Slow while charging if less than 40% - Acer A515-54G

Hello,

I have bought this laptop (i5-10210U with MX250) like around 8-9 months ago close to that and I noticed after a while that if my laptop is lower than 40% and I turn on the charger the system lags terribly.

For example:

If I have like 25% and I'm playing a game and place the charger It lags so much that the only way is either wait for more than 40% or play without the charger but later I will turn on and I will need to wait till 40% and It will lag a lot which is not pleasant.

All drivers are up-to-date. My BIOS/Firmware version is 1.18 and still hasn't fixed it. I though It would fix with 1.17 (Add Workaround to fix noise issue), but It didn't. I already did an internal battery reset still didn't fixed it.

I hope a Acer Crew helps me resolving this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Accepted answers

All comments

JackE

Battery must be near 100% charged and plugged in for maximum heavy-load game time. If start a game with a 50% discharged battery, the combined power output of the charger plus the battery can't keep up with the CPU/GPU power demands required by the game. The battery will thus be very slow to charge because it's also trying to supply extra power the charger can't supply by itself. Jack E/NJ

fmonteiro

JackE said:

Battery must be near 100% charged and plugged in for maximum heavy-load game time. If start a game with a 50% discharged battery, the combined power output of the charger plus the battery can't keep up with the CPU/GPU power demands required by the game. The battery will thus be very slow to charge because it's also trying to supply extra power the charger can't supply by itself. Jack E/NJ

Hello @JackE! Even not playing It happens in every activity such as browsing, doing work, etc..

Looks like If the battery is below 40% the CPU clock is stuck at 399Mhz (0.40Mhz).

fmonteiro

Correction: 0.40Ghz

JackE

Is your ControlPanel power plan set to high performance? Jack E/NJ

fmonteiro

JackE said:

Is your ControlPanel power plan set to high performance? Jack E/NJ

It is.

Commodore_1995#

Also, are the minimum and maximum performance of the processor set to 100%, both on the battery and on the power adapter?

JackE

OK. Click on 'change advance power settings' for the performance plan. In the box that pops up, click the processor power mgt folder. Click max processor state sub folder. Change settings to 100%. Jack E/NJ

fmonteiro

@egydiocoelho Yes, they are.

fmonteiro

For example (I'm going to talk this example because It's easy):

If I'm playing a game and have more than 40% with the charger plugged in works pretty fine no lags.

If I have less than 40%, for example 25%, without the charger plugged in also works fine no lags, but If I have that % and have the charger plugged in. The cpu clock becomes 399Mhz (0.40Ghz), thus drawing way less power than having only the battery (no charger plugged in).

Keeping in mind that It also happens in some cases without playing games.

This looks like a bug of the BIOS/firmware.

JackE

Like mentioned earlier, battery must be near 100% charged and plugged in for max game time. Once you drop below about 50% with charger plugged in, the charger is going to try to charge the battery as a precedent, not power the game's CPU/GPU demands, because the battery's own internal regulator senses it needs to be charged as a precedent, also not power the game's CPU/GPU demands. It may very well be the BIOS firmware, along with the battery's own internal regulator, controls this process. It is probably thought to be optimum balance for this machine and insuring battery life. So I recommend not trying to fight or defeat it but make sure the battery is near 100% charged and plugged in BEFORE starting heavy gaming loads for maxinum gaming time. Jack E/NJ

fmonteiro

JackE said:

Like mentioned earlier, battery must be near 100% charged and plugged in for max game time. Once you drop below about 50% with charger plugged in, the charger is going to try to charge the battery as a precedent, not power the game's CPU/GPU demands, because the battery's own internal regulator senses it needs to be charged as a precedent, also not power the game's CPU/GPU demands. It may very well be the BIOS firmware, along with the battery's own internal regulator, controls this process. It is probably thought to be optimum balance for this machine and insuring battery life. So I recommend not trying to fight or defeat it but make sure the battery is near 100% charged and plugged in BEFORE starting heavy gaming loads for maxinum gaming time. Jack E/NJ

I understand that and that makes sense. Even though that makes sense It's too early to allocate all the power to the battery charge and only let the computer be fluid at 40% instead of letting early, because there are applications (not talking about games) that automatically use NVIDIA Graphics card and even if the applications are using the lowest frequency of the card the whole laptop lags with the charger plugged in.

This situation happens to me frequently: If the NVIDIA Graphics card is running all the time even with the lowest frequency (not playing games) and I forgot to plug in the charger and when I check it's my battery is at 15%. If I plug the charger in It will lag tremendously and affect a lot while I'm doing a task.

Still I would like a word from the Acer Crew.

JackE

Sorry, this is an ACER users forum not usually a medium for or link to ACER technical service or design employees. However, you're certainly welcome to send a PM with a request to any of the ACER forum monitors. Jack E/NJ

fmonteiro

JackE said:

Sorry, this is an ACER users forum not usually a medium for or link to ACER technical service or design employees. However, you're certainly welcome to send a PM with a request to any of the ACER forum monitors. Jack E/NJ

Will do that!

JackE

Good luck. Jack E/NJ

Manny-Acer_Retired

fmonteiro said:

Hello,

I have bought this laptop (i5-10210U with MX250) like around 8-9 months ago close to that and I noticed after a while that if my laptop is lower than 40% and I turn on the charger the system lags terribly.
For example:
If I have like 25% and I'm playing a game and place the charger It lags so much that the only way is either wait for more than 40% or play without the charger but later I will turn on and I will need to wait till 40% and It will lag a lot which is not pleasant.

All drivers are up-to-date. My BIOS/Firmware version is 1.18 and still hasn't fixed it. I though It would fix with 1.17 (Add Workaround to fix noise issue), but It didn't. I already did an internal battery reset still didn't fixed it.

I hope a Acer Crew helps me resolving this issue.
Thanks in advance.

Hi @fmon@fmonteiro , I am very sorry to hear this, unfortunately, the Acer Community is not a direct portal to Customer service, the Acer Forum Discussions were designed as a peer to peer support community where Acer users help other Acer users. Many Acer employees (Moderators), read the various topics posted here and you will notice that some Acer employees interact with members when appropriate, primarily we want the community to be a place where members can exchange their own advice and ideas. The BIOS and driver updates have not fixed your issue because theirs nothing specific on these updates for that issue. This is not an issue as previously explained by our ACE team members, more like a performance/settings issue here, recommendations are correct, gaming while your battery is @ 100% and connected to the charger to have the boost you want, by having a graphics card makes the unit very good for some tasks but also keep in mind that this unit Acer did not qualify it as a gaming unit.

I recommend you contacting your local support channels fir better assistance.

Note: This thread will be now closed. I have sent you a pm with more details.

Thanks,
Acer-Manny

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