Laptop battery not charging

Hi,

this looks a little strange:

My laptop battery today has stopped charging. If you connect the PSU, it will charge for about 20 seconds, then stop, but the machine then runs on the battery, not the PSU. Every time you remove the PSU cable and re-insert it, it will again charge for about 20 seconds before stopping and again running on the battery.

It is not the PSU socket, as the same thing happens if you remove the PSU's mains supply instead. I have tried another PSU, exactly the same.

I have removed the battery, and the laptop is happily running on the PSU.

Why would the laptop run on the (faulty?) battery rather than just switch to the PSU? It was saying it was charged to 60%.

Any tests I can do to see if it is is the battery, or something in the laptop?

Cheers,

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis
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Oh, its an Acer Aspire E1 running Windows 8.

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis

I had a laptop that did that. Sorry, don't remember the make. When the battery thinks it's abused or exceeded some preset limit, it has mechanisms to force you to get a new one. Mine would run on AC if I removed the battery. It would charge if it was off. If the battery was installed, it would only run on battery. Searched, but never found a way to reset it.

Reply to
mike

I had a laptop that did that. Sorry, don't remember the make. When the battery thinks it's abused or exceeded some preset limit, it has mechanisms to force you to get a new one. Mine would run on AC if I removed the battery. It would charge if it was off. If the battery was installed, it would only run on battery. Searched, but never found a way to reset it.

Didn't think to check, but I think this one is charging with the machine off too.

Well, an orange LED is lit with the battery present and not when it isn't.

Thanks,

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis

Are there any pics in wwwland where someone has broken into the same battery type and found exactly where the supervisor chip lurks?

Reply to
N_Cook

The battery's charge is what the computer thinks it is, not what it "really" is. It's possible the battery is actually at full charge, and the battery's voltage is at the level that cuts off the charge cycle.

I would operate the computer on the battery until it runs down, then (after a rest) recharge it and see what happens.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Your question suggests that you have info on some chips. Spill... We know where the chip lurks. But WHAT chip might be relevant.

I've taken apart a bunch of laptop batteries. Most older laptops that have been sitting in the closet for years have problem batteries. Many can be made to work if you take 'em apart and charge the cells individually. Once the voltage is up, they often work, but may never calibrate. I'd have to turn off the battery management. They'd run for an hour or more after the gauge hit zero, then quit suddenly. If you can tolerate that behavior, it's all good.

Some of the Dell's flash a code on the battery test leds when you push the button and on the led on the laptop, but work fine.

Others won't come back at all. Rumor is that they started putting the config info in RAM. Once power is lost, they ain't coming back without a lot more knowledge and equipment than I have.

I've been able to fully recover ONE. It had a PIC controller and I hit the reset pin. It worked.

There was a software suite that you could use if tapped into the middle of the battery's controller on the second bus. It cost WAY more than a new battery, so impractical for a typical user.

There are significant safety issues when doing this stuff. I charge 'em on a surface that won't catch fire easily.

And I'd NEVER sell a laptop with a battery that I'd tampered. A fire caused by any means would bankrupt me by the time the lawyers got into the fray...even if it was unrelated to what I did.

Reply to
mike

The battery's charge is what the computer thinks it is, not what it "really" is. It's possible the battery is actually at full charge, and the battery's voltage is at the level that cuts off the charge cycle.

I would operate the computer on the battery until it runs down, then (after a rest) recharge it and see what happens.

I've just watched over 2 hours of TV on demand from the battery that claimed less than 50% charge, before it quit.

From experience with this machine, I would say that the battery capacity is good, and the reported charge is accurate.

The problem being the laptop will not use the PSU power if the battery is installed, and won't charge it, unless the laptop is turned off.

Re-installing the battery just now showed the laptop will charge it for some

20 secs or so, then quit, then try to use it instead of the connected PSU as before.

Gareth.

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis

The battery's charge is what the computer thinks it is, not what it "really" is. It's possible the battery is actually at full charge, and the battery's voltage is at the level that cuts off the charge cycle.

I would operate the computer on the battery until it runs down, then (after a rest) recharge it and see what happens.

I've just watched over 2 hours of TV on demand from the battery that claimed less than 50% charge, before it quit.

From experience with this machine, I would say that the battery capacity is good, and the reported charge is accurate.

The problem being the laptop will not use the PSU power if the battery is installed, and won't charge it, unless the laptop is turned off.

Re-installing the battery just now showed the laptop will charge it for some

20 secs or so, then quit, then try to use it instead of the connected PSU as before.

Gareth.

I left the battery in overnight with the PSU connected and the battery did not charge.

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis

Many newer laptops/ultrabooks have a feature where the battery is only charged to about 50-60%. Your description roughly describes how the laptop operates when this feature is enabled. I recently delivered a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 with that feature as the "Battery MaxiMiser". If the laptop is being used as a desktop replacement, where it's plugged into the charger continuously, it's highly desireable to reduce the charge level to about 50% to improve battery lifetime: I did some Googling on the Acer Aspire E1 but didn't find any reference to such a feature. Look for some kind of battery manager application running in the system tray.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks.

I was abut to post about that, concerning a Gateway P series. I have a few of them. The batteries have not been abusede, but they really haven't been used. I only take the thing out once a month if that. both laptops we acctu ally do run, say perhaps 40 %, Not Charging in the tray icon.

Recently I took the one out and while I wasn't watching I guess it charged because instead of loike 40 %, is says 99 %. Or did. I just checked right n ow and it say 89 % Not Charging.

So these things learn to not bother charging the battery ?

Would we be better off just getting a can full of dry cells to run these th ings ? Ten C cells really would not cram my style. When I take it out i got a case (and this is a wide body bog screen, ans laptops go) with a cooler sitting underneath and aall kinds of other shit in there, USB drives, books , a charger of course. Damn right a real mouse, I can't stand those touchpa ds. A few blanl CD/DVDs, net cable, hmm. I should probably keep an audio ca ble in there as well eh ? sometimes I have the NTSC convertor in there as w ell so I can plug into a regular TV, but that is no longer all that useful. It was nice though to just be able to play a movie or whatever, when someo ne didn't have an HDTV.

But anyway, one of these dayds I might be in a situation where it is to my advantage to take a bus or rapid (the name we sue for something like the su bway here) and it would be nice to have the laptop at least last the ride. But that is not now so it is not a big issue.

Reply to
jurb6006

Some are designed that way. My HP won't charge the battery if (it thinks) the charge is 95% or above. This prevents the battery from being overcharged. You get a "full" charge only if the battery is below 95% when the power supply is plugged in.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

My new $150 Acer 720 Chromebook battery lasts about 8 hrs of intermittent operation. I haven't timed it, but it easily lasts all day without a charge. That seems to be the trend in ultrabooks and tablets these days, where the battery is something like 75% of the volume of the device.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Lithium Ion cells discharge unevenly, some cells supply more current than others and the inverse is true for charging. Something must be done to "equalize" them, kind of analogous to series silicon diodes in a power supply. My friend has a high tech lithium battery for his Harley, it has a computerized charger that balances the cells. The battery will still start the bike on an alternator charge, but the battery is peaked out by the computer charger. Not all battery packs are equal.

Reply to
dave

Very true. The RC (radio control) industry figured that out long ago. Almost all the available chargers are the "balance" charger flavor, where each cell is individually charged (at the same time). They even standardized the charging connector. Maybe some day the laptop industry will do the same, although they're probably making too much money on replacement batteries to worry about improving the product.

One oddity is that the RC industry stuffs rectangular prismatic cells into cylindrical shaped (aerodynamic) vehicles, while the laptop industry insists on stuffing cylindrical cells into rectangular boxes. It boggles the mind, but such tradition and stupidity are difficult to cure.

Incidentally, I've rebuilt a few NiMH battery packs for power tools by replacing the cells with LiIon and charging them with RC model balance chargers. Mostly, I just buy the fairly cheap 11.1v 3S1P battery packs and cram them into the gutted plastic battery case. Something like this (which I had hanging around): Notice that it comes with the standard connectors. I've only done two battery packs so far, but my initial impression is favorable.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yep, that's the most likely scenario. There are a few charge anomalies that can be fixed with updates to firmware (it never hurts to check with the laptop manufacturer).

Reply to
whit3rd

Yep, that's the most likely scenario. There are a few charge anomalies that can be fixed with updates to firmware (it never hurts to check with the laptop manufacturer).

Clearly you haven't read the thread.

The laptop, suddenly, over the course of one day, stopped charging the battery for more than 20 seconds after repeated reconnection of the PSU (charger).

I noticed this problem at around 60% reported charge.

The laptop refused to use the PSU, but instead kept using and not charging the battery, yet worked fine on the PSU if the battery was removed.

I watched about 2 hours of TV on demand on the now 50% charged battery before it ran out, so clearly the battery itself was OK, it was the charging process that wasn't working.

This is consistent with my experience of the machine quite capable of at least 4 hours running on a full battery.

I fail to see how any firmware settings can direct the laptop to use a non charging battery in preference to the connected PSU.

Clearly something here is broken.

Gareth.

Reply to
Gareth Magennis

Assuming its more than 2 lines between battery and laptop. Can you fudge a multiway linkage between them so the battery can be outside its rightful place. Then try jumpering in a single charged cell in the power line and genearally monitor what happens to operation and the other control lines

Reply to
N_Cook

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