Laptop shuts off randomly

[Alexandra210]

Hi everyone,

I want to preface this by saying English isn't my first language so some terminology might not be 100% accurate.

I bought this laptop from PC specialist about 2 years ago, and have had a rough ride with it. I've had to send it back because of faulty hardware before, and then again because of issues with the wifi cables. However, recently it has started to shut off without warning whenever it's on battery around 40-50%. I have changed battery settings and reinstalled the drivers, but to no avail. More recently still, as in the past 2 days, my charger will only work when held in certain positions. I have already ordered a new charger and it's on the way in hopes of solving the issue, but I doubt it's going to fix both of them.

I've read some things online about the new Windows update possibly causing the shutting off on battery issue, but have not found a working solution for it. I'm a University student and extremely reliant on my laptop to be able to follow my classes and do assignments, so anything would be very helpful and I'd be grateful for any tips. I'm not a tech savvy person at all either, so I'm not confident in being able to fix this on my own.

 

[Oussebon]

You could try running a Linux distro live (i.e. one you don't need to install). Pretty sure Ubuntu has the option to 'try without installing' when you boot off a USB pen. That would go a long way to ruling out Windows as an issue.

 

[ubuysa]

Hi everyone,

I want to preface this by saying English isn't my first language so some terminology might not be 100% accurate.

I bought this laptop from PC specialist about 2 years ago, and have had a rough ride with it. I've had to send it back because of faulty hardware before, and then again because of issues with the wifi cables. However, recently it has started to shut off without warning whenever it's on battery around 40-50%. I have changed battery settings and reinstalled the drivers, but to no avail. More recently still, as in the past 2 days, my charger will only work when held in certain positions. I have already ordered a new charger and it's on the way in hopes of solving the issue, but I doubt it's going to fix both of them.

I've read some things online about the new Windows update possibly causing the shutting off on battery issue, but have not found a working solution for it. I'm a University student and extremely reliant on my laptop to be able to follow my classes and do assignments, so anything would be very helpful and I'd be grateful for any tips. I'm not a tech savvy person at all either, so I'm not confident in being able to fix this on my own.

I'm always suspicious when people have two seemingly unrelated problems because the chances of two genuinely unrelated problems at the same time are vanishingly small.

You have already discovered that you have a charger problem, which means it's likely your battery has not been charged properly for some time. That might mean the battery has been compromised or even damaged, but it might just be that the battery hasn't been properly charged and the state of charge that Windows thinks it contains is now wrong.

Does it just power off or does it shut itself down? If the former I'd be worried about the battery having been compromised by the faulty charger. If the latter then it may just be that the intermittent charging has screwed up Windows view of the battery state. A few full charge/discharge cycles should sort that.

 

[Alexandra210]

I'm always suspicious when people have two seemingly unrelated problems because the chances of two genuinely unrelated problems at the same time are vanishingly small.

You have already discovered that you have a charger problem, which means it's likely your battery has not been charged properly for some time. That might mean the battery has been compromised or even damaged, but it might just be that the battery hasn't been properly charged and the state of charge that Windows thinks it contains is now wrong.

Does it just power off or does it shut itself down? If the former I'd be worried about the battery having been compromised by the faulty charger. If the latter then it may just be that the intermittent charging has screwed up Windows view of the battery state. A few full charge/discharge cycles should sort that.

I have purchased both a new battery and a new charger. The problem persists. Additionally the laptop will only charge if I press the charger in with force and hold it. I have had the exact same issue last year and ended up sending my laptop back. They got back to me saying it was faulty hardware and fixed the issue. This was less than a year ago. Now, my laptop is no longer covered within warranty and if it's faulty hardware again I cannot afford to have it fixed since I've already spent a lot of money buying a new charger and battery.

I really don't know what to do at this point. I did another battery report and it still says the full charge capacity is only a quarter of the design capacity, even though I just put in a brand new battery and am using a brand new charger.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I have purchased both a new battery and a new charger. The problem persists. Additionally the laptop will only charge if I press the charger in with force and hold it. I have had the exact same issue last year and ended up sending my laptop back. They got back to me saying it was faulty hardware and fixed the issue. This was less than a year ago. Now, my laptop is no longer covered within warranty and if it's faulty hardware again I cannot afford to have it fixed since I've already spent a lot of money buying a new charger and battery.

I really don't know what to do at this point. I did another battery report and it still says the full charge capacity is only a quarter of the design capacity, even though I just put in a brand new battery and am using a brand new charger.

Have you tried it under Linux as suggested?

 

[Alexandra210]

Have you tried it under Linux as suggested?

I don't see how Windows would affect in what "positions" my laptop charges and doesn't charge even when turned off though.

I'm downloading the program and trying it ASAP though just in case

 

[Singularity]

Sounds like you have a worn out AC port, or the the AC port solder join to the motherboard is disintegrating. I've had the first problem before and a friend has had the latter issue.

In my case the AC port was not holding the AC adaptor as tightly as it used to and this was causing power charging issues unless fiddled with. Sometimes it would not charge the battery at all. It was hit and miss, you just had to keep reinserting the AC adaptor until it was happy. I had the port changed and it worked fine for about a year until the same thing happened again. The only way I knew it wasn't inserted in very specific way at boot up was a message came up after the bios screen saying the AC was not supplying the correct current. I could start the machine still but it would go to low performance mode and not charge the battery (as seen on the battery icon in the system tray). This was on an old Alienware laptop and there were some others who had similar problems with that model.

For the latter issue, if the soldering of the AC port to motherboard is failing then the AC power adaptor won't pass current to the motherboard unless held at a very particular angle (basically you are forcing the port to connect to the MB properly). Eventually even this won't work as the soldering completely comes away. If I were to take a guess I would say this is the most likely cause of your issue. What you describe is exactly what happened to my friend. The good news is if this is the issue it is relatively simple to fix. The port needs to be resoldered to the mother board by someone who knows what they are doing. In my friend's case they took the laptop to an independent laptop repair shop and got it fixed for about £60 on a no fix no fee basis. Don't even bother with somewhere like PCWorld as they will charge a ridiculous amount of cash. Not sure what PCS would charge if this is the issue, but it shouldn't cost the earth.

 

[ubuysa]

I have purchased both a new battery and a new charger. The problem persists. Additionally the laptop will only charge if I press the charger in with force and hold it. I have had the exact same issue last year and ended up sending my laptop back. They got back to me saying it was faulty hardware and fixed the issue. This was less than a year ago. Now, my laptop is no longer covered within warranty and if it's faulty hardware again I cannot afford to have it fixed since I've already spent a lot of money buying a new charger and battery.

I really don't know what to do at this point. I did another battery report and it still says the full charge capacity is only a quarter of the design capacity, even though I just put in a brand new battery and am using a brand new charger.

Ouch. That's a disappointment and an expensive one too, but I see no other way that you could confirm that it's not the battery or the charger and they are always the most likely culprits. All that's left then is the charging hardware on the motherboard and as Singularity has already suggested the most likely culprit there is the connector. That could possibly be replaced or repaired as Singularity says - but if it's not that then it's the charging circuitry on the motherboard and I very much doubt that's repairable.

I'm sorry you've had such an expensive troubleshooting experience but apart from borrowing another battery and charger there was little else you could have done.