Acer Travelmate shuts down immediately on battery power

Hello all,

I've scoured the web for some inkling of a reason for the problem I'm seeing with my Acer Travelmate 8210 to no avail. I'm desperate at this point.

After installing Windows 7 x64, my original battery was no longer holding a charge. I bought a brand new Acer battery, charged it to 100% and pulled out the main power and the laptop shut down instantly.

I've done lots of testing and research and I have found the following:

• It is not an overheating issue as the laptop doesn't shut down when connected to the main power, only when the main power is disconnected. Plus, I've cleaned out lint from the fan and it doesn't really get very hot anymore (it used to get VERY hot and would shut down from overheating)
  
• The laptop will run fine under battery power if I boot into the BIOS settings. It stays on for hours in the BIOS screen under battery power with the power cable unplugged.
  
• As soon as I try to boot any kind of OS install disc, boot an installed OS, or run a memory diagnostic under only battery power, the laptop shuts down immediately.
  
• I've run memory diagnostics and have no memory issues (can only run it with the power cable plugged in)
  
• I've tried the "hold the power button down for 30 seconds with no battery or power connected" trick. No effect.

I have no idea what else to do and I have not had any success in the past with Acer's terrible support, so I don't even want to go there.

PLEAAAAASE HELP

Thank you!

 

Try updating BIOS?

 

Why don't you use a software like HWinfo32 & check the battery tab in it to see if there is a problem ?

 

Almost certainly a BIOS issue. Just looked on Acer site and appears this laptop has no W7 BIOS or drivers available.

Download

If you look on Microsoft Answer under W7 and search for "Acer Bios Battery" there are similar problems.

Don't blame Acer though

Link doesn't open as intended, W7, not supported.

 

Thanks for the comments. I'm definitely thinking it's a BIOS issue too. I've stumbled upon the BIOS modding thread on this forum (YAY!) so I think I'll try some of the modded BIOSes. I've found this Acer BIOS to be quite lacking.

I'm curious...why would I not blame Acer for not providing updated BIOSes for their products to allow things like USB 2.0 boot speed or fixing power issues? It seems to me that every other manufacturer I've seen provides BIOS updates that actually fix consumer issues. I've not found the same level of support from Acer, in my experience.

Thanks.

 

As I was messing around with trying to flash old and modded bioses (without success), I remembered that I never had any problems booting into Windows 7 with battery-only power before.

The issue seemed to start when my old battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore. Could it be a motherboard issue? Maybe something about the previous dead battery condition is remembered?

What I know is things were working fine running from battery and then stopped when the battery stopped holding a charge.

I've run HWINFO32 and attached is my battery info. Obviously, this screenshot was made with the power cable plugged in because I can't run on the battery. Not sure if the info is adequate when power is plugged in.

 

Is this a genuine Acer battery or some aftermarket product?
I guess, there is a problem with the battery itself.

Is your old battery good enough to at least test if there is the same problem?

Michael

 

Yes, the old battery did the same thing

 

I suspect, there is something wrong with the motherboard then.
Any warranty left?

Michael

 

No warranty. I was thinking that the motherboard was the next likely step too. That really sucks. I was hoping I could find another reason.

 

But it all worked before you installed W7... and this model doesn't support that directly.

Reinstall your original OS from your recovery discs (you did make some?) and see if it all works OK.

 

The Windows 7 installation was just coincidence. I did try reinstalling Windows XP and the same behaviour happens as soon as the setup program is half way through.

It seems like whenever non-text based graphics are shown, the laptop immediately shuts down on battery power.

Perhaps the GPU is shot from the previous overheating.