Strange W3J Problem

Last night I had my W3J on my lap while I was watching TV. I didn't have it plugged in, it was being powered by the battery. It had no less than about 50-60% life left. Right before I went to bed I plugged it back in on my desk and shut it down.

This morning I turned it back on to check my emails and such, and it worked fine. However, when I went to unplug it and bring it into the living room to do some work, it immediately shut down. I restarted several times and loaded Windows and unplugged, but it kept shutting off as soon as the AC adapter was unplugged. When the machine is unplugged from the wall and I attempt to start it up, it POSTs and brings me to the Windows XP loading screen, except as soon as I see the white cursor in the middle of the black screen just before Windows loads it immediately shuts down and reboots itself.

I decided that something was wrong with my Windows settings, so I reinstalled Windows using the recovery partition and formatted to a single partition. However, I still have the same problem with the fresh install.

When the laptop is plugged in using AC power everything works fine. Windows loads as normal and all my hardware is configured properly. However, as soon as I unplug the power cable, Windows immediately shuts down. The battery is at 100% power. It boots up fine on battery power until just before the Windows desktop appears, where it proceeds to reboot and POST all over again.

I'm at a complete loss as to what's wrong with my machine. I'm going to assume that the problem lies with Windows XP, although that seems very strange considering it's a fresh install with only the factory settings currently enabled. Since the laptop works fine when it's plugged in I'm also going to assume there is no major hardware glitch either.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
(Please tell me I've overlooked something ridiculously simple! )

 

Oh by the way, it loads fine on battery power if I choose Safe Mode. However, when I remove the power cord in Safe Mode, it still shuts down. Arg! Windows can be so frustrating sometimes.

 

the battery may not be calibrated yet?

 

What happens if you boot into the BIOS while on AC power and then unplug while still in the BIOS?

~ Brett

 

Is there a lot of play in your battery? It almost sounds like it's getting loose enough to shut off......

 

Ok, I've figured out my problem. It lies with the new Catalyst 6.9 mobile drivers. When I remove them, the laptop works properly. Now I just have to figure out why this is happening.

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions, it is definitely appreciated!

 

HEllo

have the same problem with an W1J asus notebook.

when I unplug the power, it freezes and screen turns black. have to shut it down and restart,
When I start the notebook on battery mode (no power), when it gets to windows , the screen turns black and it freezes.

I came to the same conclusions as you :

1. safe mode it works
2. uninstalled the catalyst ATI drivers (runs on default winxp displays drivers) and it works.

I saw on the asus website in the download section that the latest BIOS for W1 series seems to fix a problem with systems hanging on battery mode. Unfortunately I happen to already have this BIOS version (209).

Did you try anything else ? Did you find the solution ? I will probably try to download and install drivers from ATI website. WIll let you know.

Marc.

 

OK I installed the drivers from 6.8 version ATI Catalyst. For the moment it works and seems to have corrected the problem. Keep me informed if you get different experience. (but uninstalled the ATI control center)

 

Yep, that's what I did too. I installed the 6.8 drivers and everything works fine too. I also did not install the Control Centre, not because I thought it was causing problems, but because as far as I'm concerned it's bloat-ware.

 

I received my W3J today, and am encountering this problem as well. While I don't have the official ATI 6.9 drivers, I do have the most up-to-date Omega ones which I believe are based off of 6.9. I'm in the process of removing them now, but I was wondering: if this is a problem with the 6.9 drivers themselves, why isn't everyone who has them installed having this issue?

 

Maybe not everyone has this issue, but some W3J owners reported having issues when they use Cat 6.9. Some said disabling PowerPlay could help, but I think we better stay away from 6.9 and stick with 6.8.

 

Ok, I'm at a lose. I've downloaded multiple copies of the 6.8 driver and each time I try to install it it says "INF error - video driver not found." I'm betting this has something to do with the Omega drivers but I'm still not sure how to fix the problem. Ideas, anyone?

 

For the sake of anyone who has or might have this problem, I did find a fix for the "INF error" problem. If you go to this website:

http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=66474

you will find a guide , and links to something called a DH mod tool. Follow the guide, download the tool, and the problem should be resolved.