Laptop power problem

I have a ASUS laptop. See System Specs.

Recently I started seeing the following when the power adapter is attached. I see the message Plugged In and On Battery alternate. It is very annoying since it is right in the middle of the screen is in front of everything else. Sometimes it would stop after a few minutes. When it wouldn't I had to disconnect the power adapter. Moving the laptop while plugged in sometimes triggered the behavior.



Also, it does the same thing when the laptop is powered off with the power adapter attached. Note the charge light flashes off and on continuously. Normally the charge light should be on continuously when the battery is being charged and off when it is not.



I did some searches online and tried everything suggested. Nothing helped. I found posts where a few people had the exact same problem. One person tried replacing both the power adapter and battery. That did not help.

I am beginning to believe that there is a problem internally in the laptop. Maybe a faulty power connector or charge circuit.

I have to decide this weekend what to do because the warranty runs out on October 10. I have removed both 1TB Samsung SSDs and put the original 512GB Intel SSD back in in anticipation of having to RMA it next week.

I really don't want to do this so any suggestions on how to avoid this would be appreciated.

Just for the avoidance part, for my needs with clients, either current or potential, I have kept on hand a universal power unit with several tips to fit the various brands of Notebook/Laptop. Usually BestBuy and WalMart have them, mine just a couple years ago was less than $75USD. Only tip the set didn't have was for a Lenovo that has a socket about the same size as a USB or HDMI port.

What you're seeing is a clear indication that you do not have steady charging of the battery by the adapter. It can indicate an adapter problem, a power connection problem (either the adapter jack, loose connection, problem in the cord, anything in the charging circuitry), and even a battery problem (though not likely)
Wiggle around the connector where it plugs in and also the cord. A bad power jack is a common problem

glasskuter said:

What you're seeing is a clear indication that you do not have steady charging of the battery by the adapter. It can indicate an adapter problem, a power connection problem (either the adapter jack, loose connection, problem in the cord, anything in the charging circuitry), and even a battery problem (though not likely)
Wiggle around the connector where it plugs in and also the cord. A bad power jack is a common problem

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Thanks for responding. I suspect the same think. The problem is I can't prove what exactly is causing the problem. BTW, my battery is still working OK and gives me about 4 hours of use. The problem is when the computer goes into its intermittent state the battery isn't being charged and will be drained even when the power adapter is plugged in.

I checked and found out that my warranty runs out next Friday October 6. I decided it was best to RMA my laptop and let ASUS fix it for free before the warranty runs out.

So far I haven't had a good experience claiming a warranty. I started the process by calling them. I registered the laptop with ASUS right after I bought it so they were able to confirm the information I gave them by checking my account. As you will see even then they got it wrong.

The email from ASUS said to click a link to get a better shipping charge. When I entered the RMA it showed the item that was being RMA'd. It showed an ASUS TUF Gaming X570 motherboard. Even the serial number didn't match the one for my ASUS TUF Gaming laptop. The shipping charge was $25.

When I called they said not to worry and just ship it. I said that was not a good idea because the information in their system wasn't correct. I insisted they correct it. They did and issued a new RMA number. I clicked on the shipping link again. This time the RMA item and serial number were corrrect. However, the only shipping choices was Overnight for $85 or 2-Day for $80. Selecting Ground (3-7 days) gave an error.

I called ASUS and complained. They emailed me a free Fedex shipping label for Ground shipping. Fedex said they should get it in 2-3 days. The package won't get picked up until Monday. I will start checking on Thursday to see if they got it yet. BTW, I might have to wait even longer than that because even if they get it on Thursday they won't officially acknowledge it until it gets scanned into their system.

Concerns:

• What Fedex wasn't able to say was how much insurance the package has. I paid $1500 for the laptop so I hope it arrives to ASUS OK.
• I could have packed it myself but decided to let them do it. That cost me $26. I figured it was worth the cost because if it arrived damaged they could't blame me for packing it incorrectly. BTW, Fedex has special shipping boxes just for laptop computers.
• I don't know what the turn around time is for repairs from ASUS. I hope it won't be more than 2 weeks. Even for 2 weeks with shipping each way that would still be a total of 3 weeks. Doesn't anyone have any experience with an RMA from ASUS that knows what to expect?

MisterEd said:

let ASUS fix it for free before the warranty runs out

Click to expand...

Very good call. What you are describing sounds as though it could be an issue with the charging circuitry in the mobo. At the very least, if it's a bad power connector they should cover that too. Also, if they return it and it's still not fixed, contact them immediately. You have the argument that since you opened the case before the warranty ran out, it's their obligation to make it good.

glasskuter said:

Very good call. What you are describing sounds as though it could be an issue with the charging circuitry in the mobo. At the very least, if it's a bad power connector they should cover that too. Also, if they return it and it's still not fixed, contact them immediately. You have the argument that since you opened the case before the warranty ran out, it's their obligation to make it good.

Click to expand...

BTW, the laptop originally came with a 512GB Intel 670p NVME M.2 SSD. I replaced that with 2 x 1TB Samsung 980 SSDs last year. Before I sent the laptop back to ASUS I removed the Samsung SSDs and put the original Intel SSD back in. I feel better if I hold onto my SSDs. After all the data on them is more valuable than the laptop itself.

I got my laptop back today. It appears they replaced the motherboard and power adapter. So far no power problems.

However, there is one new problem The replacement motherboard doesn't have a screw in the 2nd M.2 slot. The original motherboard had screws for both M2 slots. I called ASUS support who was clueless but the supervisor seemed to understand my problem and will try to get someone to send me a screw. The 2nd SSD has all my data so I borrowed a screw from an SSD enclosure.

That what I get for being logical. I guess that is my fault because I should have removed the 2nd screw and held onto it. I should have known this because fourteen years ago ASUS support did something similar to me. When I received a motherboard back from RMA it was missing a part. They said I should have removed it before I sent back the motherboard. I did get ASUS support to send me the missing part. Maybe I will get lucky and they will send me the missing part this time also.

Updates:

Because the hardware (motherboard) had changed some things did not work:

Problem: Windows PIN would not work anymore. Something about security.
Solution: I had to log in with my password. I then had to remove the PIN and add it back in.

Problem: Windows 11 Pro was no longer activated.
Solution: I changed the Product Key to the one I received for Windows 11 Pro. It then received a digital license.

Problem: Office Pro Plus 2021 was no longer activated.
Solution: Logging into my Microsoft account from within Word 2021 caused it to be activated.

You are lucky. Opening the case would void your warranty with most companies, especially if you have been swapping components.

kelper said:

You are lucky. Opening the case would void your warranty with most companies, especially if you have been swapping components.

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That's not true. The laptop has two M.2 slots. Only one is filled with a 512GB SSD. I removed it and installed two 1TB SSDs. If I didn't do this then who should have done that? Sure the manufacturers recommend that professionals do maintenance on their computers. This laptop like many other laptops are designed to be user serviceable.However, many people, including myself, are perfectly capable of doing such routine work.

Note as part of the request for an RMA I told them that I was putting the original SSD back in before I sent the laptop to them.

BTW, in a few years when the battery needs to be replaced I will do it myself. Also, I am considering replacing the 16GB of RAM with 32GB of RAM. Another easy job I can do myself.

MisterEd said:

That's not true. The laptop has two M.2 slots. Only one is filled with a 512GB SSD. I removed it and installed two 1TB SSDs. If I didn't do this then who should have done that? Sure the manufacturers recommend that professionals do maintenance on their computers. This laptop like many other laptops are designed to be user serviceable.However, many people, including myself, are perfectly capable of doing such routine work.

Note as part of the request for an RMA I told them that I was putting the original SSD back in before I sent the laptop to them.

BTW, in a few years when the battery needs to be replaced I will do it myself. Also, I am considering replacing the 16GB of RAM with 32GB of RAM. Another easy job I can do myself.

Click to expand...

That's true today. Mid ranged and above are relatively easy to open and upgrade and to maintain/cleaning. Unless there's obvious user damage then the warranty stands.

I would just like to update this thread with a new development...

It has been a month since I got the laptop back. Since the motherboard was replaced I was not surprised that I had to reactivate Windows 11. However, I started realizing that there were more and more problems surfacing. Some of them were:

• When I booted the laptop scrolling did not work for the Logitech M510 mouse. I had to power the mouse off and on to get that working.
• The WiFi download speed had dropped a lot. Speedtest showed it dropped to 500MBps. It has been this way for at least several weeks.
• I was occasionally getting random crashes during shutdown. Example are DirectX9 and Logitech Options+.
• The last straw was when I tried to run Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition on Steam. During loading it would crash with the screen going black. Reinstalling did not fix it.
• I then uninstalled it and installed another version of it. On another account I have I installed Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition which launched from the Rockstar Games Launcher. This ran OK until I tried the 2nd mission. Niko was sitting in a car watching his cousin walking away. All of a sudden the game camera started zooming in on the car grill until all I could see was blackness. What was strange was that the mission seemed hung but I could still leave it and go back to the main menu. If I restarted the mission the same thing happened exactly.

I finally decided I could no longer tolerate all the bugs. The only solution was to reinstall Windows 11. Last night (Friday) I backed up both my drives. I also copied the most important user data from the OS drive to the Data drive. Today (Saturday) I started reinstalling Windows 11 and whichever programs I wanted to reinstall. I have only installed a handful of programs but enough that I can make an observation. Some of them are:

• The mouse scrolling problem seems to have gone away
• I just ran SpeedTest. My download speed is now about 860Mbps.
• I reinstalled Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition on Steam. It seems to be working OK now.

I will watching all of this for the next few weeks to see if any more problems show up. I only wish I had reinstalled Windows 11 a long time ago.

BTW, earlier this week Windows 11 had updated to 23H2. Right now I am back at 22H2 waiting for Windows update to offer me 23H2 again.

Please remove my post

I am glad ASUS took care of you but around 15 years ago i bought two ASUS Laptops one was a G7WS the other a G&3JH at the time they were the top game machines ASUS had, i paid over $4000 for each one.
Both systems have 3 USB Ports and a RGB video screen post also a DVD.

The G73SW i7 Processor 2 GHz 8GB SO-DIMM RAM 750GB 7200 HD 17.2 inch screen Nvidia GTX 46oM
The other a G73JH i7 Processor 1.6 GHz 6GB DDR3 RAM 500GB HD 17.3 inch screen ATI Radeon HD 5870 it came with Win 7 home Premium upgraded to Win 8 and then when Win 10 arrived i installed it.

The G73JH came with Widows 7 home Premium i updated to Win 8 and then when Win 10 arrived i installed it, right from the start it had problems i called
ASUS support the Tecch guy just said my ASUS laptop did not support Win 10, well Microsoft kept installing upgrades but it never really was a good system it still is working but i don't use it anymore.

The G73SW is still my go to system mainly because it has the 17.3 inch screen it's old in the tooth today, and has a strange problem of forcing me to shut it down maybe 3 times for it to except my pass word, but it still keeps on trucking along.

This is was the reason i bought the new MSI Stealth laptop it just has a 16.2 inch screen and it's hard to understand how one inch can make such a large difference in viewing but it sure does.

I am glad ASUS took care of replacing your mother board and hope it works out soon for you, i sure understand how it hurts to have a new computer and start having problems.