Can a thunderstorm deplete a battery in an unplugged laptop?

[Shmee]

So I am traveling in the Chicago area, with my laptop. Here is what happened: At the hotel, it was plugged in and charging, about 99-100%. I am going out, so I put it to hibernate, unplug it and pack it up. Outside it is raining and thunder storming/lightning flashes. I get in the car to go to my grandma's house, and take my laptop there inside. I don't actually get a chance to use my laptop there, and do not try to power it on till I am back in the hotel room. I have not plugged it in yet. Weird, the laptop is very warm. It will not turn on. I plug it in, now it turns on, resumes from hibernation, and windows says 0%, plugged and charging.

Does this make any sense? What happened here? Can the static from the storm cause a battery to discharge from 100% to 0? As I type this, it is charging, about 62%. Seems ok, but was the battery damaged, or is this unrelated to the thunderstorm and my battery is just going bad?

A few quick google searches don't find anything on the topic. Thanks.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not unless it got hit by lightning.

Your laptop probably woke itself up and ran its battery down. That's why it was super-hot - the lid was closed. It happens.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I had a similar problem with on of my laptops. I was shutting it down or hibernating it, and Windows was turning it on / waking it up.

The way I worked around it was to set Windows to auto-hibernate after 30 minutes of inactivity. (Setting in Advanced Power Properties.)

 

[Shmee]

Ok thanks, I guess that makes sense.

 

[TeknoBug]

Disable wake timers in power management.

I had a battery leak on my cheapo laptop overnight, made a mess all over my teble and have no idea how it happened, so now I have a battery-less laptop that I have to plug in if I want to use it (which I don't anymore).