Gaming Laptop rapidly cycles between Charging and Battery power

M A W

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I have my friend's Asus G751J which was a relatively unused hand-me down from this older lady who didn't need it. I'm not sure if it was refurbished because it used a Dell charger.

Anyways, its main problem is that the display shows it's rapidly switching between Charging and Battery while plugged in, at a pretty consistent pace for the most part. Another odd thing is it works perfectly fine picking up nearby wi-fi signals except the one at my home. It's not on the list, but the signal shows up just fine on all our other devices. The common fixes for that issue didn't do anything so I used an ethernet cord.

As far as the battery problem goes, I tried a universal charger from Best Buy which didn't solve it. I then tried a replacement battery from Amazon just recently and that didn't do it either. When I try to run a battery test in powershell or cmd, a few moments pass then tells me that it's out of memory even though it has 12GB of RAM according to system information. I had a multimeter handy so I tested the charger which was fine, then I tested the red wires connecting the mobo to battery. There's was 3 of them and all of them seemed to read correctly. Only thing is I didn't know how to actually test the charging port itself because I couldn't physically see the connections into the mobo. Other than that, in case it's somehow related to windows, I ran a system file checker which said it fixed some corrupted windows files and actually made the charging/not charging pop-up stop for a few moments until it resumed again (unless it was just a coincidence). I also tried deleting the driver for the battery. I would try a BIOS update however that laptop tends to unexpectantly shut off with an incorrect battery reading (It will say 60% but then shut off and won't start unless I plug it back in, and also tends to shut off while plugged in too assumingly because it's using more juice than its getting).

I can't attempt a start-up fix either just for sh!ts and giggles because it requires a password which is ridiculous. Should I assume it's definitely a hardware problem at this point, and if so, is it even worth trying to troubleshoot with my limited experience? I played around with the idea that it could have a virus but I didn't think it was worth exploring that.

Sorry I think I put this thread in the wrong section.
 
I have my friend's Asus G751J which was a relatively unused hand-me down from this older lady who didn't need it. I'm not sure if it was refurbished because it used a Dell charger.

Anyways, its main problem is that the display shows it's rapidly switching between Charging and Battery while plugged in, at a pretty consistent pace for the most part. Another odd thing is it works perfectly fine picking up nearby wi-fi signals except the one at my home. It's not on the list, but the signal shows up just fine on all our other devices. The common fixes for that issue didn't do anything so I used an ethernet cord.

As far as the battery problem goes, I tried a universal charger from Best Buy which didn't solve it. I then tried a replacement battery from Amazon just recently and that didn't do it either. When I try to run a battery test in powershell or cmd, a few moments pass then tells me that it's out of memory even though it has 12GB of RAM according to system information. I had a multimeter handy so I tested the charger which was fine, then I tested the red wires connecting the mobo to battery. There's was 3 of them and all of them seemed to read correctly. Only thing is I didn't know how to actually test the charging port itself because I couldn't physically see the connections into the mobo. Other than that, in case it's somehow related to windows, I ran a system file checker which said it fixed some corrupted windows files and actually made the charging/not charging pop-up stop for a few moments until it resumed again (unless it was just a coincidence). I also tried deleting the driver for the battery. I would try a BIOS update however that laptop tends to unexpectantly shut off with an incorrect battery reading (It will say 60% but then shut off and won't start unless I plug it back in, and also tends to shut off while plugged in too assumingly because it's using more juice than its getting).

I can't attempt a start-up fix either just for sh!ts and giggles because it requires a password which is ridiculous. Should I assume it's definitely a hardware problem at this point, and if so, is it even worth trying to troubleshoot with my limited experience? I played around with the idea that it could have a virus but I didn't think it was worth exploring that.

Have you verified this replacement charger you bought supplies enough amperage for your laptop?
What is the full laptop model number? There are different models that start with G751J and they have different charger requirements.
 

M A W

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It's a G751JT-WH71(WX). I did not because I hadn't realize the charger that came with it wasn't potentially the original until I tried a replacement of the same wattage. Both chargers I tried were 65W. But now that I'm looking up a charger specifically for these models, I see that they are coming up as 180 and 230 watts. Where can I find this info to know for sure? Online manual?
 
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It's a G751JT-WH71(WX). I did not because I hadn't realize the charger that came with it wasn't potentially the original until I tried a replacement of the same wattage. Both chargers I tried were 65W. But now that I'm looking up a charger specifically for these models, I see that they are coming up as 180 and 230 watts. Where can I find this info to know for sure? Online manual?

Yes, the power supply information can be found in the tech specs for your specific laptop. I found this from an unofficial manual source for the G751JT;

Power adapter information:
•Input voltage: 100-240Vac
•Input frequency: 50-60Hz
•Rating output current: 230W (11.8A)
•Rating output voltage: 19.5V

Please note that running the inadequate power for so long could have potentially damaged the power delivery of the laptop. If you plan to purchase one, be sure you purchase from somewhere with a good return policy, because they don't look too cheap at first glance.
 

M A W

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Wow. It makes sense now the charger I'm using is about x4 weaker than what it's supposed to be. Idk why that didn't hit me before. I'll hold on to the spare battery just in case and attempt an Amazon charger. Almost a $100 is outrageous but it is what it is. If something changes I'll report back. Thank ya.
 
Wow. It makes sense now the charger I'm using is about x4 weaker than what it's supposed to be. Idk why that didn't hit me before. I'll hold on to the spare battery just in case and attempt an Amazon charger. Almost a $100 is outrageous but it is what it is. If something changes I'll report back. Thank ya.

Yea, unfortunately at that price point, I'd be considering another used laptop.