Shogun 2 Total War: issues with battery charging while playing.

[zabych]

So, the problem is very simple - when I start the game, my battery won't charge. It only does on loading screens (when I enter or end battle).
My laptop is Acer Aspire 8942G, Win 7.
It looks like the game blocks or conflicts with my charger when I play it.
Once I switch tabs, the battery starts to charge again.

I would be greatful for any peace of advice how to fix this background charging problem.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I read somewhere that using a laptop with your battery while also connected with your ac/dc power cord is not good for the battery life... that was a long time ago and it may have changed now.

Dumb question though, why don't you play w/o the battery (ac/dc power only) and when you are done you hook up the battery again? I know, not an answer but I find it extremely weird and unlikely that a game would disrupt the ability to charge your battery.

 

[zabych]

Well, you won't believe, but actually the first thing I tried to do was removing my battery and playing only with the cord.
So, when I started the game - my laptop powered off immidiately and after that I realized that there is some kind of conflict between the game and my laptop. And that is happening not due hardware, but to software.
The battery doenst cnarge when I play, but during the loading screen (i.e. battles, aply new settings, etc) the battery charges.
I tried to manipulate with video settings - selecting lowest quality didnt help either.
I guess the problem is quite easy to resolve, but I simply dont know how to do it-)
Searched thru a lot of forums - game forums, acer forums, wrote to there IT support - I'll see what they respond, 'coz my friend had the same problem on his MacBook with Assasin's Creed, but he gave it up since he has a nice desktop PC for playing and PS3 as well-)
I'll keep you posted if I get the solution.

 

[AstaLaVista]

I'll keep you posted if I get the solution.

Please do, it may help other laptop owners and this is why we all are here... to help others or each other.

 

[zabych]

so, i've done some experiments:
everything was on low including resolution and w/o sound - the battery was charging!
but the thing is that when i start moving accross the map - it stops.
also my monitor says that my CPU is loaded for 100% by STW:2
it seems to me that there is lack of resourses, or the game tries to use more than it actually needs, because after a while even with lowest settings laptop stopped charging.
and a question arose in my mind - is there a program which would limit the use or resourses, i.e. CPU, by a selected program? i think there should be something like that...
going to do some more experimenting since i have no answer anywhere except here
also, another thing came up to my mind - may be my ac/dc charger is low on capacity? may be i need a more powerfull or so? is it possible?
because it looks like my video card and CPU takes all the resourses and there is nothing left...

to be continued

 

[AstaLaVista]

W/o knowing your system specs and the games minimum requirements is hard to say but it makes sense that the game is requiring more resources than the laptop has and the first thing to be cut is the juice going to to the battery since it is not really needing it for the time being.

 

[zabych]

in fact, the game's minimun requirements are quite low in comparison to my laptop's configation.
it is core i7 1,6/8gb RAM/ATI 5850 1gb/.
Basically, I have no idea why the juice going to the battery is cut off...I guess I'll go to the Acer support specialits since I can't get an answer anywhere

 

[zabych]

well, the problem was in my ac/dc charger, mine is corrupted or something like that.