[luciaw]

Hi

So, I have a sort of strange problem (I think). I have a fairly new HP ProBook 4520s laptop (its almost a year old) and a few weeks ago it started doing what is said in the title. When the battery is running low and I plug it into the wall, it becomes very slow and shows very high CPU usage (fluctuating, but somewhere about 80-100%). It does this even if I close all programs which were open and just leave it alone. I've tried to use the Task Manager to see if there is anything in particular causing it, but nothing in particular shows a high CPU usage.

The high CPU use goes on for about 20-30 minutes during which time it is pretty much impossible to use the computer, but after this time (I've noticed its usually when the battery reaches about 75% charge) it stops, CPU use drops back down to ~5% and I can continue using the computer. Another way to get around it is to either restart the computer when I plug it in, or wait for it to hibernate when the battery runs out, plug it in, and then switch it on again.

I've done two virus checks (Avast, F-Secure) and they came back clean. No malware as far as I can tell. So I'm not really sure whats going on, only that its rather inconvenient.

If it's relevent, I have had some power issues before, mainly that if I hibernate/shut down the laptop and leave it plugged in, sometimes it restarts itself. Usually I just get around it by unplugging it whenever its off, but maybe the two issues are linked?

I would really appreciate any help!

Thanks,
Lucia

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It sounds like a hardware issue your power cord, the battery, something else internal, check your power settings make sure you have it set to max performace, also look through your programs, somethings like Diskkeeper and others will only run when you are plugged in to save power. Check there and check to see in your task manager (make sure to Run as Administrator) to see if there is a difference in the stuff running on your system when it is plugged in and on battery. Could you also test how the laptop performs while plugged in but with the battery removed?

[ZaRMan]

It sounds like a hardware issue your power cord, the battery, something else internal, check your power settings make sure you have it set to max performace, also look through your programs, somethings like Diskkeeper and others will only run when you are plugged in to save power. Check there and check to see in your task manager (make sure to Run as Administrator) to see if there is a difference in the stuff running on your system when it is plugged in and on battery. Could you also test how the laptop performs while plugged in but with the battery removed?

[luciaw]

Could you also test how the laptop performs while plugged in but with the battery removed?

I've already done this and it works fine without the battery.

check your power settings make sure you have it set to max performace

Normally I just use the 'HP Optimizer' setting (which is default), but I just looked and it seems I have some new options. I must have updated something at some point and not noticed, so I'll play around with the different settings and see what happens.

I'll also try out your other suggestions over the weekend and let you know how the laptop behaves!

Thanks for the tips.

[luciaw]

Okay, on different power options I still have the same problem.

When I run Task Manager, its strange but I know there is something that shows up when its being slow, but I dont know what. I took print screens of the processes running when its plugged in but slow and compared it to just after it got back to normal CPU use, and even though I could see that there was a flicker and the number of processes changed, when I have the compare the 2 print screens - it says everything is the same!

Do you know of a programme or method I could use to keep track of the changes in processes? Just staring at the task manager doesnt seem to work!

[rshaffer61]

Get Process Explorer

http://live.sysinter...com/procexp.exe

Save it to your desktop then run it (Vista or Win7 - right click and Run As Administrator). Click once or twice on the CPU column header to sort things by CPU usage with the big hitters at the top. Close all other programs. Wait 60 seconds or so for things to settle down. File, Save As, Save. Open the file Procexp.txt on your desktop and copy and paste the text to a reply.

[luciaw]

Okay, I've attached 4 files showing what the computer is doing at different times. The first three (batt1, charging-slow3 and charging-fast) are arranged by process name. The last one (charging-slow2) is arranged by CPU use. The battery snapshot was taken on a different day from the others, so there might be some discrepancies there.

From the other 3, I think the only process which comes and goes is taskeng.exe (Task Scheduler Engine Microsoft Corporation).

Attached Files

•  batt1.TXT   7.02KB   1130 downloads
•  charging-fast.TXT   6.73KB   927 downloads
•  charging-slow3.TXT   6.82KB   886 downloads
•  charging-slow2.TXT   6.6KB   769 downloads

[Hataf]

I am experiencing with the same kind of a problem and I am having the same laptop model that you have (an HP Probook 4520s). My laptop is 7 months old and it was running smooth in the beginning but since a month or two I am having the same kind of a problem. I would like to know how you dealt with it and if any other could possibly help me?

I also noted that whenever the charger is not plugged in, the battery's life dries up very fast - not like how it used to be before this problem started occurring. And due to this, I don't really have an option other than to use my laptop with the charger plugged in almost every time (also when it reaches to 100% max charging).

Any help regarding this would be great.

[kofmzc]

Same laptop, Same problem. Its not a software issue, tried installing clean Windows, antivirus other tweaks etc. I just hate HP :/

[rshaffer61]

Direct to: kofmzc and Hataf

Please start your own topic
Although your issue may seem similar there can be other factors that may need to be resolved.
By bumping on someone's topic it makes it confusing for the tech to understand who they are helping. This can in turn cause the wrong support to be given and can cause instability or worse to happen to your system.
Please post more information as to your exact issue in your topic. Include any error messages you get as well as your system specs. This will help us to assist you more efficiently.
Thank you for your cooperation.

[ruzan]

Direct to: kofmzc and Hataf

Please start your own topic
Although your issue may seem similar there can be other factors that may need to be resolved.
By bumping on someone's topic it makes it confusing for the tech to understand who they are helping. This can in turn cause the wrong support to be given and can cause instability or worse to happen to your system.
Please post more information as to your exact issue in your topic. Include any error messages you get as well as your system specs. This will help us to assist you more efficiently.
Thank you for your cooperation.

hi.
my first post on this forum.

i was searching on google for the very same issue on my hp probook 4520s.

its exactly the same as described. cpu usage spikes up when battery is in the range of 40-75 % when charging. battery life has also reduced. i think this is more to do with hardware. i have reinstalled the os several times, did lots of other RnD but the issue is still there.

i would just like the guys who are facing this to write back what is the bios version of the machine. i have my doubts abt the bios because all this stupidity started after a bios update.

one can check bios version by giving command msinfo32 in "search programs" or run or cmd

my bios details are..
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68AZZ Ver. F.20, 8-9-11 Thu

i tried to go back to older bios but it is not allowing.

mod.. i know i should start a different thread but the reason i am posting here is because it is the exact same issue.

thanks.

[mar-rih]

I have also the HP laptop mode Probook 4520s, I have since one year, it was very good till one month before, the same problem of luciaw laptop i have, when plug in the AC power to laptop, CPU usage will be very high 100%, when remove AC power, the usage go down immediately.
the BIOS version is old and i don't update it
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68AZZ Ver. F.01, 12-01-10
SM Bios: 2.6

[luciaw]

BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68AZZ Ver. F.0F, 18/02/2011

I talked to some people from a helpdesk and they confirmed that its most likely a hardware issue. I found that using a different charger (ie frequency) can help (basically it charges the battery faster so the problem lasts for a shorter amount of time). Someone also suggested replacing the battery but I havent tried that yet...

Mostly I just take out the battery these days...

[rgreboll]

Hi,
I have the exact same issue, it happens exactly as it has been described on same laptop model. I did also reinstall from scratch Windows 7 x64 and the problem is still present.
I just booted using a Knoppix Live CD and tried to replicate the issue, but it didn't happen, which makes me wonder whether there is really a hardware issue or a combination of both.

[Brian_Toast]

Hi guys,
that's my experience about the problem.
I was suffering this problem every day, since a couple of month. I have an HP Elitebook 8540p with WinXP (oops... maybe out of topics, but please read it all) and I use it every morning on the train, traveling to office. It works fine when battery operated, but as soon as I get in the office... I need to restart it 2 o 3 times to get it working.
I tried to search various topics without finding anything useful.

Just this morning I heard a colleague talking to another one (a technician) about the same problem, so they decided to ask to our internal helpdesk to have the power adapter changed. This was the first time I heard linking the two facts: plug the power >>> 100% CPU. And it was very strange to me to accept the links affected my pc and to know that changing the power adapter resolved the problem to my colleague. So i tried to investigate deeply.

I noticed in PROCESS EXPLORER that, whenever i plug the power, it was only one occurrence of SERVICES.EXE to produce a big overload to CPU. This occurrenc of SERVICE.EXE is the one that supports PLUG&PLAY SERVICES and EVENT SERVICES. I started to focus the problem in another way: when my laptop works with batteries, XP throttle some process in order to lower power consumption and this hides the real problem. So I focused on this: what is throttled working in battery mode and consumes CPU in power plug mode?

The answer was quite simple: SERVICE.EXE was yet addressed, I excluded PLUG&PLAY and focused on EVENT SERVICES. I made a tour on EVENT VIEWER and it was simple to discover that SECURITY EVENT LOG had exceded the limits (it was set up for a maximum size of 512kB, but the real size was 80MB!!!). It was quite simple to clear the log in order to gain full CPU avalability (obviously I made a back up of the log).

Try it.
Best regards
Antonio Brindisi

[rshaffer61]

Thank you for your explanation of how you resolved the issue Brian_Toast and I am sure it will help others in the future.
Hello .... Welcome to GeeksToGo,, Nice to have you here and please feel free to look around and enjoy the forums.
Feel free to add your suggestions in any forum other then the Malware forum as only the Techs trained for that area can give assistance. Also no Malware advice is allowed outside of the Malware forum. Just a piece of advice for you.

If you need any help just post in the appropriate forum and we will be glad to help. We are all volunteers so please understand we are not always here and it may take some time to respond to your post.