Oli4

Hello everyone,

I have an Acer Aspire 5601 for 1½ year now. For one year it has worked great. After the first year the battery life-time got shorter, from 1½ hour to 25 minutes (in power saving mode). It isn't fun, but I can live with it.

But then, from one day to another, I booted my laptop with my battery in it, and plugged on AC, my keyboard and touchpad don't work. First I thought of was a virus or something that came trough my 'defences'. So after scanning and all, i didn't find anything, but still having the problem. So I formatted my laptop and reinstalled Windows XP, to make sure there is no virus or trojan or whatever.
Still no change.

I found out that if my battery is connected to my laptop (just the standart battery) the keyboard and touchpad don't work. Everything is running very slow also. This is when I'm running on battery only and when I'm running on battery and AC.
Running on just AC, so no battery in my laptop, everything works just fine.


I have searched with google about this problem, but I haven't seen it. Is there anyone who can help me with this problem.

Thanks in advance.

domisimo

Hi Oli4,
I have the same problems. Aspire 5670, for 1½ year.
Crash, keyboard blocked, slow, etc...
Now he works just using the AC adapter. Look what i found in the internet http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8115307AAi6byG,

I think that is the battery. The acer has a recall-program cause some lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers.
Look at this http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07167.html
if your battery is one of this (the mine is).
Send news please.
I m lost!

Oli4

Thnx for the links and info.

To bad my battery isn't listed. I bought my laptop in The Netherlands (where I also live), those aren't called back. But I'm going to call Acer tomorrow about this, and maybe they have a solution. If they do, I will let you know.

Oli4

I have called today to Acer. They came up with a driver issue. I had to remove the driver for 'Microsoft AC adapter'. After I removed this nothing happend. So they said that I had to bring in my laptop for repair.

Yeah...so I will look futher myself first before spending money.

I felt that I shouldn't remove the 'Microsoft AC adapter', because that is working. So I removed the other driver (free translated from dutch to english, so forgive me if it doesn't say exactly the same on your machine) so called 'battery that complies with Microsoft ACPI module'.

And what do you think...it works! I'm very happy with it, but I have the feeling that Acer wants to make some easy money here because the immediatly came up with some sort of short-circuit between the battery and my keyboard. No further help, even when I mensiond that I would disable the other driver to try.

Anyway, this is what you do:

Go to the Control Panel. Go to System. Go to hardware, and to Hardware manager (free translated, it is the panel where you see all the hardware that is installed on your machine). Expand the 'battery' tab. Disable the 'battery that complies with Microsoft ACPI module'. Do not remove it, because Windows automaticly reïnstalls it, but disabeling it works. You should restart the machine. Now you can use your battery once again! :)

domisimo

Wow, i done this but when i use the laptop without AC, i can't see when the battery is low, so can happen that in the middle of the meetings the shutdown of the system...
But, is better that nothing. Thanks a lot for the tips!

Is incredible that a battery can have thi influence on the system.
I think that the problem will solve with a new battery ... But, the assistance of ACER about this is a s.... no words.

Oli4

Yeah, to bad of that side effect. I have the same here. I've searched all over the net to find another driver for this type of driver (that complies with Microsoft ACPI module) but I haven't been succesfull. Maybe there is someone who knows where to get an updated or modified driver for Acer laptops. Acer doesn't supply it on the european pages for the my type of laptop (Aspire 5601).

Chaos 1000

I have the same problem with my Aspire 1641 WLMi and contacted Acer for a replacement (even though my unit is out of warranty) and was shot down by some low-level employee that tells me there's no way I could obtain a replacement and they have no other department I can talk to. I work for Apple tech support and in NO way should a battery impede the regular use of a computer. I just wanted to thank you guys for the suggestions and would like to say that a company whose revenue exceeds 11 billion dollars in a single year can afford a battery which probably cost less than 20 dollars to produce. I also realize the thickness in irony of an Apple support agent complaining about a Windows machine, but hey, we all have apps we need to run that only Windows can support :P.

Adam

TriggerFinger

Hi,

have you tried another battery? like swapping batteries with a friend who has a similar system but without these symptoms.

one more thing to try in relation to Acer's advise to remove the MS driver. try running a totally different operating system like linux. download the live-CD version and burn it to CD and try running it. observe if the symptoms still come out. if yes, then you at least narrowed down the possibility that it is not the MS driver but the battery or your something in your motherboard.

Lburgguy

So glad I found this post. I thought I was going nuts. I had the same exact problem with my 3003wlc. Reinstalled xp but it didn't help. I have the original battery (I've been using a second high capacity battery for two years now) and will charge it up and see if the problem goes away. If it does, that would indicate it is the battery.
If anyone else has some definitive answers to this problem please post them here.

domisimo

Dears,
unfortunately i think that is the battery. Because the laptops without his works good, isn't necessary switch off the Microsoft ACPI module.

The worst 4me is that now i can't use the acer battery recall program...

They don't take the responsabilities because i m not in the country of purchase. They don't answer at my emails... In the country where i am they don't know nothing about this recall program. And my laptop is almost under warranty... No words.

Oli4

@domisimo
Have you tried switching off the battery driver? I would give it a change, because it worked for me.

Lburgguy

I tried another battery and it works now. Has to be a bad battery that causes this problem.

Chaos 1000

It definitely is the battery. I switched mine out for another I purchased on eBay and its AMAZING.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWN:IT&ih=002

domisimo

@Oli4
Hi Oli4, I'm yet alive. .
So, you have reinstalled the battery driver
Or just switch-off switch-on?

Thanks, tonight i try.
I hope this work also with me...

hjpunzalan

Hey Oli! I've got the same problem with you and I tried reformatting the laptop (Acer aspire 5601 AWLMI) but still wont work (I reformatted C: and D). Then i tried reinstalling the keyboard and still wont work! Then in the end, while i was loading my desktop, I took of the charger and waited for it to load the desktop. Guess what? The keyboard work and same with the touch pad.

After that I downloaded Norton 360 and the internet. When I saw your topic, I quickly did what u just said. Boy, it worked! Thanks! But do you think that it will still work when I load the Back Up CD? I have to load it or otherwise I wont be able to use the webcam and microphone and other drivers in the laptop. I also tried surfing the internet if theres and downloadable drivers for my laptop but I cant find any. I even tried going to its website but still nothin...
so what do you think? Do you think it will still work when I load the files on the Back UP CD?

domisimo

No way, don't work...
The battery autonomy now is 15min.
With Microsoft AC adapter activated
the problems of keyboard, system-crash, etc... comes back.

Solution> CHANGE BATTERY

TriggerFinger

try installing updates for power management from Acer website. that might help. also update drivers for input devices (Acer made this quite complicated to look for because of their naming convention). and may be update the BIOS.

hjpunzalan

How about if i try using my other laptops charger... but its hp.

domisimo

Thanks TriggerFinger ;) soon i 'll try also this way. But my feel is that's a mechanical problem... I hope to be wrong... :(

TriggerFinger

is the battery you're using original (not generic)? if it is, try the drivers from Acer. if it is not, try the original one. i have seen many instances that weird things happen when using generic batteries and adapters.