Aspire A515-51 Randomly Crashes, shuts off when battery is 50%

V_A

My relatively brand new Aspire A515 will randomly shut off even though the battery is well above 50%.

I've had a look at other relevant questions and they've mentioned resetting the battery by pressing the battery calibration pinhole for 5-10 seconds on the bottom of the laptop, which I have done twice and yet still am having random crash problems.

When I close the lid of the laptop, it will also go into deep hibernation or sometimes shut off completely, which I haven't been able to figure out why.

BIOS is up to date as far as I know, as are any window updates. Really need help, what could other solutions be?

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/694528/aspire-a515-51-randomly-crashes

A 2018 model laptop like the A515-51 is not brand new, not even relatively new. The latest Acer BIOS is from 2019 that does not support Windows11. Have you replaced the battery yet, they last about 4-5 years maximum? The Power Plan issues like Sleep mode and Closing the lid are controlled in Advanced Power Plan settings. Reset your power plan to factory default in Windows10 22H2. The last Windows10 update is KB5031356 October, 2023, click on Check for updates and you should get it.

V_A

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1239946#Comment_1239946

Sorry should've clarified what I meant by "new" — I've used this laptop very intermittently and hence the "new" feeling. Has hardly been in continuous use for a month because I switch between this and another laptop.

Haven't replaced the battery for the same reasons above — laptop is very unused and hasn't been intensely used at all. Only for minor things like making word documents or browsing on the internet because I'm still in the process of making this my primary laptop.

I'm not running Windows 11, still on Windows 10. What BIOS version should I be on?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1240927#Comment_1240927

No problem, latest BIOS is March 4, 2019, version 2.02 if you have an earlier BIOS version click this link to update: https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_2.02_A_A.zip?acerid=636872639637878065&Step1=&Step2=&Step3=ASPIRE%20A515-51&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

Also update Windows10 to 22H2, the latest Windows10 update is KB5031356 October 2023. MS has fixed some power issues.

A battery is not a mechanical part that wears when using it. A battery drains when not used and cells can even die when stored long without charging, so you must charge a battery regularly, in fact it is recommended to keep your adapter plugged in 24/7 to your laptop and do not try to limit the battery charging to 80% (which is very much in vogue in this community).

So, after 5 years you should replace the battery and do a full charge cycle for BIOS and Windows to register the capacity of that new battery. Change your Power Plan to Balanced Power Plan and reset that to factory defaults. Disable Hibernate and Fast Startup in Power Plan (in "Choose what opening the lid does"). That's it. 😉

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1240927#Comment_1240927

Not using a laptop that is 4 to 5 years old is the worst that you can do to a laptop, as its circuitries get corroded and deteriorate over time, but the biggest damage is done to the battery as a battery needs constant charging, otherwise it goes into a limp state and turns off, which could also be what is happening to your laptop battery.

A laptop needs to be used consistently not to be a piece of paper weight. What I suggest that you do is to do a HARD RESET so as to reset the IO, Chipset and BIOS chips in your laptop, so do this:

1. Unscrew the 1x screw of the back ram acc ess window and take the panel off and take the ram out
2. Unscrew the HDD door and take the HDD out
3. Remove the seventeen (17) screws securing the lower case to the upper case and remove the lower case.
4. Unplug and remove the main battery.
5. Unplug and remove the RTC/BIOS battery and shorts the bios battery +&- mainboard plug at the circled position below
6. Leave the laptop like that for 1 hour so that the laptop resets all the chips above.
7. Afterwards replug everything and reboot the laptop, as this should reset the laptop to its oem state, and you should not have anymore random crashes.

If the above reset does not fix the random crashes, then your laptop has power circuitry issues that you should either take this laptop to Acer Tech Support or to an experienced technician in your area so that he can diagnose these premature crashes as its most certainly from either a faulty capacitor or mosat that is on its way out and causing these crashes in your main power rail of the laptop, Good luck and hope this helps you out

V_A

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1240931#Comment_1240931

Thank you. Any chance that this might be because of loose screws on the battery compartment? I saw a few other posts with similar issues and apparently the screws on the battery compartment were loose and simply by tightening them the issues went away. Although I'm confused which screws were being mentioned exactly, whether externally in the case or internally somewhere. Also some mentioned the battery reset button underneath the laptop being 'pressed against' due to friction, but I don't know where to locate these and how I'd fix it. Any help?

Also what sort of screwdrivers would work to open up the compartments?

V_A

I

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1240929#Comment_1240929

just found out that my BIOS on this system is Insyde Corp V1.02 from April 2017. 😣

Is the BIOS you've linked specific to the A515-51 model? I don't wanna cause any further accidental damages because I thought BIOS updates were 'essential updates' and would compulsorily be mentioned in the windows update app, but I never received any after initially updating it when I got this laptop 2 years ago.

V_A

Forgot to mention, particular Acer system in question has 75UY at the end of the model name. I've heard BIOS updates are catered specifically for specific model makes? Just asking because I'm not sure which model your mentioned BIOS link is geared towards…

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1240929#Comment_1240929

Commodore_1995#

Have you checked the battery wear with hwinfo64?

V_A

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1241451#Comment_1241451

apologies, not familiar with that program. What is it?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1241500#Comment_1241500

Use the Windows10 Battery Report to check the capacity of your laptop battery, type this in the command prompt opened as administrator: powercfg /batteryreport and open the report with your Edge browser in C:\Users\YOUR NAME\battery-report.html. Check the last capacity and when you divide that by the design or initial capacity (better) you get the percentage (in fractions). I recommend you replace any battery after 5 years used or not used.

On your question about BIOS, each motherboard version is controlled by a specific BIOS version, so yes, the link I sent you is specific to your laptop model, and you should only install/upgrade BIOS from the Acer Support site for you model laptop. All Acer BIOS are from Insyde Corp but the numbering and date published on Acer Support site may differ a bit.

V_A

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1241522#Comment_1241522

BIOS updated. Will report back if battery issues are solved. I've also reset all battery profiles and settings. Fingers crossed this fixes it. 🤞

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1241729#Comment_1241729

I am sure it will 😉

V_A

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1241730#Comment_1241730

5 minutes before writing this I just booted up again from yet ANOTHER random crash. :(

Windows is fully updated. BIOS is updated. Crashes still occurring. Is there any specific information I could paste here from the battery report that you might be able to analyze and see if something doesn't seem right? I can't seem to find any worrying statistics on the report…

V_A

And I also want to add, these random crashes are only happening when the laptop isn't being charged. Only does it crash when it's on battery power.

V_A

Update — Contacted Acer support via phone to see what they suggest, then received some very unhelpful advice. I then contacted Microsoft tech support to see if it was by any chance something to do with the windows 10 updates being released in the past month as I've specifically been noticing these crashes increase in frequency only after these updates. A tech guided me through applying a new system image update which may potentially solve issues.

Will update if this has solved the erroneous crashes. 🤞

V_A

Update — Laptop crashed again just a few minutes ago. :/ What I keep on noticing is that when it crashes, it "shuts down'' in a way identical to when the power button is pressed too long and a hard shut down happens.

Anyone have any more thoughts on this?

V_A

Update — I have tried the popular solution regarding either tightening the screws on the RAM compartment underneath the laptop/opening the RAM compartment door and seeing whether the ''stopper'' that pushes down on the tiny little power button has worn down or not and if it has, then adding either a very tiny crunched rolled up piece of paper (or a very tiny piece of rubber, could even be from an eraser) so that it stays pressed down because apparently the tiny button not staying pressed down seems to be the problem.

My hypothesis is that the area I'm living in currently (UK) is experiencing very cold weather and the cold air has caused the bit that presses down on the tiny power trigger to ''shrink'', effectively causing the random shutdowns.

I've done this and will monitor to see if this has finally fixed. A VERY neglectful design by Acer to do this on such a crucial component.