do that it's probably a good idea to plug your PSP in after not using it for several days.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:38 am

I'm quite pleased w/ my PSP battery life. Watching videos, I can get like 4 hours out of it. Can't get that out of my laptop, and the iPod is too small to watch videos. Games is way longer.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:55 am

So this happens to me regularly that the battery is dead when I try to start it up, and maybe I'm not turning it off entirely, though it seems like I am. The problem is not so bad more recently, so maybe I'm doing a better job turning the machine off.

Maybe I should read the manual. Or maybe they should make turning the machine off less complicated.

junkeR · Post by **junkeR** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:02 am

Mine does the exact same thing - and, I make sure and fully power it off. The battery is usually dead when I don't touch it for a couple weeks. My PSP will likely remain untouched until Metal Gear: Peace Walker comes out.

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:24 am

The age of the battery (not how long it's been used, but how long ago it was manufactured) matters a lot. The dirty little secret of Li-ion is that the capacity decays exponentially with time even if you don't use the battery at all.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:21 am

Doesn't Sony manufacture their own batteries (or at least sell rebranded ones at an inflated price)? In before the conspiracy theory!

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:32 am

OMG!!!!

EXPLOIDING PSPs!!!!!!

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:38 am

szycag wrote:Maybe I'm losing my mind but this happens to me too and I'm usually pretty anal about turning the thing completely off because the sleep mode is deceptive. I was actually surprised to see people questioning it here, I thought it was just common. I'll only pick the thing up about as often as you do, several weeks or months apart. I'm fairly certain that it can just slowly lose it's charge after very long periods of time but I don't know enough about the battery itself. Maybe you're supposed to take the battery out if you store it for these long periods? Maybe official Sony forums could be a place to get a definitive answer.

Taking the battery out and storing it for long periods of time does the same thing, batteries die.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:02 pm

This happens to me all the time, and I always make sure I turn off the thing properly. It's just another reason why I use my PSP less and less.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:46 pm

btw, pspgo seems to have the internal battery, without an user-friendly lid.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:39 pm

Turrican wrote:btw, pspgo seems to have the internal battery, without an user-friendly lid.

Yeah, I bought one of those Datel produced PSP-Go 3rd party PSP battery packs that you stick in three triple "AAA" batteries. However, the PSP's internal battery charge indicator will appear listed as 100% fully charged all the time with the 4.5v rating. Plus the fact that it's a bitch to remove once installed...fits in too tightly as it is already.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:44 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:I'm quite pleased w/ my PSP battery life. Watching videos, I can get like 4 hours out of it. Can't get that out of my laptop, and the iPod is too small to watch videos. Games is way longer.

I'm not displeased with the battery life when it's charged & working - I'm just trying to solve the mystery of why the PSP battery drains somewhat rapidly (dead in a few weeks) when the system is off but the Nintendo systems stay charged.

On a side note, since we've talked about the PSP being "off" vs being "asleep" as being easy to mix up, can someone give us a nice, detailed description about how to turn it off and not just give it a little cat nap?

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:38 pm

Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.

KindGrind · Post by **KindGrind** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:54 pm

Happens to me all the time, too, and I'm not leaving it in sleep mode.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:11 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.

That's helpful, thanks.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:45 pm

I own a lot of mobile devices, and certain devices do this while others don't, it may be a combination of both the battery and device hardware designs. My PSP does this and most of my laptop computers do this a little bit. The Asus eeePC 900 is notoriously bad, draining up to 10% per day if you leave the battery in the system even when turned off (that was a NiMH though if it makes any difference). My Toshiba laptop battery though is great, I can leave it for weeks or months and it's still good and fresh when I dust it off and boot it.

Lloyd Mangram · Post by **Lloyd Mangram** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:29 am

E. Randy Dupre wrote:Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.

Not sure about that. On my fat PSP, when I hold the switch in the off position the screen goes black, then the power light blinks off for a split second before coming on again for maybe half a second, then goes off for good.

When I put it in sleep mode, it does one slower flash off then on again before going to sleep.

I use my PSP almost every day, but I feel as if it loses a fair amount of charge overnight... maybe somewhere between 5 and 10%. But I'm pretty sure I am actually turning it off properly, despite the lack of four flashes from the power light, cos whenever I turn it on I get the SCE boot screen.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:02 am

My original suspicion was that the PSP was doing something with the system time - like actively updating the system clock constantly even when it was "off." The other theory I had was that it was constantly looking for wi-fi connections even when turned off. I have no grounds for either of these, they were just guesses.

Another device (devices, really) I've had that went through batteries like crazy was the Dreamcast VMU. I'm sure lots of us had those though. The batteries in those lasted for maybe two weeks, tops. Good thing they worked even when the batteries were dead.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:39 am

E. Randy Dupre wrote:Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.

That's so incredibly retarded. This means that the two PSPs that I've previously owned have never been turned off properly.

It's that Sonic 3 barrel shit all over again. Logic dictates that when you turn a button off, the fucking target is turned off.

KindGrind · Post by **KindGrind** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:54 am

Lloyd Mangram wrote:
E. Randy Dupre wrote:Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.
Not sure about that. On my fat PSP, when I hold the switch in the off position the screen goes black, then the power light blinks off for a split second before coming on again for maybe half a second, then goes off for good.

You definitely have to hold it for like 5 seconds to really power off. I'm rather amazed to see people never properly shut down their unit (?)

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:31 am

it happens to me too.

i used to leave the console in sleep mode, when i was playing a game, and needed a break... so i just pushed the off button and leave it as is for awhile... that drains the battery like 80% less than when the machine is fully workin.

but there were times that i pushed the button til the screen went off completly, and left the console unused for a couple weeks, just to go back to it, and infd out it was dead... even if i had the battery at nearly 100% when i stored it.

for those that use custom FW on theeir PSPs, theres an option in the newer versions f those, that allow you to turn the console off w/o pushing the button, just go thru a menu, select the appropiate option and off you go.

how do you know its off and not in sleep mode?... when you turn it back on, if you push the R button, you'll see the "secret" configuration menu of the PSP with CFWs, thats only possible if the console was totally off before.

so yeah, for some reason, the PSP battery just drains like theres no tomorrow when turned off... but i dont have a clue about why is that.

i have a GBA SP and an NDS Lite, i happened to leave the GBA SP for like 6 months, with something like 80% charge, and wqhen i turned it on again, it worked for like 3 hours before asking for another recharge cycle.

i cant really talk about the DS in that department, the most i've left it unused is like 6 weeks, and when i turn it on, it works for a couple hours... so, it doesnt have the problem the PSP has, but am not sure if it keeps the battery charge as the GBA SP does.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:10 am

Lloyd Mangram wrote:
E. Randy Dupre wrote:Keep the power button held in the off position for three or four seconds after the screen's gone dark. The power light will flash four times - after the fourth, the console's off. If you let go of the power button at any point before that fourth flash, the machine's just going to go into sleep.
Not sure about that. On my fat PSP, when I hold the switch in the off position the screen goes black, then the power light blinks off for a split second before coming on again for maybe half a second, then goes off for good.

When I put it in sleep mode, it does one slower flash off then on again before going to sleep.

When you switch it back on again, does it go through the boot sequence or does it take you straight back into the game at the point wherre you switched it off?