Weird power issue with 150HM

I just installed Far Cry 3 onto my P150HM (w/ 580M) and started playing. About 15-20 minutes into playing the laptop suddenly turns off. When I reboot my computer I notice that the battery has been drained to ~5%. Why is the laptop draining battery and even though I'm plugged in?

 

Sounds like an AC Adapter problem, it could have a kink in it so its not actually charging because of a bad conneciton. Does the battery indication show it "charging"

 

yeah, it shows it as fully charged (100%) before I start the game and when I turn the laptop back off after the shutdown it shows 7% charging.

 

try removing battery and just running on mains and see what happens.

im sure in normal heavy use on battery it would of turned off to protect the hardware if it had reached 7%

 

7% is the Windows default "Reserve Battery Level" and it could be set to shut down once you hit 7%. Get into power management and change some numbers around, maybe set it to 50% or even higher at 80% to see if the computer shuts down then. It may be having some issue of running off the battery even when plugged in.

 

any explanation as to why it's draining the battery even though it's plugged in?

 

The adaptor may be switching off under high load. You could try furmark and see if switches to battery.

 

Could be an electrical spike/sag that is putting a lot of immediate wear on the battery; the same spike/sag can cause damage to other electrical components to the computer and power brick. Make sure your outlet is not faulty.

Are you plugging the adapter into a surge suppressor?

 

I usually plug the adapter into a surge protector without any issues (I was previously playing Borderlands 2 and Black Ops 2 and had no problems). After lowering the graphics specs and still getting the shutdown, I decided to plug it directly into the wall, but I still got the shutdown. When I get home I'll try running Far Cry 3 without the battery in.

 

just tried running far cry 3 again (this time at the office). This time about 5 minutes into the game the laptop shuts down. I was alt tabbing out to check the max temp. of the card and it reached 82C max which isn't that bad. Still have no clue as to why its shutting down.


update: decided to fire up Borderlands 2 to see if I could replicate the shutdown but none occurred. Is it that the 150HM and it's adapter can't handle Far Cry 3?

 

It can handle it, there is something else wrong. Was that without the battery in?

 

Run a game in windowed mode and check the icon at the bottom right to see if it still believes it is plugged in.

 

tried running far cry 3 without battery, same result.

 

Are you running power mode to maximum that small laptop icon in your taskbar?

 

it's on high performance.

 

Have you tried without a battery at all yet?

 

Yeah, I tried running Far Cry 3 with the battery removed. Same result: shutdown about 5-10 minutes in.

 

So we've ruled out battery and overheating. It's not bluescreening with an error code. Doesnt seem like the AC Adapter since it works for a little bit of time anyway. Might be something you have to send in to get checked out.

 

The weird thing is that it only happens with Far Cry.

 

And you tried in windowed mode as Meaker suggested?

 

tried running it in windowed mode and so far so good. A bit disappointed...and perplexed that it won't run in fullscreen.

 

It seems to be a common fix (for whatever reason). Hopefully a patch is slated for release soon.

In the meantime, I'm glad you got it working.

 

That is a plus. Have you tried updating the video drivers to the latest ones from Nvidia?

 

yeah, I updated to 310.90 before installing the game.

 

Maybe thats causing it? Uninstall those then reinstall the ones from the drivers disc and see if that fixes it.

 

I think my numerous attempts to resolve my far cry issue may shot shot my battery. I notice now that it only goes up to 81% (although it still shows it as charging) as opposed to 100% fully charge before the whole incident.

 

Troubleshooting the game shouldn't have overly detrimental side effects on the battery. Have you tried doing a battery calibration to test the wear?

 

how do you do a battery calibration?

 

Aren't you a great wizard?! (I'm thinking of a video game character; maybe your name is not drawn from it. )

Charge the battery to maximum (as maximum as you can, anyway). Then let it drain completely. The system will likely go into hibernate at around 5%. Let it drain all the way to 0%, then charge it back up, and use a program to see what the battery wear is.

Maybe this will help: http://batterycare.net/en/guide.html

 

You might not want to take a Li-ion battery all the way to 0%....

 

when i unplug the adapter the computer turns off even though it shows the battery is at 81%. Think my battery is shot.

 

Yeah, that happened with a 3rd party battery I had with an acer once and it was a write off. I would guess it's dead too.

 

ugh...there goes $80 down the drain to buy a new battery.

 

Unfortunately yes, they are not really serviceable due to their design (or any notebook battery).