Question Laptop slows down when it's charging ?

[TitanInsane]

Hi, I've been using this HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop for around 2 years and for a while now, I've noticed that the laptop slows down measurably when plugged in.

I use this laptop for gaming and running various CAD software and didn't have this issue until a few months back. At first I thought it was some kind of driver issue, so I cleaned up a lot of files, updated the OS and drivers and also ran a few anti-virus scans for good measure but to no avail. Just to be clear, the laptop works absolutely fine when it runs on battery power (I've confirmed this multiple times).

Looking around the internet, I realised that the AC Adapter might be a problem and sure enough, the connecting pin of my charger was bent. Also there's slight damage around the charging port. My charging device is a 150W AC Adapter. However, even after buying a new one, there is no change in the performance when plugged in. I tried running some diagnostic tests on the new adapter and it says the the HP Smart Adapter has failed to respond.

After this I gave the laptop to a repair shop and they said that a circuit containing the charging port had been damaged by an ant infestation. Anyway, they said that they'd fixed it and it worked normally for a while after that but then the issue started again.

I'd just like to confirm if this is indeed likely to be a hardware issue and if I got scammed by the repair guys. I'm planning on moving to a new country soon and I'd like to get this issue resolved before that, since I'm not really a position to buy a new laptop right now. The AC adapter also still fails its diagnostic tests and I keep a getting the "Smart Adapter feature has failed to return valid data " error.

I hope someone can help me out.

 

[Ralston18]

Try the laptop and charger on other electrical outlets and also outlets on other circuits.

As for ants: did you ever see any ants? Enough ants to suggest a colony or "infestation"..... ?

 

[TitanInsane]

Try the laptop and charger on other electrical outlets and also outlets on other circuits.

As for ants: did you ever see any ants? Enough ants to suggest a colony or "infestation"..... ?

I never saw any ants in my laptop specifically but the reason I accepted their explanation is because there were a lot of ants around the desk I was using during my time in college (which is when I used my laptop the most). However, this issue didn't really become a problem until a few months later after I left college, when I was at home, where there definitely weren't any ants (or at least, not to an annoying extent). The repair experience was pretty bad overall, since they didn't give me any updates for over a week and I had to keep calling them to actually work on my laptop. So when they finally returned it and explained what was wrong, I accepted it at face value, since I just wanted to be done with them.

I tried putting it around a few different outlets around the house but the problem persists. Do you have any other suggestions ?