So about 2 years ago I bought a gaming laptop, Omen 16 for the boy, was working just fine until a few months ago. The problem is that as soon as he plugs the AC adaptor in, the CPU usage spikes to 100% and everything slows down. However, if the machine runs off battery, everything seems to work just fine.
I had it sent back to HP for manufacturer repair and they didn't take the power adaptor - they only took the laptop, factory reset it, then sent it back to me saying it was all fixed.
This suggests to me it really is the AC adaptor that's not working as intended - although it does charge the laptop when it's not turned on.
Two questions from me:
- has anyone seen this kind of technical problem arise (if so what was the underlying cause)
- I tried buying an ASUS 230w adaptor with a 4.5mm converter for HP but the machine detects the different adaptor and refuses to charge even though the voltage is the same - are there any known workarounds with this issue? I have no idea how I'm going to get HP to send me a replacement or is this something I have to find a third party compatible charger (at the rear of the adaptor it says "Replace with HP Spare: M41303-001" . Looking around online I think I've found some compatitble 3rd party adaptors but just curious if anyone's had an experience with getting the original manufacturer to supply a replacement adaptor.
Does your model of the laptop come with USB-C ports? Most modern motherboards will allow charging from at least one of the USB-C ports if they're provided. Could be a way to help isolate the issue.
Edit: Have a few more minutes. We had an Alienware machine at work that did something similar. After going through lots of different performance tests we discovered that the cooling block was loose and occasionally pulled away from the CPU. It was fine when running in portable mode with the CPU performance scaled down for battery use, but plugged in the CPU profile switched to full performance and thermal throttled almost instantly if the system was moved, shifting the heavy copper.
Removing the cooler assembly, cleaning the cat-hair out of the fans and cooling block, applying fresh thermal paste and putting everything back together resolved the issue.
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
Yeah I'm stuck with waiting on the insurance company to send me a prepaid satchel to send it back.
The guy who sold me the Asus adaptor refunded me and noticed the reason for spiking CPU utilisation was the clock speed/frequency getting throttled. He said with HPs there's a temp sensor mounted under the monitor which sometimes screws up and throttles the CPU. But he said just let the insurer's repairers try their efforts instead of voiding the warranty.
Ah I did end up sorting out the warranty issue.
Initially the retailer didn't send the insurer's repairer the power adaptor.
Once I told them the symptoms (low clock speed as soon as power adaptor plugged in), the authorised repairer diagnosed the problem as faulty power adaptor and battery.
They replaced both and the laptop is back in action! But the boy has declined to return my gaming laptop so he has one for home and his repaired machine for school. No spare machine for when I'm on travels...