2013 Archives

[woodenmask]

When my battery indicator gets around 50%, my computer will go into sleep mode like it is at the critial level. When I turn the computer back on, the indicator is at the critical level that I set for the sleep mode, 5%.

Either the indicator or battery is malfunctioning. Anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks

[woodenmask]

Anyone? This is a serious problem. 

[alqz]

Is this occasional or is it frequent?

If it is occasional, I suggest giving the laptop a full charge, and then start using it.

While using it, keep track of about how long you've used it for. Use it until the battery meter hits zero. (I know it may stop at 50%, but just keep on using it after waking the computer up.)

This should allow the computer to calibrate the battery sensor.

Also, if you're finding that the time you can use the computer until it hits 50% is fairly long (about seven hours), then the battery probably has no issues and it could be a sensor or driver problem. Try running the computer through a few charge cycles and see if the problem persists.

Hope this helps.

[woodenmask]

Thanks for your suggestions, I appreciate any help I can get. It happens everytime, not occasionaly. I have gone through full power cycles many times, it has not helped. After the computer goes into sleep (from being at the critical level) I turn it back on, and the battery is at 5% (the critical value that I set. 

I can get about 4 hours of medium usage (not video watching) before this happens. It is inconvientant becasue if I am in the middle of working on a document without my charger, I need to be able to estimate the amount of battery remaining.

I think it is a software issue, what do you think?

I am a student right now so I do not have time to ship back my computer, nor do I want to do a full system wipe.

[ScottyC]

Battery cycles don't work this way within Windows 8 live environment as the power management service continues to pick up a false values and tricks the system into thinking the battery is dead when it's not. In Win 7 you could just enter safe mode and wait for the unit to shut off while the services isn't running. In Windows 8 I've had better luck with uninstalling the drivers from the battery section of the Device Manager (yes all of them) after a full charge and then restarting the unit. You can try to disable system services from boot within MSCONFIG and then restarting and letting the battery die, but remember that you would need to reactivate once testing is complete.

Give it a shot and hopefully that will take care of your issues. Short of that you can try a refresh, not a reset, which reinstalls Windows around your files and does not erase them. Meaning you won't have to go through the trouble of backing up your files and reinstalling important programs, considering the fact that you're in school.

[ScottyC]

You also mentioned that you updated drivers which caused issues for you. If you're seeing BSOD due to kernel issues (I assume that's what you were implying) I would wager the wireless and lan drivers would be responsible, as I've seen it before. I'd suggest downloading a copy directly from the Acer site for 8.1 to try to correct the issue.