Laptop screen turns off on removing power cord

I had the same problem (screen turning off when unplugging my laptop from the power). It started two days after I upgraded to Windows 8.1.

I resolved this by using the Power Options control panel. I noticed that this problem only occurred for me when using the "balanced" power profile. If I switched to either the "power saver" or "high performance" profile, the problem went away.

I fixed this for the "balanced" profile by selecting "change plan settings..." and clicking "restore default power settings for this plan." I can now use the "balanced" profile without the problem reoccurring. There must be some specific setting that is causing this behavior, but I'm not sure what it is.

Windows 8.1 might use up slightly more battery, but this probably is an issue with your battery. Try going into a BIOS setup screen or something separate from Windows, then try unplugging your power cord and see what happens.

If your screen shuts off your battery won't hold any charge at all. Otherwise, it might be detecting the battery is below the 5% automatic hibernate mark, which could be a sign of an inaccurate battery reading. Try this: Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Click "Change plan settings" next to your preferred power plan > Click "Change advanced power settings" > Scroll to bottom and hit "Battery" > Click "Critical battery action" > Change it to "Sleep."

When your computer hits the 5% mark, it should go to sleep instead of hibernation. When it shuts off the screen and goes to sleep completely, power it back on and observe the battery levels. See how long it lasts before it completely shuts off at 0%.

When your computer is going into hibernation the screen shuts off immediately but sometimes mouse and keyboard input is still accepted for about 15-30 seconds before it powers off completely.

Either way, you should try replacing your battery. It shouldn't have anything to do with your upgrade to 8.1. This should just be coincidental. It is possible, but in order to test it you would have to restore to 8.0.

Just a follow-up - I contacted ASUS customer service and informed them of my issue - during a online chat with their customer service representative I was told repeatedly that my model was not designed for Windows 8/8.1 and that ASUS does not recommend installing unsupported operating systems on their hardware. So in other words, don't expect any help from ASUS.

So I restored Windows 8 to the laptop from a disk image I made BEFORE I upgraded to Windows 8.1 and I'm up and running without the battery issue. I hoped that ASUS would be more supportive of their hardware, but since a laptop bought in 2011 can't get support in 2013, I will certainly consider this in making future hardware purchases or recommendations on their hardware...

For ASUS N61 I had the same problem upgrading to Windows 8.1 (black screen/blank screen upon login and after restart during installation)

A. To complete installation I attached different additional screen (that computer did not had saved settings), so I could see last steps of installation

B. 1. To use computer after installation - find power state using Fn+Space (hot keys) that displays screen on main laptop display (removing power cable also can change state

2. When you have working power plan that does not produce black screen. Go into power plan settings and delete all PowerGear type power plans (leave only default microsoft power plan settings - High, Normal, Batery saver modes)

3. Uninstall ATK asus hotkeys from programs to avoid accidentally switching to invalid power states

Apparently ASUS power modes are not compatible with Windows 8.1 causing blank screen on laptop (although they worked for me on Windows 8)