Swift Go 16: Weird charging behavior. Battery sits at 80% just like before.

dato_2025

I got my Acer Swift Go 16 two weeks ago. I use it as a desktop connected to an external monitor and have the power usb-c cable always plugged in. I have turned on smart charging so that it's topped out at 80%. It'd been working fine… until this morning.

I was streaming some tv show for about 2 hours, then out of the blue I got this "battery low" notification. At this time, there's only 5% battery left. The battery icon still showed that it's plugged in, and the amber "charging light" on the side of the laptop was illuminating. A few minutes later, the computer shut down on its own. I turned it back on right away, and the battery is down to 1%, and it shut down on its own once again. The "charging light" was still illuminated.

I left the laptop alone for about 20 minutes, and then turned it back on again. Now the battery was back at 14%. From this point on, the laptop seemed to have back to its normal self. The battery continued to charge and stopped the charging at 80%.

I did a sleep study (powercfg /sleepstudy), and the report showed two weird entry. One was last night after I put the laptop in hibernate, it started to charge the battery over 80%. By the time I woke up the laptop, it's at 100%. Then it started draining the battery for the following two hours, resulting in the shutdowns.

The laptop is up for two hours now and the battery sits at 80% just like before.

My question: Is this charging to 100% and draining to 0% a part of the "smart charging" protocol? Or is it an indication that there's something wrong with my battery, or something else? Thanks.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

billsey

If Windows update pushed a new version of the Acer apps, it could easily have done one that no longer supports than 80% maximum charge mode. Acer has been phasing that out now for a couple of years, due to the issues it causes. I wonder if the USB-C cord was slightly loose, allowing the charge to deplete even when it was "plugged in"?

dato_2025

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1322874#Comment_1322874

Thanks for the reply, @billsey. I checked my Windows Update history, and my AcerSense was last updated on the day I got the laptop two weeks ago. Throughout this episode, my battery icon was always shown as "plugged in" (lightning) and "smart charging enabled" (heart). I did plug/unplug the usb-c cable as a knee-jerk reaction, but I doubt that's the culprit because it was charging the battery to 100% while the laptop was hibernating last night/early this morning.

You seem to allude to a problem with Acer's smart charging. If that's the case, what is the recommended way to charge a laptop to be used like a desktop the vast majority of the time? Thanks again.

billsey

Best is likely to just leave it connected and allow it to stay at a full charge. The charging circuit itself handles potential overcharge situations, backing off when near or at 100%. If you want to periodically cycle the charge, just disconnect for a few hours then reconnect. It's not an issue with Acer's smart charging, it's just that when they implemented the 80% limit thing they found that they got lots and lots of service calls from people complaining that their battery didn't last as long as it was supposed to… There is no real harm in having it limited to 80%, other than the battery runs low 20% sooner. :)