Acer Aspire R5-571TG Power connecting and disconnecting (with new battery)

Andy9279 · August 2023

So I posted a question about this around a week ago. I've had this laptop for 6 years, with almost no problems, but over the past couple weeks the charger has started connecting and disconnecting itself, with about two seconds between connecting/disconnecting. It doesn't happen all of the time (thank goodness), it might connect/disconnect itself half a dozen times then stop for awhile, but other times it seems to be in a loop, other times it doesn't do it for hours. It seems to help if I unplug, put it into sleep mode then plug it in and let it charge a little and turn it back on -- but maybe that's my imagination.

I have two chargers and it happens with both of them. Turning or wiggling the cable at the power jack doesn't seem to affect/cause it. Someone recommended me getting a new battery because my old one was 6 years old and would die at around 40%.

So I bought this battery...
https://www.amazon.com/R5-571TG-R5-571TG-7229-SF314-51-SF314-52-AN515-51/dp/B08JGVBF94
After I installed it, I plugged in and charged to 100% with the computer off, then turned it on and used it until it got down to 10%, let it put itself into sleep, then plug it in, turn it on, charge it up. I've charged/discharged 100% to 10% about 3-4 times, but the issue persists. The battery seems good, I get about 5 hours out of it, which is decent I think, and it drops steadily and predictably.

The battery report shows...
DESIGN CAPACITY 51,000 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 51,000 mWh

At this point I'm not sure what to do. BIOS? I've never updated the BIOS on this laptop, I've never needed to and worry it won't fix the problem to begin with and may invite some other problem. As a last resort I'm considering disabling the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver in Device Manager so the battery isn't seen/used and just use this laptop plugged in all the time, but I've never done this with a laptop before. I don't know if it will cause a problem because the battery acts as a buffer and the laptop won't get enough power from the charger alone? But if I can go this route it would be nice because this laptop is almost never in a place where it's not plugged in.

Thanks,
Andy H.

Puraw · August 2023

Acer Aspire R5-571TG Power connecting and disconnecting (with new battery)

Andy9279

Aug 20, 2023

So I posted a question about this around a week ago. I've had this laptop for 6 years, with almost no problems, but over the past couple weeks the charger has started connecting and disconnecting itself, with about two seconds between connecting/disconnecting. It doesn't happen all of the time (thank goodness), it might connect/disconnect itself half a dozen times then stop for awhile, but other times it seems to be in a loop, other times it doesn't do it for hours. It seems to help if I unplug, put it into sleep mode then plug it in and let it charge a little and turn it back on -- but maybe that's my imagination.
I have two chargers and it happens with both of them. Turning or wiggling the cable at the power jack doesn't seem to affect/cause it. Someone recommended me getting a new battery because my old one was 6 years old and would die at around 40%.
So I bought this battery...
https://www.amazon.com/R5-571TG-R5-571TG-7229-SF314-51-SF314-52-AN515-51/dp/B08JGVBF94
After I installed it, I plugged in and charged to 100% with the computer off, then turned it on and used it until it got down to 10%, let it put itself into sleep, then plug it in, turn it on, charge it up. I've charged/discharged 100% to 10% about 3-4 times, but the issue persists. The battery seems good, I get about 5 hours out of it, which is decent I think, and it drops steadily and predictably.
The battery report shows...
DESIGN CAPACITY 51,000 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 51,000 mWh
At this point I'm not sure what to do. BIOS? I've never updated the BIOS on this laptop, I've never needed to and worry it won't fix the problem to begin with and may invite some other problem. As a last resort I'm considering disabling the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver in Device Manager so the battery isn't seen/used and just use this laptop plugged in all the time, but I've never done this with a laptop before. I don't know if it will cause a problem because the battery acts as a buffer and the laptop won't get enough power from the charger alone? But if I can go this route it would be nice because this laptop is almost never in a place where it's not plugged in.
Thanks,
Andy H.

If you don't have BIOS version 1.10 from October 2018 download it here;
https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.10_A_A.zip?acerid=636759684835849999&Step1=&Step2=&Step3=ASPIRE%20R5-571TG&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

Don't just disable the 2 Microsoft battery controllers but completely uninstall those in Device Manager and reboot, Windows10 will reinstall the drivers.

Andy9279 · August 2023

Thanks for the response. I may update the BIOS, I just don't know if that will fix it, I'm beginning to fear I have a hardware problem. I'd like to try some less drastic things first…

Also, I have uninstalled the battery drivers and restarted, I did it twice, back when I still had my original battery, and since I installed the new one. The reason I'm considering disabling the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver specifically and not uninstalling/reinstalling is so the battery isn't seen/used at all by the laptop, then use this laptop like a desktop, always plugged in and hopefully this charging/not charging issue will go away. As I said though, that's sort of a last resort.

Puraw · August 2023

Andy9279

Aug 20, 2023

Thanks for the response. I may update the BIOS, I just don't know if that will fix it, I'm beginning to fear I have a hardware problem. I'd like to try some less drastic things first…
Also, I have uninstalled the battery drivers and restarted, I did it twice, back when I still had my original battery, and since I installed the new one. The reason I'm considering disabling the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" driver specifically and not uninstalling/reinstalling is so the battery isn't seen/used at all by the laptop, then use this laptop like a desktop, always plugged in and hopefully this charging/not charging issue will go away. As I said though, that's sort of a last resort.

This is either a BIOS issue or PSU (hardware), disabling the 2 ACPI battery controllers will do nothing (other than errors). Are you still on Windows10 22H2? If you upgraded to W11, try to roll back to W10 (your BIOS and drivers are W10).

Andy9279 · August 2023

Yes I am on Windows 10, this computer cannot be updated to Windows 11.

Is there a way to safely disable the battery and just use the power supply? I don't have any experience with doing this, but I understand some people have done it.

Andy9279 · August 2023

Puraw

Aug 20, 2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1223107#Comment_1223107
This is either a BIOS issue or PSU (hardware), disabling the 2 ACPI battery controllers will do nothing (other than errors). Are you still on Windows10 22H2? If you upgraded to W11, try to roll back to W10 (your BIOS and drivers are W10).

Yes I am on Windows 10, this computer cannot be updated to Windows 11.

Is there a way to safely disable the battery and just use the power supply? I don't have any experience with doing this, but I understand some people have done it.

Andy9279 · August 2023

I've updated the BIOS to the latest version available on the Acer drivers page and the problem still persists. I spent some time trying to create a Live Linux USB drive so I could boot from it into a Linux OS and see if the problem still occurred there too, but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work, even after changing the boot order in BIOS. Hmmm.

I'm starting to suspect it is the DC power jack or some other hardware issue related to keeping the battery "topped off." I've had faulty jacks on laptops in the past, but they didn't behave quite like this, they were disconnecting regularly and if I leave this one plugged in long enough it gets into a "groove" where it's charged to 100% and doesn't connect/disconnect for hours on end. But this morning when I first plugged it in with the battery around 95% it was really bad, disconnecting over and over. Not sure what to do at the moment, kinda out of ideas…

Andy H.

Puraw · August 2023

Andy9279

Aug 21, 2023

I've updated the BIOS to the latest version available on the Acer drivers page and the problem still persists. I spent some time trying to create a Live Linux USB drive so I could boot from it into a Linux OS and see if the problem still occurred there too, but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work, even after changing the boot order in BIOS. Hmmm.
I'm starting to suspect it is the DC power jack or some other hardware issue related to keeping the battery "topped off." I've had faulty jacks on laptops in the past, but they didn't behave quite like this, they were disconnecting regularly and if I leave this one plugged in long enough it gets into a "groove" where it's charged to 100% and doesn't connect/disconnect for hours on end. But this morning when I first plugged it in with the battery around 95% it was really bad, disconnecting over and over. Not sure what to do at the moment, kinda out of ideas…
Andy H.

Consider bringing the laptop to Acer Services in your country, it may be a bad connection at the DC port of your laptop.

Lee4guy · March 2024

I just bought my Acer in November 2023 and my DC port is not working. It started doing the same thing as this person's…it would come on and off for a few seconds…until finally it went off completely, the battery died and the DC will not connect. Computer will not come on at all. Don't know what to do.