G750JH Blinking Battery LED / Inaccurate Reading in Windows

[JarekCyphus]

Greetings. Awhile back I had a problem with my laptop not shutting down or restarting properly in Windows. I managed to solve this with the help of the ROG community by disabling my Bluetooth drivers.

Not long after that resolution, a new problem—a staple of many horror stories read about on TigerDirect, Amazon, and NewEgg—with the battery arose. Initially, the battery LED alternated green/orange with a "not charging" notification in windows. After a few restarts, it simply blinked orange, and has done so ever since. On battery mode, the charge state is not tracked, and windows will shut down abruptly when the battery dies. It will not restart to windows after this, but it will operate in BIOS for approximately 5 minutes before shutting itself off, again.

Per this thread: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39622-Blinking-battery-LED-light-G750JH I decided to deep cycle the battery (I had already done this upon unboxing it in October), and let the laptop shut itself off in the BIOS. I fully (allegedly) charged the battery. The orange LED was solid for 12 hours straight before it started blinking again. I started Windows, and the LED went solid, again, until it reached 88%. With every recharge, it peaks out at 2% less than the last time before the LED starts to blink again.

So I decided to drain the battery again, remove it, and reboot windows on AC-only power. I uninstalled the ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver, shut down, and reinstalled the battery. I plugged AC power back in, and let charge again with the laptop shut down. I didn't lose 2%, but it still didn't go past 88% before the LED started blinking again, and Windows was kind enough to once again inform me the battery was "Not Charging."

I am not suffering from any performance loss in gaming, nor have I had any BSODs or critical errors. This battery issue (an issue a lot of people apparently have, according to reviews) is my only issue. I've had an open ticket with ASUS about this problem for two weeks, with no response thus far. I've also looked at a few battery websites that have matching part numbers (or comparable aftermarket 5900mAh versions, for example) for the ASUS battery.

My question is: For those familiar with this issue, is this an internal hardware issue or is ASUS issuing faulty batteries with their laptops? I'm tiring of waiting on ASUS for a response, and I'm not confident in their tech department's promptness to resolve the matter should they request I ship the laptop to them on my own dime. I feel that would be a ridiculous notion if the problem is JUST the battery.

Thoughts?

[hmscott]

JarekCyphus wrote:
Greetings. Awhile back I had a problem with my laptop not shutting down or restarting properly in Windows. I managed to solve this with the help of the ROG community by disabling my Bluetooth drivers.

Not long after that resolution, a new problem—a staple of many horror stories read about on TigerDirect, Amazon, and NewEgg—with the battery arose. Initially, the battery LED alternated green/orange with a "not charging" notification in windows. After a few restarts, it simply blinked orange, and has done so ever since. On battery mode, the charge state is not tracked, and windows will shut down abruptly when the battery dies. It will not restart to windows after this, but it will operate in BIOS for approximately 5 minutes before shutting itself off, again.

Per this thread: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?39622-Blinking-battery-LED-light-G750JH I decided to deep cycle the battery (I had already done this upon unboxing it in October), and let the laptop shut itself off in the BIOS. I fully (allegedly) charged the battery. The orange LED was solid for 12 hours straight before it started blinking again. I started Windows, and the LED went solid, again, until it reached 88%. With every recharge, it peaks out at 2% less than the last time before the LED starts to blink again.

So I decided to drain the battery again, remove it, and reboot windows on AC-only power. I uninstalled the ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver, shut down, and reinstalled the battery. I plugged AC power back in, and let charge again with the laptop shut down. I didn't lose 2%, but it still didn't go past 88% before the LED started blinking again, and Windows was kind enough to once again inform me the battery was "Not Charging."

I am not suffering from any performance loss in gaming, nor have I had any BSODs or critical errors. This battery issue (an issue a lot of people apparently have, according to reviews) is my only issue. I've had an open ticket with ASUS about this problem for two weeks, with no response thus far. I've also looked at a few battery websites that have matching part numbers (or comparable aftermarket 5900mAh versions, for example) for the ASUS battery.

My question is: For those familiar with this issue, is this an internal hardware issue or is ASUS issuing faulty batteries with their laptops? I'm tiring of waiting on ASUS for a response, and I'm not confident in their tech department's promptness to resolve the matter should they request I ship the laptop to them on my own dime. I feel that would be a ridiculous notion if the problem is JUST the battery

Thoughts?

I am surprised Asus hasn't responded to the Technical Inquiry you filed on the battery charging problem. At least a simple acknowledgement that the TI email was received. Did you send follow up responses to the ticket? Or file another ticket pointing to the first one? Some Asus people are online here, you might post the ticket ID / TI ID and see if they can follow up. Did you get the email confirmation of the original TI filing, with the link to watch for responses?

It is one of 4 things. The battery, the charger, the internal charging, or an OS software bug/problem.

I usually buy an extra battery and extra power adapter, so I could rule out or find/resolve 3 of the issues myself without sending in the laptop/battery/charger.

Should there be the same problem with another battery/charger, I would take a spare 2.5" drive and do a recovery install on it to see if it is an OS config issue.

If it was now working ok on a fresh new OEM recovery image, I would then run each update, rebooting each time, until I found the update that messed up the charging / indicator.

If it isn't any of those things, a fresh battery, a fresh charger, or a fresh install, it would be time to RMA the laptop, with a detailed list of what I tried and what I saw.

[JarekCyphus]

Thanks for the prompt reply, hmscott. I just followed up with them, and hopefully I'll receive a reply. I am surprised that I have this issue, too, but I'm going to swap batteries with a friend at work who also has a G750JH and see if that's the problem. At least I'll rule one thing out, doing so, without throwing any unnecessary money at an already expensive laptop.

[hmscott]

JarekCyphus wrote:
Thanks for the prompt reply, hmscott. I just followed up with them, and hopefully I'll receive a reply. I am surprised that I have this issue, too, but I'm going to swap batteries with a friend at work who also has a G750JH and see if that's the problem. At least I'll rule one thing out, doing so, without throwing any unnecessary money at an already expensive laptop.

Cool, you might check if you can swap chargers too, to rule both in/out as the problem. There have been people with G750 bad / weak chargers that weren't able to run / charge at the same time.

I have seen this effect when issued a lower wattage charger than needed with a Mac issued at a client site - the charging bolt goes in and / out when I put a load on the laptop - freaky behavior until I realized the equipment issue error, swapping a larger wattage charger fixed the problem.

[JarekCyphus]

hmscott wrote:
Cool, you might check if you can swap chargers too, to rule both in/out as the problem. There have been people with G750 bad / weak chargers that weren't able to run / charge at the same time.

I have seen this effect when issued a lower wattage charger than needed with a Mac issued at a client site - the charging bolt goes in and / out when I put a load on the laptop - freaky behavior until I realized the equipment issue error, swapping a larger wattage charger fixed the problem.

Well then I'm doubtful that it is the charger, since it'll still do it when the computer is shut off. Also the laptop works perfectly fine with the battery removed and on only AC power. In fact, a lot of the NEW issues (will explain below) I am having seem to happen less or not at all with the battery removed, which makes me wonder if the battery is the cause of a lot of my current problems.

NEW problems:

1. Now I've got my "won't properly shut down" problem back, even WITH the bluetooth drivers disabled/uninstalled. It suddenly popped up out of nowhere again, and my laptop only shuts down completely maybe 50% of the time now. The problem is as it was before—windows will shut down, but all the lights on my razer peripherals and laptop keyboard backlighting remain illuminated, fans running. HDD light flashes once every three seconds.

2. Sometimes, the borders on my google chrome windows vanish, and 2D graphical objects will vanish from inside the browser window, until I hover my mouse over them. I am also getting periodic shadow/shader flicker on objects and textures in many of my games. Note this has also been since the WHQL 334.89 driver, but it was around that time that all of my new issues started popping up, as well.

3. I'm getting serious FPS drops seemingly at random in a lot of my games, even old ones that the 780M doesn't even balk at.


ASUS did finally respond, and they recommended contacting the RMA department, which is not something I have a warm and fuzzy about. They don't have the best reputation, and I've heard instances on gaming forums, TomsHardware, nVidia forums, and from GeekSquad that the laptops are returned with either one of the lingering problems, exactly all of the problems with which it left the customer's house, or completely new problems, without any sort of refund, recompense, or refund of shipping. That's AWFUL customer service, especially if the cause of my problem is a mere freaking battery or charger.

I am also getting a lot of pushback from my local GeekSquad about troubleshooting with a battery swap, and still got pushback when I called and referred about your suggested charger problem. Apart from EMI concerns (for which any competent computer repairman should be adequately trained), I don't see a valid excuse or argument for their reticence. It's the most BASIC of troubleshooting steps regarding this problem as far as hardware is concerned.

I am writing an ISO tonight for which to back up Windows, after which I'm going to transfer and back up all of my data, pictures, movies, docs, etc. to my external hard drive. I'm then going to update the BIOS back to the 204 version, wipe my computer, and reinstall Windows 8.1. I am actually very curious to see if a fresh install of windows (without a battery installed) will get rid of a lot of the major issues I am having with this computer. *IF* not, then I will start considering the battery/charger replacement, THEN consider the RMA option.

Thoughts/Feedback?

[Kobby_Spiky_Nkr]

I'm having a similar problem. My G750JW came in on Friday and I was also facing the problem of it not charging to 100%. It would stop at about 80%, and by Sunday I was already having the "plugged in, not charging" notification with the orange LED flashing.

I ran the battery empty, now I'm stuck at 0% with "plugged in, charging". Occasionally, the orange LED flashes green and I get the "plugged in, not charging" for like a second.

I can't return it cos I live in Ghana, Africa and had someone purchase it for me from the US.

How can a 5-day old computer's battery just "die"?

I hope this is something that can be fixed cos I can't and won't get a new battery to purchase where I am.

Thanks

[zarno35]

All,

I'm adding a new case to this potential battery issue.

Got the flashing green/orange light for a while, and the "not charging" while plugged in as well. But no it's over.
Still my laptop refuses to charge past 88% and the LED remains solid orange. Except this morning: The light was flashing orange, and when I started the computer battery was at 88% but went up to 91% which didn't happen for a few days...
Apart this, by laptop runs fine without battery (can we exclude the AC adapter ?) and my battery is charging pretty good (as the battery will last several hours, can we exclude the OS ?).