G51VX alternating between AC and battery power when playing games need help please.

Gents,

Strange issue i came accross my G51VX (Got it at best buy in October of 2009).

Whenever I play any games it switches to battery mode or will quickly alternate between ac power and battery mode when plugged in. It is driving me insane, basically any game now I play will stutter because the laptop is alternating between AC power and Battery several times per second. I have tried reformatting and re-installing windows 7, and it has fixed the issue temporarily but it has flared up again. My warranty has already expired for it and I want to get a second opinion before I try to shell out some $$ before sending it in for repairs. Other then that it charges up and runs just fine. I even tried running Eve Online in windowed mode to see if it will fix the issue but to no avail.

I have reinstalled the latest Nvidia drivers for it as well, wondering if anyone else had a similar issue and could point me in the right direction. Thanks again in advance.


Running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit edition

stock CPU

4GB DDR2 Ram

Have not made any hardware or software modifications to it of any sort, has latest gpu and audio drivers as well.

 

I've seen something like this on laptops that had battery circuit problems, or using too weak a power supply. If it only happens during games, it could be a power draw issue.

Does it only happen when your battery is charging? Or is your battery fully charged when it happens?

Have you tried removing the battery and running on AC only?

 

No going to try that right now, I ran across another thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/501742-problem-asus-g51vx.html

Fellow had similar issues going to try straight ac power with no battery right now in Eve, will update as follows.

UPDATE:

Seems to work fine with battery removed, but alternates between ac and battery power with battery back in laptop. Sigh....

Is my only option to try and get another brick for the laptop from Asus? I dont mind taking the battery out but its gonna get real old real fast if I have to do this every day.

 

Yeah as the other thread mentions it could be the AC adapter going. If it's on its way out it won't give you enough juice and it'll switch to battery mode, which is really bad for your system. But switching back and forth so quickly sounds like it might be a problem on the board. Let's hope not...

 

Well i dont mind playing on battery power since its eve online and it actually lasts over an hour on batteries when I play but I sincerely hope its not the board itself.

 

A new AC adapter is a cheap fix - that's most likely the problem if it runs fine either/or but not both. I wouldn't run it too hard on AC power. You may start to notice screen flicker and by that point you've already taxed your components with crappy power.

 

Seems turning down and or turning off Anti Aliasing in Eve resolves the issue seems the GPU is trying to take in to much power from the ac adapter and it cant handle it with AA on, so i guess ill just leave it off for the time being.