G74sx charging and or staying on problem

[VikiDee]

I have a G74SX that one day all of a sudden was not charging. The light on the charger went off and never went back on so I bought a new charger. Plug in the new charger and nothing, no lights, nothing. So I took the battery out figuring I could just run on AC power. Well as soon as I open any software that is graphic dependent, like a game or photoshop the computer shuts off and the only way it will go back on is if I switch the outlet its plugged into and when it goes back on it either shuts off opening a specific game or software or after about 15 minutes it just shuts off. I put the battery back in and didnt turn it on. The battery light was orange and it charged completely and turned green. I turned the laptop on, and it said was 99% charged, opened Second Life and the Green light went off and the the battery stopped charging. Then as Im typing this post, I check the battery and its on 52%, check again a few minutes later and its 87%. What is going on with my baby???? 😞

[cl-Albert]

Welcome to the forums!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from reading your post it appears:

1. Your AC adapter went bad and you replaced it.
2. Your battery is no longer functioning correctly for whatever reason.
3. Running your notebook without the battery and on AC power alone still does not go well, and the notebook will power off fairly quickly.

My questions and suggestions are below.

A. Where did you get the new replacement AC adapter from and can you check the rating under the AC adapter to see if it matches the label under your notebook (possibly in the battery compartment?)?
You may see something like 19V (volts) and 7.9A (amps) for the 150 watt adapter if your system uses it, but I just want to try to make sure you have the right AC adapter.

B. This may not be possible if your battery isn't working well, but it wasn't clear to me if you see any problems when running only on battery power without the AC adapter, so curious how this went if it's even possible.

C. Is your notebook still under warranty? Be sure to check your invoice which may give you a little more time and if you are located in the U.S., you can reach ASUS support through this page if necessary http://www.service.asus.com/#!consumer/csn9 .
If you don't get better ideas to solve this soon, you may just want to send the unit back for warranty service if possible, or maybe out-of-warranty service if you're no longer covered and want to pursue this route which we can also discuss more if you're interested.

D. If you want to look into it more, search these forums about checking your temperatures, but if you don't have a way to re-apply thermal paste, clean out the fans, or do more extensive troubleshooting, you might just want to have us or somebody else check your unit for you.

[VikiDee]

ok Im back. I unplugged my laptop and it stayed on running on battery power. Plugged it back in and now it says 100% charged. Im thinking its the 90W adapter?

[VikiDee]

The adapter I bought is only a 90w. The BestBuy dude said it would be fine. Im thinking it isnt. The sticker on the bottom of the laptop says 150w. It isnt under warranty anymore, I spoke to ASUS yesterday but my computer not running perfectly is not an option for me. As I type this my charger is plugged in which it has been plugged in and off all night. When I turned the unit on this morning, the battery light on the laptop is green, which by the way it never used to be green it was always that bluish white. And down in the taskbar it says 98% plugged in, not charging. I am going to attempt to unplug it and see what happens. I will let you know. Thank you for your response and help.

[cl-Albert]

VikiDee wrote:
The adapter I bought is only a 90w. The BestBuy dude said it would be fine. Im thinking it isnt. The sticker on the bottom of the laptop says 150w. It isnt under warranty anymore, I spoke to ASUS yesterday but my computer not running perfectly is not an option for me. As I type this my charger is plugged in which it has been plugged in and off all night. When I turned the unit on this morning, the battery light on the laptop is green, which by the way it never used to be green it was always that bluish white. And down in the taskbar it says 98% plugged in, not charging. I am going to attempt to unplug it and see what happens. I will let you know. Thank you for your response and help.

Yes, it sounds like your 90w AC adapter is not providing enough power (which isn't surprising since your notebook needs more power) and powers off whenever it isn't getting enough.

Not sure if you can get anything done about the wrong 90w adapter, but if you're interested, the U.S. ASUS eStore site sells the G74Sx 150w adapter if you want to use it (assuming everything was okay with your 150w adapter before?): http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=3079

If necessary, there are larger (and heavier) AC adapters you can try, but if you didn't have any problems before with the 150w adapter, you may not need to worry about this too much. Let us know if you are interested though.

Also, don't think you really want to do this, but you may be able to charge the notebook with your 90w adapter when it is turned off and run the notebook only on battery power with the 90w adapter unplugged if the battery is working okay. Probably not something you want to do, but you could if you wanted to anyway.

[Deathisgod]

yes

If you have any electrical inclination, grab a dell 230W power supply from ebay and change the output cord on it. They are the same price as a 150W Asus adapter, which in my opinion, is not sufficient enough to power the G74s needs.