Since the Island and Scotland update I’ve noticed my laptop stops charging while using Zwift. I have to stop and unplug the cable, plug it back in, and this fixes it for just a couple of minutes. I have new power cord for the laptop, tried all the display settings on Zwift to dumb it down. I have a Acer Predator laptop that specifically for gaming. All other worlds in Zwift are fine with no issues, until yesterday London started doing the same thing. Any ideas? My computer has a “turbo” function for boosting the laptop performance, it does the same thing if on turbo or not.
Could it be the laptop is running some battery optimization? I think I’ve read that a rechargeable battery will last longer if it’s allowed to discharge and recharge periodically, rather than remain always plugged in and charged to 100%.
Supposedly another thing is that laptop heat can shut off the battery charging. Is it possible that your computer is running hot only when running Zwift?
I’m curious if Windows Event Manager logs anything when charging stops. Many laptops will stop charging the battery when power demands are too great. Are you also driving an external display? If so, try it without. Have you adjusted the Laptop Battery Saver setting? This should cap the frame rate if you pick one of the more conservative settings. You could also check the GPU settings for an option to limit the max frame rate.
It is “normal” that the hardware demands are greater in Makuri. I don’t know about Scotland, but it’s clear that some worlds are more demanding than others. Zwift have not explained why this happens, but it’s quite clear that it does. Riding in larger groups also increases CPU load. If you upload logs to zwiftalizer.com you can see the effect on performance.
Throughout my last ride there are Kernel-Power changes on the event log. I’ve got the resolution on 720 now. It’s a gaming computer so I shouldn’t have any issues. I’ll look at the refresh rates next.