Laptop Battery Charging Issue

[LABFE]

I'm refurbishing an Acer Aspire 7250 laptop. At first it wouldn't power on, tested the ac adapter and it was defective so ordered new one. Plugged it in and good power, but the battery was entirely dead and never began charging so I figured a bad battery too. Ordered new battery, but the new battery will not charge and the battery light flashes orange. Click on the battery icon and it says (plugged in, not charging). Plugged the old battery back in to observe it's behavior again and the battery light stays on orange. Click on the battery icon and it says (plugged in, charging), but yet it's not actually charging. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[glennd]

The old battery is dead. The new battery is defective. I recently bought a cheap battery for my asus and it occasionally does the the light flash thing. I found if i leave it plugged in to the charger while i take out the battery and in again, the battery starts charging. That might not work for you but the point is if the light flashes and the battery says charging but it's not, the battery is most likely defective.

 

[wavey]

Remove the battery and check for voltage, you should be getting 3.3v on at least 3 of the pins.

 

[LABFE]

I do have a multimeter; wish to share how to check the battery? Not finding any tutorials online. One problem I'm seeing is that my test leads don't fit in between the pins on battery.

 

[LABFE]

Any others have any ideas. Is it clearly the battery?

 

[wavey]

Sorry, I meant is there power getting to the battery from the laptop?

 

[carmen617]

I've had third party batteries that didn't work until i did a bios update to be recognized, you might want to check the manufacturer's website and see if they have any recommendations. However the catch 22 is usually that you need a fully charged battery to do a bios update.

 

[LABFE]

"Sorry, I meant is there power getting to the battery from the laptop?"

Thanks. I'm getting 3.3v on two, 1v on a few, 0v on one, and one jumps between 3.3v and about .5v.

 

[LABFE]

I've had third party batteries that didn't work until i did a bios update to be recognized, you might want to check the manufacturer's website and see if they have any recommendations. However the catch 22 is usually that you need a fully charged battery to do a bios update.

The battery does actually power the computer. It just isn't beginning to charge. Does that tell us that a bios update wouldn't help?

 

[wavey]

Ok the charging circuit on the laptop is good. So glennd was correct in that the new battery must be defective.

Just to be double sure, leave it charging overnight.

 

[LABFE]

Ok the charging circuit on the laptop is good. So glennd was correct in that the new battery must be defective.

Just to be double sure, leave it charging overnight.

Thanks for the tips. I didn't previously think to check power at the connector, and I'm going to leave plugged in overnight.

 

[LABFE]

This has been crazy. So I ordered a different battery replacement (different brand from first one I tried), but it didn't even fit the laptop. I ordered yet another battery replacement (yet another brand), and I'm getting same behavior as the first battery replacement. Battery light flashing orange and click on battery icon shows plugged in, not charging. I'm really puzzled; any ideas?

 

[katz]

Did you try this trick?

1. Disconnect AC
2. Shutdown
3. Remove battery
4. Connect AC
5. Startup > Go To Device Manager
   
6. Under the Batteries category, right-click all of the Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery listings, and select Uninstall (it’s ok if you only have 1).
7. Shutdown
8. Disconnect AC
9. Insert battery
10. Connect AC
11. Startup

I've had that method fix some goofy problems in the past. It's worth a try...

 

[LABFE]

Did you try this trick?

1. Disconnect AC
2. Shutdown
3. Remove battery
4. Connect AC
5. Startup > Go To Device Manager
   
6. Under the Batteries category, right-click all of the Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery listings, and select Uninstall (it’s ok if you only have 1).
7. Shutdown
8. Disconnect AC
9. Insert battery
10. Connect AC
11. Startup

I've had that method fix some goofy problems in the past. It's worth a try...

I had tried some similar stuff, but went ahead and just now did this step by step. No luck though unfortunately.

 

[LABFE]

Another thing I've noticed is that when AC is not plugged in these batteries seem to drain very quickly. I thought it seemed like that last battery replacement drained down quickly. And I had the AC unplugged from this one for maybe 15 minutes and it drained from 74% to 55% with this PC just sitting there doing nothing. Have I gotten two defective battery replacements even though they were from two different brands or could something be going on with the motherboard, even though I've tested for power at the connector? The PC works absolutely fine aside from this one issue.

 

[katz]

Hmmm... almost sounds like a short to me, with that high drain rate. Did you check over all of the motherboard ports with a bright light, look at the usb, etc., to make certain that there aren't any pins bent/touching each other/etc.?

 

[LABFE]

Hmmm... almost sounds like a short to me, with that high drain rate. Did you check over all of the motherboard ports with a bright light, look at the usb, etc., to make certain that there aren't any pins bent/touching each other/etc.?

I checked and all the ports look normal.

 

[LABFE]

Any other ideas, anybody?

 

[LABFE]

Surely someone has seen this issue before?

 

[Computech2]

I have had this happen. Fortunately the customer's laptop never left his desk, so we decided to leave the laptop plugged in all the time. We left the battery in place, it's been 2 years or so and no problems. Not that this is an answer but it is what worked in this situation.