Laptop not getting enough power?

On my Vaio FW490, whenever i'm playing a videogame, such as Borderlands, while the computer is charging, the screen would always go black, with the game sounds still running.

Specs:
Core2Duo P8400
ATI Radeon HD 4650 1gb
1600x900 screen
320gb 5400rpm
4gigs ram
6-Cell battery

Hitting ctrl-alt-delete, then escaping back to the game fixes the problem for around 5min. When the laptop is running on battery, or is running on AC and not charging, there is no such problem.

I've read on the internet that this intermittent blacking out of the display means that the wattage of the power supply isn't high enough. It came with a 90watt AC adapter, which i'm guessing isn't powerful enough for the laptop under stressful conditions?

The laptop always seemed to charge extremely slowly too, which may also be a symptom. It would take around 3 hours to charge to full capacity, when the laptop only gets a 2 hour runtime on battery.

If this is the problem, does sony perhaps manufacture a 100watt adapter?

 

Update your video drivers. It sounds like a problem with the Power Saving feature of the ATi card. If the computer doesn't completely turn off, the power being supplied is ok. If the computer came OEM with a 90watt adapter then the system was designed to charge and run off a 90watt adapter. And on the charging, lol, my MBP takes like 4-4.5 hrs to come to a complete charge... nothing out of the ordinary. It's the way they're starting to charge batteries now, because it's not good for a Li-ion battery to get such a continual charge all the way to 100%. I think once it gets to 80%, it trickle charges the rest of the way.

 

I currently have the latest ATI drivers that work with mobility modder (i.e not 10.1).
The reason that I don't think that this is likely a problem, is due to the fact that this doesn't happen using the battery, where the video card is automatically on power saving mode.

Also, the laptop isn't trickle charging the last 20% so much as it just takes a long time to charge, even when the laptop battery is completely drained. It charges much faster when the laptop is off.

 

Well, then with that said, I'd say you have a hardware problem or you need to try the stock drivers from sony and see if they give you that problem. It's not the power adapter I can almost assure you. The fact that it charges faster while the notebook is off is because the adapter isn't having to run the notebook, and charge the battery. If I'm not mistaken the drivers you're using are desktop drivers modded for notebook use? If so, then you're using it out of spec and I'd be wary or hardware problems in the future...

Also, the maximum amount of power your 4650 can pull is 25watts. The p-series processor from intel has a TDP envelope of 25watts, and the other components won't bring that up past 70watts and thats with the processor usage being at 100% and the video card fully stressed. That still leaves 20 watts of incoming power to charge the battery. You can try a higher power adapter but I really don't think that will solve your problem.

 

You make the mistake of believing in 100% effeciency in the power circuitry (converter, inverter and so on). That's not the case. Even if the power brick by a miracle manages to actually deliver 90W (in which case it likely pulls 120W+ from the wall), after it's converted from 18.5V to 3.5V, 5V and 12V, you are likely already down to 70W.

 

Sony would not ship a notebook with a power adapter that couldn't power the notebook and charge the battery... a 120 watt adapter that he is referring to wouldn't have to work as hard as the 90 watt adapter does to accomplish the same job. But yea, you're right it won't deliver 100% efficiency, but it should do it's job regardless. I suggest to the OP to unplug the notebook and disable the PowerPlay feature in the ATi control panel, and see if this happens on the battery also. If it still happens on battery, I'd contact Sony and A) see if they can either send you a new power adapter... or B) schedule a maintenance for your notebook.

 

Play around with the power settings for Windows / Sony utilities. I had the same problem with one of my Sony laptop where for some bizarre reason, it thinks that the laptop is not in used and the screen goes black during the game.

 

It may indeed be a driver problem, as with powerplay turns on, the screen turns black, and the computer freezes. Windows gives an error of the display driver stopping.

Also, the laptop drained 10% of the battery in around 5 minutes in borderlands. Hardly impressive.

 

Users of ATi or NVIDIA cards that like to overclock often have the problem you are having, that's the reason I suggested that ... I had to go through many of those before I found my stable OC clock speeds. How long have you had your FW?... Sony might replace your battery for you if you're under warranty.. as it sounds like you have an aging battery. Borderlands is pretty resource hungry, but 10% in 5 mins... thats a little much for a 6 cell. If you'd like, you can install BatteryBar and it will give you some interesting information about your battery, including wear.

 

I've had the laptop for around 6 months. The battery gets around the average 2 hours otherwise. HWMonitor shows no decrease in max battery capacity.

I've cleaned the drivers using DriverSweeper, and installed 9.12 hotfix, vs. normal 9.12 i had earlier. We'll see how that goes.