So all of a sudden last week my Laptop (an Acer Aspire - about 1 year old - win xp - intel duocore - 2gb ram) started not functioning properly. The main symptom was the keyboard would not respond - and it would run slow - or if it went into screensaver mode - couldn't get it out, etc. - real general wierdness that made me think it was a virus. Scanned and no virus found. After hours of troubleshooting I decided to take the battery out (though the whole time it was plugged in with the power cord an not just running of battery)- and Viola! It's working fine - no slowness or wierdness and the keyboard works fine. I plug the battery back in ans same thing happens. The battery was getting to the point it only lasted like 15 mins - so it's time for a new one but I'm wondering if i do get a new one if it still would be an issue. Can a battery cause the actual computer to run wierd?

John

 

Not to my knowledge. a battery has nothing to do with function other than supply power. i would say that you should check all the drivers(keyboard/mousepad etc) and check your power options. maybe what has happened is something has made your laptop think it is on a certain power saver mode. and i dought it but you dont go onto safe mode do you? at start up.

 

thats weird. no the battery *shouldn't* have anything to do with i/o functions. replace the battery and see if it fixes it.

 

Actually - I'm glad you brought up safe mode - I could start it in safe mode and it would work fine (keyboard would function) - with the battery plugged in.

Maybe the power management drivers/software? Guessing.

John

 

i would check all your drivers then.

 

sounds like something is running at startup and is causing you problems.

when you start up in safe mode on the basic stuff gets loaded but the "extra" stuff doesn't.

go through your add/remove programs control panel and see if anything was added.

also, check your start | program files | startup group.

you could always scan for viruses and ad/spyware.

good luck.

joel

 

Also type in the Run command box:
msconfig
and go to the startup tab and look for an item that starts up with Windows.

Also do the three finger salute (ctrl, alt, delete) for the task manager and click on the services tab then click on your user account name to bring up all the running services on your account.

You can turn off one at a time and see if one of those is the culprit.

 

I did try the msconfig thing - clicked the "diagnostic startup" which basically turned off all startup items - still had issues!

I also couln't do the "ctr-alt-delete thing" because the keyboard wasn't working!

John

 

It sounds like you have a problem with your APM (Advanced Power Management) and ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) system. Unfortunately, the APM in Windows XP is terrible (though much better than any of the previous versions of Windows). If your laptop battery is plugged in, it is not merely supplying power to the laptop, but it is also communicating with the APM features to communicate things like battery status, capacity, manufacturer, # of charging and discharging cycles, etc etc.

To check your ACPI driver, right click on the My Computer icon and select properties. Click on the Hardware Tab, then the Device Manager button. In the window that opens, if you see anything with a yellow exclamation point next to it, there is a driver or hardware issue on your system. If you find any, post in here and we can work from there.

~Bill

 

Do i need to do this with the batter plugged in? I hope not - as it's really hard to have any functionality of the computer with the battery plugged in.

Also, I know the acer comes with / runs a "Acer Power Management" utility - is that different than the windows version you are referencing?

Thanks
John

 

You should be able to view the drivers when you boot into safe mode - you can use the keyboard in that environment, correct?

If you have the battery pulled out of the laptop, it SHOULD still show in the device manager, but it may not depending on how your system is set up.

Several laptop manufacturers have their own version of power management software - it often sits on top of windows APM/APIC and changes the windows settings for you - less often it will work below the windows stuff, and change low-level settings. If you can, I'd try to uninstall the Acer stuff and see if you still have problems with just the windows settings.

~Bill

 

Well, just to update those who responded, I figured out my problem... and YES it was simply the battery. I actually found on Acer's website that they had a recall on my battery as it was causing issues - including performance issues. So they sent me a free batterr replacement and I plugged it in and it works perfect now!

Thanks all...
John