2

Here's a real head scratcher...

A customer's laptop (Panasonic Toughbook) will log in and run perfectly fine while plugged in to AC power. Great. Now, if I unplug the laptop, then turn it on, it never gets past the Windows logon screen. If I plug it in, get past the Windows logon screen, then unplug the AC adapter, it keeps running for a good 3 hours.

I then tried to start it up, let it charge, then reboot without the AC adapter, even though I know this battery is full, and it still shuts down at the logon screen. Therefore, I know it is not the battery, at least it doesn't seem like it. I ran a Memtest86 on the RAM, no issues found. I ran a CHKDSK /f /r on the hard drive attached to another computer, no issues found. I also ran the Western Digital Data Lifeguard diagnostics program, again without issue. As a final struggle, I scanned for viruses on our virus checking computers with Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes Antimalware, and with Norton 2012

What type of issue should I be looking at next?

EDIT

  • Safe mode works
  • Removing ALL non-Microsoft services and all Startup Items in MSCONFIG does not work
Canadian Luke
  • 24,640

3 Answers3

3

Check the event log, it might tell you whether something power related is going wrong.

Tamara Wijsman
  • 57,881
2

I think I have the same issue on an HP/Compaq that ran fine on XP but NOT Windows 7. I disabled he AC Battery Adapter in Device Manager and it seems to work fine now. I guess this is a Windows 7 feature not in XP.

Derek Harrison
  • 21
1

The facility that is responsible for reporting the battery state and supporting power management is ACPI, within which the BIOS plays a major role.

Try updating your BIOS.

Laptop batteries communicate with the embedded controller that handles power management. It's possible, but unlikely, this function of the battery has failed without any other obvious symptoms. Would really be weird for it to only make the boot process freeze, though ... You also may double check that there is no evidence of corrosion or liquid damage on the laptop's battery connector.

LawrenceC
  • 75,182