Clevo N850hp6 random shut downs and charging issues

Hello all,

I have an Eluktronics branded N850HP6 which is approaching 2 years old. Recently, it's started shutting down suddenly on battery power This has happened around 3 times. It's not a blue screen crash, but rather the laptop turning off instantly without warning. The battery level would not be low at the time or anything. The first time it wouldn't start again on battery, but another time it would start for a few seconds and then turn off again. It starts normally when I connect the power adapter however.

Soon after the shutdowns started, a weird charging issue cropped up. It seems the laptop charges normally to about 80%, but from there starts to charge extremely slowly (e.g. 1% every 10 minutes), almost as if it is plugged in and not charging.

I have had to get some chassis repairs done on the laptop, and another problem on the right hinge started again before the shutdowns began, so I'm not sure if it could be related. The right screen hinge now lifts up when opening the laptop. However, it was the left side of the laptop where repairs where down some time last year, to stop a chassis separation problem when opening the laptop.

 

The battery itself is the primary suspect still.

 

Was hoping to avoid buying a new battery as it will be pretty expensive, especially factoring in shipping to South Africa .

Bit of a long shot, but I was wondering if there is any chance the hinge problem could be resulting in a loose connection somewhere, which is causing the sudden shutdowns on battery power?

 

I used to have a working P650HP from Eluktronics for about almost 3 years, but it has since broke. I suspect my issue was due to a combination of factors, such as a bad battery and faulty capacitor which released a really bad headache inducing smell when my laptop suddenly turned off without warning without the charger being plugged in. Perhaps the capacitor was fine, but I think the sudden shutdown may have caused it to pop for me. It wasn't the first time my laptop suddenly shut down, but that time was the last time. Before that, I was having problems with the battery not fully charging and it misreporting how much it actually had left to Windows. I'm not sure if buying a new battery sooner would have prevented its failure, but I hope you find a new battery at a good price. I did end up regretting not buying the 3 year warranty.

 

That smell is the magic smoke, very hard to put back in once it escapes... on a more serious note it usually is down to a catastrophic component failure that can cascade to others.

As for connections they are few and obvious, tear it down and take a look.

 

That is quite concerning, and I hope the combination of issues I'm seeing isn't indicating a similar problem. Fortunately no terrible smell associated with the shut downs at this stage though!

 

Would the average computer repair shop be able to diagnose whether the battery is the problem, or something more complicated like a motherboard component? I'm almost certain they won't have the luxury of being able to test the laptop with an alternative battery, given the rarity of the laptop.

 

Define average repair shop world wide, I'd say your answer is both yes and no.

 

Hmm, think the quality can be quite mixed here in South Africa.

So I've done some more observation and it seems that the shutdowns consistently happen around the 60% battery remaining mark. Just mentioning this in case it helps to say whether the battery is indeed the likely culprit.

Just want to be as sure as possible that buying a new battery will solve the problem, as I have read a few cases where shutdowns continue despite buying a new battery!

 

If it varies with battery level it probably is the battery, not 100% but with no ability to really test it's hard to be 100%

 

Well on my particullar case the N850hp6 / NP7850 has a horrible Temp/power managements; GPU is set to throttle at 95 degrees and CPU goes up to 90 easily, even tho I clean it periodically, repasted, undervolted both CPU and GPU thermals are still horrible and as a result my keyboard literally melted on a 1.5 years of use and it's not usable anymore.
What amazes me is that it's still strong after dunno...almost 4 years of use? But I know it'll eventually end up like yours.
What BIOS version you got? Mine's 2.18.1263