laptop Laptop crashes when the charger is plugged in

[The_Warrio332]

Hey,

My mother has been having issues with her Asus Vivobook (Asus Vivobook 15 F512JA-AS34).
The laptop works as expected while on battery, but the moment you plug in the charger (while in Windows) the laptop freezes.
It is the same charger that came in the box, and it does charge the laptop's battery.
I expected an issue with Windows, but for some reason, I was unable to get into the Windows installation environment (Created an installation disk with the Windows Media Creation Tool).
BIOS works normally, with or without a charger and I do not suspect thermals to be the issue.

It gets slightly more weird after this.
I used the Ventoy software to make a bootable USB and put on Linux Mint on it to test if I could replicate the Windows issues on Linux.
I was unable to get into the Linux environment (tried both Cinnamon and Mate versions) and get the following error screen (same for both versions)


The Linux ISO's and windows install were working (tested on a secondary laptop)
After a few more attempts I tried running Hiren's Boot PE, but could not get it to launch.
The Linux built-in Memtest stopped at around 25%.

Are the problems described here fixable or do you believe it is a hardware problem and we need to get a new laptop?

[DoctorNick]

54 minutes ago, The_Warrio332 said:

Hey,

My mother has been having issues with her Asus Vivobook (Asus Vivobook 15 F512JA-AS34).
The laptop works as expected while on battery, but the moment you plug in the charger (while in Windows) the laptop freezes.
It is the same charger that came in the box, and it does charge the laptop's battery.
I expected an issue with Windows, but for some reason, I was unable to get into the Windows installation environment (Created an installation disk with the Windows Media Creation Tool).
BIOS works normally, with or without a charger and I do not suspect thermals to be the issue.

It gets slightly more weird after this.
I used the Ventoy software to make a bootable USB and put on Linux Mint on it to test if I could replicate the Windows issues on Linux.
I was unable to get into the Linux environment (tried both Cinnamon and Mate versions) and get the following error screen (same for both versions)


The Linux ISO's and windows install were working (tested on a secondary laptop)
After a few more attempts I tried running Hiren's Boot PE, but could not get it to launch.
The Linux built-in Memtest stopped at around 25%.

Are the problems described here fixable or do you believe it is a hardware problem and we need to get a new laptop?

Feel the laptop. Does it flex? Sounds like a shorting issue. In rare cases it could be a PSU issue, unless you still can't boot to linux and so on without charger.

[Needfuldoer]

Does it have a "regular" barrel jack, or a charger that has an extra communications pin? I've seen laptops act strange when they can't talk to their charger properly.

[DoctorNick]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Does it have a "regular" barrel jack, or a charger that has an extra communications pin? I've seen laptops act strange when they can't talk to their charger properly.

Its a jack: https://uk.pcmag.com/laptops/134808/asus-vivobook-15-f512ja-as34

[Needfuldoer]

7 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Its a jack: https://uk.pcmag.com/laptops/134808/asus-vivobook-15-f512ja-as34

If it were me, I'd check the voltage coming out of the charger with a multimeter.

 

It could also be the power management circuit in the laptop acting up. Unplugging the charger and the battery for a few minutes might clear that up.

[The_Warrio332]

22 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Feel the laptop. Does it flex? Sounds like a shorting issue. In rare cases it could be a PSU issue, unless you still can't boot to linux and so on without charger.

All tests I did were without the charger plugged in. So Linux failed to boot on battery.
The laptop does not flex that much.
 

6 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

It could also be the power management circuit in the laptop acting up. Unplugging the charger and the battery for a few minutes might clear that up.

I opened up the laptop and unplugged both the battery and charger, issue was not resolved then.
Regarding the Multimeter part, I will try and do that on my next visit.


Just a heads up, since I forgot to add it to the main comment, the laptop has gone through around 3 years of use, this is the first major problem it encountered.

[DoctorNick]

4 minutes ago, The_Warrio332 said:

All tests I did were without the charger plugged in. So Linux failed to boot on battery.
The laptop does not flex that much.
 

I opened up the laptop and unplugged both the battery and charger, issue was not resolved then.
Regarding the Multimeter part, I will try and do that on my next visit.


Just a heads up, since I forgot to add it to the main comment, the laptop has gone through around 3 years of use, this is the first major problem it encountered.

Alright, sounds like an issue with the motherboard. If it isn't able to work with the charger plugged in I would expect it to be a power issue with the plug. Might have short circuited at some point, if the laptop is acting up, even without the charger. You could try with another SSD and or ram if you really want to. 

Last but not least if you use  some form of wireless dongle for wireless keyboard or mouse, try without that and see if it makes a difference. If the wireless dongle is broken, it might short 5v