M4700 extremely slow when running on battery

I have a 2 month old M4700, I noticed just recently that when it is running on battery, CPU usage suddenly climbs to 50-80% when doing a simple web browsing and the computer becomes unusably laggy.
Also, the boot time gets extremely long (close to a minute) when running on battery.

I did a system recovery to a date when I did not have this issue, but the computer still lags when it is not plugged in.

Any ideas? It is really annoying because I have to use the laptop on battery a lot!

And everything becomes normal once I plug it in.

FYI: I am running a battery slice and the power plan is "Balanced" stock

And I have run this computer on battery without any issue up to 3 days ago, and without ever having to change to power plan.

 

Check the CPU frequency when you're on battery, sounds like you're the clocks are limited when you're on battery. Make sure the latest chipset drivers from Dell are installed. Also check under power management if the CPU is set to stay on clocks as low as possible rather than being able to go to full turbo if needed.

 

Any updates? Yeah, it does that sometimes especially post/pre updates, then somehow fix itself.

Have you tried switching to high power plan? Since I use editing software judiciously, I leave mine there. Also, when its on battery how does the environment change? I mean where do you place your laptop when on battery?

I usually only surf when on battery so I haven't noticed any lagging.

Anyway, I do remember reading that the CPU will throttle after a time on batter. i know this my not exactly address your issue, but I mention it just as other things to consider. Please let us know what happens.

 

Usually .net framework updates where it has to recompile stuff if I remember correctly.

 

With my HP updates would cause all kinds of weird behavior: It would take forever to boot or just freeze on the blank screen during boot, or just turn on then operate at a snail's pace.

With my 6700 the updates just freeze on the update view and stay that way forever. All I can do is kill the power and reboot.

 

That is strange, I've personally never had problems with Windows Update, might be a quirk of your particular software/hardware config?

 

Most likely. I don't like working under the hood so whatever the configuration was when I got it is that way it is now.

 

Okay, just an update.

After that incident for my original post, the computer slowly got faster on battery by itself, (although still noticeably slower compared to when plugged).

Then, just now, I had a Dell technician replace the entire motherboard (for a different issue), and now the system is good!

It has just been two hours so far, and I do not notice any difference between when on battery or plugged. Before, the lag was so bad when running on battery that there would be a delay after I type a sentence for it to show up on the screen.

Anyways, I am happy for now; and I really hope it stays this way! Thanks again for your advices.

 

Glad to hear it; and appreciate the update.

 

Okay hate to bump up this thread but the issue is reoccuring and I found out more details

These are the specific situations when the computer on battery power lags considerably
1. Start the computer from an "off" state, plugged in, then pull out the plug while the computer is still running
2. Start the computer from an "off" state, plugged in, then put the computer to sleep, disconnect the cord. Wake up the laptop on battery power.

These two are the situations I have noticed where the computer on battery power lags.

When the M4700 on the battery power does not lag:
- Turn on the computer not plugged in, and interestingly enough, even if I plug in the charger then take it out again; as long as the computer was originally on battery when I first turned it on, it does not lag.

So what this all means basically is that before I transfer from charger power to the battery power, I have to turn the computer completely off. And then restart the computer on the battery power. And this is why sometimes I did not notice the lag while other times, the lag was there.

I have posted the processor setting; this is the stock Dell power management setting on the power options. I do not think this is the issue.


I would also appreciate it if others could test it on their machines as well, I never had this issue on my past computers, but I personally have never used a laptop which had lagging issues transferring from plugged in power to battery power.

Also, even when it does not lag when the computer is originally turned on from battery power, there is still a minor lag when on battery. eg) Firefox takes 10 secs to open on battery instead of 3-4 secs when plugged in. However, this lag is still a lot less than if I were to orginally turn the computer on while plugged, than pull out the plug to use on the battery power.