My gaming laptop cannot play games at high performance when plugged in without battery

Eddieprof

Member
Hello, I use a CyberpowerPC tracer-III xtreme 17r, i7-9750h, RTX 2070, 16gb ram.

I have a big problem with this pc as it mostly just shuts down when i try to run high-end games. After it shuts down, powering it on with the power button will cause the power led to blink buh the pc doesn't come on. However if I disconnect the internal battery whilst having it plugged in and power it up, the PC comes on. The strange thing is that when i power with just the ac adapter the performance on games is throttled and i realize that the VRAM for the GPU is capped, from 7001MHz to 801MHz. Also i can run games without the PC ever going off buh the experience is obvious poor.

I need to note down that the power adapter is a makeshift of an HP adapter rated 230W with the pin replaced with one that is normally used for toshiba laptops, and that my battery is swollen.

I suspect that the PC was designed to have the battery always connected together with the charger for high performance although that would be very weird. Buh if that were the case then i suppose once i replace the battery it might fix the issue.

Please lemme know if you have any idea about this issue and how it can be fixed. Thanks
 
Lemme also mention that before it shuts down on a game it would show temp & power limit, although the rated temp or power has been reached. And when the pc is plugged in the power & temp limit both show constantly buh the PC doesnt go off.

I can share screenshots if needed.
 
I need to note down that the power adapter is a makeshift of an HP adapter rated 230W with the pin replaced with one that is normally used for toshiba laptops, and that my battery is swollen.
The former might be OK (but it could also be not OK), but it heavily depends on the power adapter and what the device expects in terms of voltage and amps. The latter is a SERIOUS issue! Stop using the device or at least disconnect the battery and replace it ASAP! A swollen battery is a strong indication that it's damaged and, if used any further, might even explode. I'm not kidding, do yourself a favor and replace the battery!

Bringing these two things together makes me think that the battery might be in this state because of the power adapter. But that's just a guess.

Regards
Dalai
 
I'm really grateful for the reply Dalai, working on getting a new battery...

Buh my concern is really about the fact that when plugged in it rather throttles down in performance, never heard of a pc having low performance when plugged in

Apparently my pc is a rebranded Tongfang GK7CN6S, say is there a way i can get the power circuitry schematic or can you help me get one?
 
I doubt that a schematic will help you, that is unless you can read/interpret it properly. But even then, software (drivers) might be involved in how the system behaves.

One question: Did the system always behave like that or did it start just recently? The former might be an indication of a design choice, the latter increases the chance of a solvable problem.

It could be due to the Windows power profiles. Have you tried to use different ones to see if that makes a difference?

A Windows reinstallation could help, but I strongly recommend to create an image of your system (partition) before doing so. If it works on a new Windows installation, there's most likely something wrong with your existing one. If a new Windows installation doesn't change anything, you can just restore the Windows image. In this case, the system might be designed to behave like that - which would be a weird design choice, but what do I know...

Note that this is still a somewhat risky (and definitely time-consuming) procedure unless you know the imaging program to be reliable. Without advertising anything I can recommend Drive Snapshot.

Honestly I would wait for the new battery and then run the tests again. It could be that the power adapter is overwhelmed due to the battery's state. To save everything from (further) damage it throttles its output or shuts itself off.

If it wasn't clear: Everything is just guesswork because remote diagnosis is not easy :).

Regards
Dalai
 
*Honestly I would wait for the new battery and then run the tests again. It could be that the power adapter is overwhelmed due to the battery's state. To save everything from (further) damage it throttles its output or shuts itself off.*


I'm hoping this is really the case buh from a technical standpoint i don't expect the battery to add to power supply when plugged in buh like u said it must be a weird design choice.
I'm fairly nuanced in circuitry design per my background in Electrical Engineering buh that's way past me cos i'm in a different field. Was hoping I could get info from the manufacturer that confirms the above, then i'll be confident in getting a new battery(which is really expensive where i live)

I dont know if you meant/know what you're saying cos you've mentioned a symptom that i failed to add. I noticed just recently(and that's cos my game always launches fullscreen) that before the PC goes off, the battery icon indicated that it was not plugged in even tho the charger was connected. Another time it happened the charger itself went off (the LED went off) and it couldnt charge the PC till i tried the next day. This made me think something was wrong with the power supply buh someone suggested(and now you) that it's protection on the power adapter. If there's technical proof on this, then kindly share cos I really hope it's just the battery otherwise i would need to worry about the charger too.
 
Was hoping I could get info from the manufacturer that confirms the above [...]
There's nothing wrong with asking the manufacturer how the device is supposed to behave in terms of clock speeds and power for CPU/GPU when plugged in or unplugged. But I highly doubt they'll give you a schematic for this system. There are manufacturers that do supply information like this, but they're still rare these days. Even (independent) repair shops have difficulty getting this information and parts and similar things. An end-user will probably have an even harder time ...

I noticed just recently(and that's cos my game always launches fullscreen) that before the PC goes off, the battery icon indicated that it was not plugged in even tho the charger was connected. Another time it happened the charger itself went off (the LED went off) and it couldnt charge the PC till i tried the next day.
Mmh, could be the power adapter going bad, but it could also a kind of protection like I mentioned. Maybe lend a power brick that supplies the correct voltage and amps from a friend or PC/repair shop in your area. It could also be a bad/broken contact in the power connector on the device and/or the power plug on the adapter; it's a common failure point for some devices.

As I said: remote diagnosis is ... difficult.

Regards
Dalai
 
Back
Top