ASUS G75VW Laptop - Random Shutdowns (on Battery Power Only)

Greetings,

I bought my G75VW a little over 2 years ago. I had no problems with random shutdowns for the first 18 months, but over the last 6 months (unfortunately after the warranty period) I can't run on battery power alone without the machine shutting down. It might take 10 minutes or 40 minutes, but every time I unplug and run on battery power alone I get a shutdown. I could be doing anything at all...even just using Chrome for browsing the web and it will happen. The only other thing to note is that the fans seem to run heavy before a shutdown...perhaps something is overheating? (I have cleaned the two easily accessible fans per the ASUS manual however.)

Here are some basics about my machine:

Laptop (Model): G75VW
Processor: Intel Core i7 - 3630QM - 2.4 GHz
Memory (part number): 16 GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX - 670M - 3GB
Monitor: ASUS PA248Q
HDD: 750GB 7200rpm
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro (x64) w/ Media Center

Also, I've installed all Windows updates and all NVidia updates. I've flashed the BIOS and am now using the most current version (223). I would gladly provide any other information that was needed to help troubleshoot this.

I wasn't sure where to post this as it could be a software or hardware issue, but I figured I'd start here. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

Hello risingTide,
Hello EVERYONE out there also, I have been around MajorGeeks a long time, but this is my first post and I hope it will Help. If you always work while connected to AC power, the battery doesn't discharge: its electrons get stagnate, and the battery's life span is reduced dramatically. Make a habit of discharging the battery occasionally. I recommend to discharge the battery all the way, then fully charge it before using battery power again, sometimes you may need to discharge it a few times, battery cells can be stubborn. Let it play a movie while it is unplugged while you are busy doing something else helps to make it more tolerable, this is what I do to discharge mine. Hardly no one takes the time to do this and if they did, they would not sell half the new ones they do. Playing games as you probably know is a quick way to deplete the battery quickly, again unplugged. There is a few other things possible, but this is the usual scenario. If you don't use the battery you loose it!

Happy New Year and Best of Luck!

 

Thanks for the information PewterDude.

However, I don't always work with AC power...I often use the battery as well. Plus the fans coming on before the shutdowns are a bit suspect. Does anyone have any troubleshooting steps for to determine if it is indeed the battery, or an overheat, or what might be causing it to overheat?

Thanks!

 

plodr,

Thanks so much for your reply and advice! I downloaded BatteryInfoView and attached a screenshot of the results.

According to what you said it looks like my battery is shot. The Full Charged Capacity is half of the Designed Capacity...and the Wear Level is 43.6%.

I looked back over all my documentation and didn't find anything about conditioning the battery for its initial use. I also just tried to run it down on battery power alone but it got to about 38% and then shutdown. I've charged it many times completely while powered off after that happens so I'm thinking that reconditioning it is probably out of the question.

Any more thoughts given this information?

Thanks so much!

 

Well, I tried to do the recalibration suggested below. The maximum capacity only went up 3% to 46%. I'm guessing that I'm going to need a new battery.

However, I do have a follow-up question about this issue. There's something odd about this whole thing that doesn't make sense to me. It's not just that the battery is not holding its charge, but that I'm suddenly getting random shutdowns at various levels of overall battery capacity. So for example, it might randomly shutdown at 33% one night...then 46% the next night...then 22% the next day, etc. (but just not when plugged in).

A few questions:

• If it were strictly a battery issue wouldn't I expect the battery to just drain down more quickly than before, but still consistently?
• Is something overheating?
• Can an overheated system effect the battery?
• Can a bad battery cause an overheated system?

Any thoughts on these questions?

Thanks again everyone!

 

Nice finds plodr. Although they make me nervous because there seems to be a lot going on with this model which is extremely frustrating.

I ruled out the solution on the first thread. That guy said that it was his USB ports that were causing the problem. I just used my laptop with the battery only with NO usb ports in use and still had a shutdown. So that's not it.

I'm going to work through the ideas on the other thread and see if they get me anywhere. I'll post back after I do.

On a related note, how do I know if my CPUs and GPU is overheating for this model? What's a good baseline for that? I have SpeedFan and HWiNFO64 that I can use to monitor, but I'm not sure what is "too hot"?

Thanks...again.

 

risingTide...

What are the core temps you are getting? The ones to look at are the CPU temp and the temps of each core, and then the GPU temp.

 

Thanks for the help Plodr and and AtlBo. Here are the specs of my machine again:

Laptop (Model): G75VW
Processor: Intel Core i7 - 3630QM - 2.4 GHz
Memory (part number): 16 GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX - 670M - 3GB
Monitor: ASUS PA248Q
HDD: 750GB 7200rpm
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro (x64) w/ Media Center

All temps in Celsius:

CPU: hovers around the mid to high 50s when in use; low to mid 40s when idling; and occasionally spikes at about 60 when in heavier use

4 cores: hover around the mid 50s when in use; low to mid 40s when idling; and occasionally spike in the low 60s for a second when in heavier use

GPU: hovers around low 50s when in use; about 40 when idling; and mid to high 50s when in heavier use

HDD: low to mid 30s pretty much always

Thanks!

 

Here are the max temps for your PC from the manufacturers' sites:

Intel Core i7 - 3630QM - 2.4 GHz
Max. Temperature 105 °C

NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX - 670M
Maximum GPU Temperature (in C) 97

Sounds like you have it nailed down to the battery. I don't think you are having a temperature issue.

 

Thanks a lot AtlBo. After reading your post I did some more thinking about things and I decided to test my temperatures over a longer period of time than I had before. I did this because I noticed how much my fans seemed to speed up when doing simple tasks and I just couldn't believe my temperature weren't getting higher. Unfortunately I was right. Here are some more stats, but this time over a 36 hour period (instead of a 2 hour period). I attached a pic.

The interesting thing is that these stats aren't really doing from doing anything except surfing the internet and maybe using a few word docs; there was no gaming or anything heavy going on during this time.

In addition to the CPU/GPU temps, also look at the fan speeds. Isn't all of that a bit high for what I'm doing? About every 4-6 minutes it heats up and then the fans kick in heavily and cool it down and then a few minutes later it heats up and starts the cycle over again.

Any further thoughts with this data?

 

risingTide...

No problem. Yes, I would say those are too high for that laptop doing what you are doing. The cycle you mention sounds for sure out of bounds, and I guess kind of annoying.

Here is a very good thread on your laptop model at Republic of Gamers:

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?24229-quot-Normal-quot-Temperature-for-GTX-670M-in-G75VW

and here's another one from the same site:

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?50430-G75VW-High-GPU-Temperatures-using-laptop-screen

Looks like I saw a recommendation for repasting the processor/heat sink. That sounds solid to me. If you go that route, while you are inside, maybe you could give it a really good cleaning with some pressurized air.

Probably lots of good advice in the threads. I found those two with the Google search:

asus G75VW temperatures