gpalermo

Hi. For about a week, my Travelmate 2420 has been acting kinda odd.
It's always plugged into the AC adapter, sitting elevated on my desk for optimal ventilation. This past week, it's been saying that it's running on battery power, the battery is slowly running out, and that it has ~3000 hours of battery life remaining, and not acknowledging that the AC adapter is plugged in. Anyone have any idea what's going on? I tried removing the battery while my laptop was on, and the battery icon went away... I didn't lose power or anything. Thank you.

TriggerFinger

I would definitely try to update drivers from ACER website. I would also try repairing Windows if drivers update did not help. Of course last resort is to reinstall Windows.

On the hardware side, I would surely test the battery and the adapter on another similar laptop if symptoms will be the same.

gpalermo

Hi. This is a LOOONG follow up, with more trouble along the same lines. Turns out the battery was shot, and dying. It's totally dead now, and the laptop won't even turn on with it in... so I keep it out as a reference, for when I go to buy a new one. However, some new problems have started up.

It seems that without the battery, my Travelmate 2420 has trouble shutting down or going into stand-by. When shutting down, it'll freeze completely, something that never happened until I started keeping the battery out. When going into stand-by, it'll start, and then the screen will become completely white. With both issues, I can only turn off the laptop or reboot by removing the AC adapter cable, and plugging it back in.

Also, the keyboard is now cutting out completely at random, with the only way to fix it being a reboot... which leads to the above problems as well. If anyone has any ideas, I will be eternally grateful. I have no idea what the problem could be, aside from the laptop not liking the lack of battery. Thank you.

TriggerFinger

I suggest you run some diags for your hardware. Start with Memtest86+ for RAM and may be Hitachi Drive Fitness Test for the HDD. Check my sig for links.

About the battery... refrain from using it.. I mean do not put it in and use AC only.

Post back any result.

gpalermo

Hard drive is apparently fine, no bad sectors or issues... memory is fine and alright. The problem started once I kept the battery out, so I wonder if this laptop is just dying then, or cannot function properly without a battery. Any ideas now?

TriggerFinger

If that is the case then looks more like an AC adapter problem... try another adapter to be sure.

gpalermo

Unfortunately, I don't have another adapter for this laptop. For now, do you think that the AC Adapter is perhaps defective, or not supplying enough power to the laptop?

TriggerFinger

Hmmm... I thought it was working well when running on AC alone (battery removed.. read your posts again)? But as per your previous replies you said the problem started when you have KEPT the battery OUT.

Can you please clarify this?

gpalermo

Ah sorry. I word things strangely at times.

No, the problem started when I was on AC alone. It was fine while the battery was good, and as it was slowly dying. By "keeping the battery out", I meant running on AC power alone.

TriggerFinger

Ok thank you for the clarification...

So with BATTERIES -- GOOD and with AC ADAPTER -- BAD. Have your AC adapter check if it is giving out the correct voltages. Have a repair shop do it or use a multimeter.

gpalermo

Alright, I'll try my best.

And indeed, that is correct.

gpalermo

Ok... the adapter is apparently fine. I think I've narrowed down what causes the keyboard freezing, but I have absolutely no idea what caused it.

It seems that whenever I use either the up or right arrow keys, something just seems to snap, disabling the keyboard until restart... I'm tempted to remove the arrow keys to take a look. Any suggestions now?

TriggerFinger

Does your laptop have a CD/DVD drive? Try running a linux live CD (Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc.). From there open an office document (OpenOffice) and test run your keys. Try the up and down arrow keys. If it freezes the keyboard like what it does in Windows, try a good working keyboard instead... but if not, may be your Windows needs some fixing.