Acer Nitro 5 (Nitro AN515.45) losing charge while playing games.

IlaKarlo

I have an Acer Nitro 5 with and R5 5600H and an RTX 3060, i also have a cooler under my laptop that also has rgb, a mouse and a controller plugged in, also RGB light on laptop's keyboard.

I've noticed that when I'm playing intensive games like Control and Steelrising I lose battery even when plugged in, I've had the laptop for only a few days if that means anything.

There is a charging light on the laptop that randomly comes on and off during gaming.

Now what I suspect is happening is that my laptop is drawing more power than the cable can provide so it gets some help from the battery. That idea is supported by the fact that Afterburner is reporting anywhere from 100W to 130W on my GPU and CPU alone without all the extra stuff or even the monitor. The power supply is only 180W which at best leaves 80W for all the extra equipment and the monitor and all the other components of the laptop.

While I'm typing this or using apps like google and such the charging light is on, working normally and the laptop is also charging as expected, this only happens when laptop is under heavier loads.

I'm not 100% sure I'm right so just checking if anyone has the same issue.

Thank you.

JackE

>>>I suspect is happening is that my laptop is drawing more power than the cable can provide so it gets some help from the battery.>>>

Well said. Do you really need the cooler? They can actually impede airflow inside the case by blowing air against the exhaust vents. Just raise the laptop about an inch or so above a hard surface taking care not to block the air vents and run coolboost.

HnG

Has anyone tried using a "better" acer charger? I have the same issue but read somewhere that other chargers, except the stock, doesnt work with Nitro 5's. Why would they even give out a low power supply for a laptop thats supposed to be used while plugged in all the time?

IlaKarlo

@JackE yeah I tested a bit and played around with using and not using the cooler and while temps are only about a degree or two lower with it the air coming out of the laptop feels quite a bit cooler and the temps drop by like 10 degrees Celsius as soon as I turn the game off, I might just be biased since I spent money on it so I kinda wanna use it, but the biggest use I'm getting out of it is that one of the angle settings places the laptop just right for my height and in a very comfortable typing position, but yeah, mostly not too necessary but I don't think it's doing any harm. Also now that I'm typing this it reminds me that the keyboard and the top of the laptop is much cooler when using the cooler, I'm pretty sure I'm not biased there, I barely feel and "warmness" while without it I definitely feel that it's hot.

I put the 80% charge limit for battery health and I'm gonna monitor what the battery does and how it behaves but for now I just wanted to makes sure it's relatively normal behavior for this laptop. I guess it makes sense that other manufacturers are putting in 230W or even 300W supplies, but I paid a budget price so not gonna compain too much.

@HnG I checked the Acer official part store or whatever it's called and the only thing you can do is downgrade to 135W so yeah, no luck there. I refuse to believe that they weren't aware that this is gonna happen now why aren't they selling it at a higher wattage I have no idea. As I said above, with how much I paid for these specs I'm super happy and I understand that maybe expecting a supply that comes with a laptop at 50%+ higher price or at a same price but worse specs is not realistic but come on at least let me buy it separately.

I also saw people saying other supplies don't work with the laptop so I'm not gonna experiment just to mess up something, if you maybe find something that I missed or find out something about a supply that works as intended with the laptop please let me know.

Thank you for your responses Jack and HnG

JackE

>>>I put the 80% charge limit for battery health>>>

Limiter affect on battery health is greatly exaggerated with mainly anecdotal claims. Doesn't do much except reduce playing time at high power loads.

You see, once the battery level drops below about the 50% level, battery charging takes precedent over CPU/GPU power demands and throttling begins. Time to stop playing and allow the battery to charge back up preferrably to 100% for maximum playing time at high power loads.