2 years later - Laptop shutting off seconds after pulling out the charger

Vlaai

Member
I'm not a computer genius, but I managed to build (in September 2014) this machine (see specs below). In my eyes, this laptop has never failed me. I used it for heavy gaming (Arma II, BF3, BF4...), for work, for school, watching movies, browsing the web. In the first month however, I discovered a dead pixel. This never actually bothered me enough to send it back from Belgium to the UK to get it repaired. It's too small to notice it right now, it's only visible when the screen around that spot is dark. For example: in the black banners above and below when watching a movie...

The only real issue started happening a few months ago when this laptop started to shut off randomly. I found out that it occurred always a few seconds (10-20 max) after pulling out the charger. When it shuts off I can only restart it by plugging the charger back in, otherwise nothing happens. Laptop shuts even when I'm not using any programms.

Any idea what's the cause / how to fix?

Thanks in advance!


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M - 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
120GB INTEL® 525 mSATA MLC SSD (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Power Cable
2 x European Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ASUS™ XONAR-U7 Compact 7.1 USB soundcard and headphone amplifier
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Keyboard Language
BACKLIT OPTIMUS FRENCH KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Yes, I would agree that a dead battery sounds like the most likely cause. If it runs perfectly well on the charger there is little else it can be. Give PCS a call (dont email) they may have spares available. Other than that Google you Clevo model number and see whether you can get an after market battery. Be wary of the very cheap ones or two for one offers, with batteries you generally get what you pay for, so if the genuine battery is available it will be worth its higher price.

Pity about the dead pixel, but it happens. Sadly you're will outside the time limit for the dead pixel guarantee even if you had taken it out.
 
Yup my battery died too after about 2 years. Any battery based product that's left on charge all the time will degrade the battery over time. As annoying as it might be to do, if you're keeping the laptop plugged in, take out the battery.

Ed
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Thought laptops these days essentially disconnected the battery when fully charged and ran straight off mains without using the battery at all.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Yup my battery died too after about 2 years. Any battery based product that's left on charge all the time will degrade the battery over time. As annoying as it might be to do, if you're keeping the laptop plugged in, take out the battery.

Ed

Thought laptops these days essentially disconnected the battery when fully charged and ran straight off mains without using the battery at all.

Indeed, Batteries do not degrade if they are left on charge. Removing the battery is actually counter-productive because batteries like to be kept fully charged, the one thing all batteries hate is being left on a shelf with their charge slowly leaking away. It is not a peoblem leaving a battery in and the laptop on mains power all the time.

What does shorten the life of Li-Ion batteries is heat, so anything you can do to keep them cool (a laptop cooling stand for example) will help prolong the life of the battery.

BTW. Li-Ion batteries do not have a 'memory' in the same way Ni-Cad batteries do, so there is nothing at all to be gained by fully discharging a Li-Ion battery and then recharging it. In fact Li-Ion batteries don't like being fully discharged, you're better not letting them get below about 50% charge before recharging them.
 
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