Laptop turns off when on battery power.
 

Hello, my issue is as above, it doesnt happen on mains power though.

I read that it could be an overheating issue. This first started happening around 2 months ago, and now it only lasts around 2 mins before it turns off, subsequently ive been on mains since for 2 months.

The laptop is a Acer Aspire 5050, Ive only had a dog for 2 months so pet hair cannot be a cause of the intial powering off, and the mrs has OCD so the house is constantly clean lol.

Any help would be good before i resort to taking it appart to clean it with Compressed Air although i have no idea what im doing :wonder:.

ps, It would be fair to say the laptop gets used quite a lot if that needs factoring into the probable cause. I use it for designing graphics so I usually have Outllook, Signlab, Scoobynet, eBay, Photobucket and various other Google pages open at the same time.

Thanks in advance.
Rob

If you have a laptop battery in use when the laptop is constantly plugged into the mains it will deteriorate its lifespan very quickly

Check you power settings in Control Panel and see what they are set to when running on battery power.

Personally I'd replace the battery

Hi thanks for the quick response.

Battery replaced last year to a large one (protrudes out of the back of the laptop slightly with bigger 6600mAh)

Also when on battery power for a minute and the laptop has encoperated all the apps running it offers somewhere between 2.5 - 4 hours battery life. Usually when the batt is full and it turns itself off the batt is at 95% - 99% full :freak3:.

Rob

Make and model please?

^^

I have the same Lap top (Acer Aspire 5050) When I put the battery in the computer freezes regardless if plugged into the mains or not, runs fine just on the mains without battery fitted. I guess it just needs a new battery.

I have an old Acer battery for this model which only last 20min a time on battery use, thus I bought this larger capacity one which last hours and hours (or did:wonder:), anyway I can post you this 20min one on if you like to elliminate a possible cause mate? just a suggestion....

I was wondering if my internal charging unit is fooked, but its always 95-99% full when it turns off abruptly without warning:freak3:

Still looking for suggestions before i blast it with the works air line lol

Rob

Thanks for the offer mate that's very good of you :) but to be honest I find it OK plugged in now the kids cant take it to there rooms and abuse it :D

No prob mate.... won't be long before the kids work it out,,,, lol
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/101...E7ECC0D1FA944F

Modern laptops stop cycling once it reaches capacity and is only used as a UPS, also LION battery's don't suffer from memory effect.

So are you saying that my battery is goosed? I find this hard to believe as its only around 6 months old (probably sill under warrantee).

As for UPS, I assume this is uninterupted power supply, then it wasnt a case of that. I used the laptop either on battery for long periods of on mains for long periods of a time. I rarely pligged it in for a few minutes and then battery for a few minutes.

Like i said above I use it daily for quite long periods of a time at once. If im doing somethung wrong please let me know. I thought it was good for a batt to be drained and then recharged (then laptop tunrs to mains from there on)... Sorry for my naivety.... im not experienced in the build and maintenance of laptops... I currently have 3 laptops but this is the best by far so want to stick with it even if means buying a new battery... again :freak3:

Rob

I am not sure what is up with yours, I was just saying that keeping a laptop plugged in has no effect on the battery. Once it is fully charged, the battery stops its charge cycle.

As for fully draining a (Li-ion) battery, then charging it, it makes no difference as these types of battery do not have a memory effect like a NiCd battery for instance, which do deteriorate very quickly if not fully cycled.

Give this a go..

BattStat - Battery Status monitor and power management freeware for Windows Vista/XP/2000

Thanks for the above link, I got the below information for around 3mins and managed to get a screen shot and save before it switched itself off lol.

Im no expert but the below all looks good to me


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/y.../batttatus.jpg

If you click the Batteries tab, next to the Close tab, top right, it should give you the wear info for the battery.

Above seems normal btw

You have just ruled out the battery then:thumb:

Cheers mate much appreciated :)

Same Problem
 

I have the same problem with an Acer 5050.

You can see what I have tried here: Acer Aspire 5050 - Battery & Wireless Don't Play Nice

To sum it up...
... while plugged in, I can run fine (wireless on or off)
... with wireless disabled, I can run off battery just fine.
... with wireless enabled, the laptop immediately shuts within 10 minutes.

I loaded Notebook Hardware Control to monitor the batteries, but tomorrow I will try the software here...

My hunch tells me it's something about being on battery, and wireless, in Windows Vista or 7.

Thanks, Will click on and have a look at the link later today. :thumb: Ive still not got it resolved. Last ditch is to give it a pro when i go on Holiday or get a fresh one.

Rob

is there a firmware update for the Laptop?

Sorry Im not sure exactly what you mean, can you explain? thanks

Rob

Try setting the power options in control panel to always on for everything when on battery to eliminate the software as a cause....

I think I have done this already with no joy. I changed some of permameters such as never turn hard drive off etc... is this what you mean>?

Thanks
Rob

Yep thats the baby, if youve set those to always on then it will be a hardware issue

Would a format sort it out?

I would say low probablility. Did any new software get installed a few months ago when it started happening?

TBH, its more likely to be a hardware issue, a microcrack in a motherboard opening up as it heats up, that kind of thing. Did you try turning the wireless off to see if that changes anything?

I'll try the wireless off idea, but to be honest when it powers itself off, when i reboot it has already turned the wireless of (the button on the front). but then shortly afterwards it turns off again.

One strange thing though is that when i restart the laptop i dont get any warning or safe mode reboot options. I just get the general ACER screen followed by the WINDOWS load screen then my Log on screen. So its as though the the laptop was turned of correctly which it isnt as it very abrupt as though the battery has been pulled out.

Other than the wireless being automaticla turned off (not the F2 of F12 setup) and the fact that the history (passwords and cache) have been removed the laptop seems fine. The boot takes around the same time too :wonder:

thanks for your input.

Rob