Nitro 5 AN515-57 (2021) screen flickers when unplug charger (on battery mode)

cendahoang · April 2023

Hello everyone,

I am in need of some assistance regarding my laptop. Usually, I keep it plugged in while using it. However, today when I removed the charger, the screen started to flicker. The flickering is not too severe but it is noticeable and makes the viewing experience uncomfortable. I tried to find a solution on the internet but was unsuccessful.

I would greatly appreciate any help you could provide.

Thank you.

Puraw · April 2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/682839/nitro-5-an515-57-2021-screen-flickers-when-unplug-charger-on-battery-mode

Although your battery is only 2 years old I would still create a Battery Report in Windows. The full charge Capacity is supposed to be 57.50 Wh according to Acer.

Type or paste the following line in the Command Prompt:

powercfg /batteryreport /output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\battery_report.html

Open the file on your Desktop (double click on "battery_report.html") and check your Full Charge Capacity also check by how much the full charge Caoacity was reduced over the last 3 days (should be zero). Check if you are on the Balanced Power Plan (or Optimized for Performance), that the Battery saver is off and what the Maximum Processor State is on battery, if that is set to <70% that could cause some screen flickering when the adapter is unplugged, change that to 90 or 100%.

Other than that I can only think of updating your GPU drivers in Device Manager, if you are still on Windows10 check if there are newer version drivers on the Acer Support site. BTW it is not recommended to play games on battery because of the heavy power consumption by the GPU😉

Sixguns45 · April 2023

31.0.101.4032 was the last version of the ARC driver that did not cause this "flickering" issue on my laptop. I spent hours installing and uninstalling, each time on a fresh install and this was the conclusion that i came too. It seems to be a power issue. It also goes away if i set the refresh rate back to 60 hz. Now windows update is forcing a very old version of the driver to 30.0.100.9864, which also does not have this issue but the ARC control panel is no longer available. Conclusion, the newer ARC drivers are pushing more power for some reason…causes a conflict with the battery. Im using and older driver for now until Intel figures it out…all of these issues go away if i plug it in. This only happens on battery…

William_mk2 · April 2023

@Sixguns45

I understand your computer is working fine when it is plugged in with charger and you are not facing any issues with display when it is plugged in.

I am really sorry for the inconvenience.. Let us do the basic steps first..

Doing the power drain and bios defaults will really help. Kindly follow the steps given below:

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer.

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop. Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

Connect all the cables back and restart the computer.

While turning on the computer, tap f2. It will go to bios. Press f9 once. It will show load bios defaults with a yes or no popup. Press enter. Popup screen will disappear. Press f10 once. It will show save changes popup with yes or no. Press enter. Computer will restart and it will load into windows.

Try windows x
go to device manager
expand Battery
right click on all the items below battery – uninstall
Restart the computer

It should work fine..

I am suspecting issue might be with battery or display adapter or power. Reinstall the display adapter and check. Try to change the power plan. Replace the battery and check to isolate the issue. Reinstalling windows might be last option to check whether it is a hardware or software issue.