Laptop slows down when plugged in.

[YourRandomForumGuy]

I have an old Acer laptop which runs chrome decently well /s. 
However, if I plug it in, it slows down and becomes less snappy when charging. 

I have noticed the outside of the power brick is cracked, could this be the reason?

[Waqas409]

40 minutes ago, YourRandomForumGuy said:

I have an old Acer laptop which runs chrome decently well /s. 
However, if I plug it in, it slows down and becomes less snappy when charging. 

I have noticed the outside of the power brick is cracked, could this be the reason?

Check the temps.
Usually when we plug in, temps go high.
Download HWMonitor, check if CPU is throttling because of high temperatures. 

[Trinity-W]

33 minutes ago, YourRandomForumGuy said:

I have an old Acer laptop which runs chrome decently well /s. 
However, if I plug it in, it slows down and becomes less snappy when charging. 

I have noticed the outside of the power brick is cracked, could this be the reason?

Hi there,

 

It seems then the charger is causing the problem. 

 

This is a fix.

 

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

 

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer. 

 

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop.  Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

 

It could be that the charger is faulty due to damage in that case that would need to be replaced but the above is fixes for laptops what get sluggish when plugged in.

[YourRandomForumGuy]

13 minutes ago, Waqas409 said:

Check the temps.
Usually when we plug in, temps go high.
Download HWMonitor, check if CPU is throttling because of high temperatures. 

In HWInfo64, the CPU doesn't seem to be throttling. it's a bit under 60 deg C.

 

12 minutes ago, Trinity-W said:

Hi there,

 

It seems then the charger is causing the problem. 

 

This is a fix.

 

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

 

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer. 

 

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop.  Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

 

It could be that the charger is faulty due to damage in that case that would need to be replaced but the above is fixes for laptops what get sluggish when plugged in.

I'm curious what happens with the reset, will it change any of my bios settings or clear my storage? Do I need to be aware of anything that happens? How will it fix my issue. I may sound sceptical but I'm scared to lose any data. Thank You.

[YourRandomForumGuy]

53 minutes ago, Trinity-W said:

Hi there,

 

It seems then the charger is causing the problem. 

 

This is a fix.

 

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

 

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer. 

 

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop.  Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

 

It could be that the charger is faulty due to damage in that case that would need to be replaced but the above is fixes for laptops what get sluggish when plugged in.

Yeah, I tried it, didn't fix the problem. Thanks for trying though.

[SamClan]

Check your power settings. 

 

You can say what should happen if your device is plugged in. CPU power throttles or GPU power in half. 

 

Maybe something is messed up there 

[Whatisthis]

1 hour ago, SamClan said:

Check your power settings. 

 

You can say what should happen if your device is plugged in. CPU power throttles or GPU power in half. 

 

Maybe something is messed up there 

This was my first thought. Make sure it is set to max performance when plugged in.

[YourRandomForumGuy]

When plugged in, all toggles are at whatever the highest available parameter seems to be.

I also notice that the laptop does not have these performance issues when it's charged to 100% and then used while it is still plugged in.

On 5/2/2023 at 4:10 PM, Whatisthis said:

This was my first thought. Make sure it is set to max performance when plugged in.

 

On 5/2/2023 at 2:53 PM, SamClan said:

Check your power settings. 

 

You can say what should happen if your device is plugged in. CPU power throttles or GPU power in half. 

 

Maybe something is messed up there 

 

[YourRandomForumGuy]

I have also noticed a peculiar behaviour, when plugged in, my CPU does not exceed 400 MHz, but immediately upon unplugged it regularly spikes to 3900MHz, while averaging around 1000-1500 MHz. How do I fix this? And yes, I have made sure that maximum processor state when plugged in is set to 100%