Acer Iconia W510 will not switch batteries

I have had the Iconia W510 for a month or so, and I have this problem, that the computer shuts down with any warning or anything.

I think I have found the problem, as it only happens when the battery in the keyboard is very close to 0% power.

The thing is that there is 95% power on the tablet battery, so it is like the computer will not switch from one battery (the one in the keyboard) to the other (in the tablet).

I don't know if it is a Win8 setting or if there is something else I can do?

It is really annoying, as it only gives me around 3-4 hours of battery life with the keyboard attached.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Accepted answers

padgett

" first use the dock battery, and once it is depleted to 1% it will switch to the tablet battery". Sounds like yours is not switching. Then the question becomes "where is the 1% switchover set ?" If in hardware you may have a faulty unit. If in software the issue would be to find it.

For me the easiest way would be to have a switching relay on the circuit board (maybe with a darlington in front but discrete components. When a good dock is connected, the docking voltage is used to cahnge the power source to the dock. When the dock is disconnected or goes ded the coild de-energises and the main battery is attached.

Does the tab work from the main battery if you disconnect the dock ?

If it does then just had an off-the wall thought: If you go to Control Panel > Power > open the current plan and select "advanced options" a list of "Advanced Settings" will open and you will have a number of options.

I do not know if the dock battery is considered local but if a switching relay I suspect it is. Note ACER designed the switch to take place at 1%. The Low Battery setting on the notebook I have on at the moment is low battery at 10% and critical battery, 5%. It is possible to set the "low battery action" to "shut down, sleep, or hibernate".

So it is possible for the Windows Power Management to be set in a way to shut down the Tab before it reaches the 1% changeover.

Might be worth checking out.

ps I do not like to deplete any battery all the way. Personally would set the switchover to take place at 10% or so.

All comments

Philman

One of the big problem with Acer power management.

1. There is a battery drain even with the system shutdown (solution: unplug tablet and dock if you don't use your device for some days) Smiley Mad

2. There's no exchange between both batteries. With dock and tablet plugged, the battery of the dock will be discharged first.

Cralle

I understand that the dock battery will be discharged first, but shouldn't it just switch to the other battery, instead of shutting down?

Philman

No Smiley Sad

Welcome in Acer world...

Cralle

Hmmm...

But is there a way to "manually" tell the computer to draw power from the other battery?

Cralle

According to this: http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29370 It should automatically switch batteries

padgett

" first use the dock battery, and once it is depleted to 1% it will switch to the tablet battery". Sounds like yours is not switching. Then the question becomes "where is the 1% switchover set ?" If in hardware you may have a faulty unit. If in software the issue would be to find it.

For me the easiest way would be to have a switching relay on the circuit board (maybe with a darlington in front but discrete components. When a good dock is connected, the docking voltage is used to cahnge the power source to the dock. When the dock is disconnected or goes ded the coild de-energises and the main battery is attached.

Does the tab work from the main battery if you disconnect the dock ?

If it does then just had an off-the wall thought: If you go to Control Panel > Power > open the current plan and select "advanced options" a list of "Advanced Settings" will open and you will have a number of options.

I do not know if the dock battery is considered local but if a switching relay I suspect it is. Note ACER designed the switch to take place at 1%. The Low Battery setting on the notebook I have on at the moment is low battery at 10% and critical battery, 5%. It is possible to set the "low battery action" to "shut down, sleep, or hibernate".

So it is possible for the Windows Power Management to be set in a way to shut down the Tab before it reaches the 1% changeover.

Might be worth checking out.

ps I do not like to deplete any battery all the way. Personally would set the switchover to take place at 10% or so.

Cralle

Thanks for the suggestion to look at the power options.

I could not pin point what setting I changed that alleviated the problem, but now it does switch to the secondary battery once it reaches 1% power on the primary battery.

Thanks. Smiley Very Happy

bartoszorzel

Sorry for reviving an old thread but I'm having the same problem but I think for different reasons (I feel as though there is no communication between the batteries). When the tablet is connected to the keyboard dock it unexpectedly shuts off at a certain point even though it will say sometimes that I have say 50% OVERALL battery life. When the tablet is docked to the keyboard, the battery meter displays three %;

i) Overall battery at the top: 57% available at this moment

ii) Battery #1: 21 % available at the moment

iii) Battery #2: 89% available at the moment

As it was mentioned in that link from Acer's website, "If the tablet is placed on the dock it will first use the dock battery, and once it is depleted to 1% it will switch to the tablet battery." This is definitely not happening for me, and usually the tablet shuts off when Battery #1 is somewhere around 5-10% (Probably around 6%). This Battery #1 is definitely the battery in the tablet and not the keyboard dock because if I disconnect the tablet from the keyboard the tablet will remain dead, and I will have to charge it's battery separately to get it to turn on. Furthermore, right now when I have the tablet docked to the keyboard and the keyboard connected to the AC adapter, the three battery readings are as follows:

i) Overall battery at the top: 58% available (plugged in, NOT CHARGING)...even though it already has charged 1%

ii) Batter #1: 19% available (plugged in, NOT CHARGING)...this is the tablet battery and it has drained compared to value above

iii) Battery #2: 92% available (plugged in, CHARGING)...keyboard dock battery, which has charged a bit compared to the value above.

According to Acer (http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29372/related/1), "The Iconia W510 keyboard dock will only charge the internal battery of the tablet if it is connected to the AC adapter. The batteries charge simultaneously but at different rates. If the tablet battery is below 80%, it will charge faster than the keyboard dock. If the tablet battery is above 80% it will charge slower than the keyboard dock." This means that when the tablet is connected to the keyboard dock and the keyboard dock is connected to the power source both batteries should be charging, yet for me only one of the batteries are charging (Just the keyboard dock). When I disconnect the power source pretty much only Battery #1 in the tablet depletes, which is opposite to what is supposed to happen according to Acer as Battery #2 (keyboard dock) should deplete first to the 1% and then switch over to the tablet battery. I don't understand why the keyboard dock battery is not being registered and depleted first, even though the touchpad and keyboard do work when the tablet is docked to the keyboard. The problem seems to be isolated to the batteries and the lack of this switchover mechanism. Can this be a software issue at all or is this more hardware? Also, can someone confirm that their batteries are in the same order as mine? Battery #1 being tablet and Battery #2 being keyboard dock (Which makes sense intuitively as the tablet should be the primary battery) or do they have it backwards and when docked the keyboard dock is treated as Battery #1 and gets depleted first (Which would also make sense from what is actually supposed to happen, with the keyboard battery being drained first). If so, is there a way maybe in BIOS or something to redesignate the batteries? Sorry for the long post I just wanted to be thorough with my ideas. Any help would be appreciated.

padgett

Sent more in a PM but basically we need to do triage. We know the tab battery charges when connected directly to the charger but not when connected to the dock. So

1) With the tab powered down and connected to a plugged in dock does it charge ?

If not the there is probably a hardware fault in the dock

2) If so then boot the tab to the BIOS screen only. Does it still charge ?

If not it is a problem with the BIOS programming

3) With Windows booted if it does not charge then I'd look to the Windows power driver for a fault.

The proper logic to to run on the dock battery and charge the tab battery to the max when docked and powered. That way if you leave the dock you have maximum battery life.

It should only switch to tab battery power when connected to the dock if the dock battery is drained. Logic is simple but does not sound like what is happening and we need to decide what is at fault. My first suspician is something in the dock.

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