Laptop Battery Charging Issue

[juiceman39]

I had somewhat this issue with Two Toshiba laptops -I placed them side by side. Both laptops worked with the AC adaptor and the batteries not inserted.I bought "two" brand new, no name batteries- they wouldn't work in either laptop. Laptops wouldn't run with the batteries inserted and were both plugged in to the AC adaptor or not. Bought a Toshiba branded battery and it would work in both laptops, with AC plugged in or just the battery plugged in. Both the no name batteries tested at 10 volt DC each and fit the laptops perfectly. This type of thing shouldn't be allowed.Toshiba should be spanked.

 

[Altster]

I had somewhat this issue with Two Toshiba laptops -I placed them side by side. Both laptops worked with the AC adaptor and the batteries not inserted.I bought "two" brand new, no name batteries- they wouldn't work in either laptop. Laptops wouldn't run with the batteries inserted and were both plugged in to the AC adaptor or not. Bought a Toshiba branded battery and it would work in both laptops, with AC plugged in or just the battery plugged in. Both the no name batteries tested at 10 volt DC each and fit the laptops perfectly. This type of thing shouldn't be allowed.Toshiba should be spanked.

I suspect that they do this for various reasons. One being that the user use only genuine Toshiba parts. Another to make sure that "junk supplies" don't do damage to their units.

It's buyer beware (if only to do more research on a product) to make sure you have proper parts to make repairs / upgrades / etc.. If you see a huge price difference in batteries then there is real good chance that the lower-priced unit(s) aren't even close to specs on what you should be purchasing. If the cost is / seems to high to you and this is a clients computer then pass the cost(s) on up the chain.

In the future I'd stay away from unbranded parts - for this very reason. You should be spanking the clone manufacturer for not making sure their product is 100% compatible with OEM parts.

 

[Altster]

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.

Use paperclips or something small that conducts electricity and then read with your multi-meter.

 

[mr m]

I see you already bought a new AC adapter but are you 100% sure it's good? I'm working on a HP laptop that turned out Win 7 was corrupted. That was hard enough to figure out but while troubleshooting I noticed the laptop battery would show a charge, than not charging. It would show the adapter was connected. I finally removed the battery to finish my troubleshooting and just used the adapter. It ran fine for hours and then it died at night in the middle of disk diag and wouldn't power on in the morning.

I measured 19.2 V at the adapter but it wouldn't power on let alone charge the battery. I finally borrowed the adapter from my wife's laptop and all is well a day later. Throw in another adapter before you go crazy.

 

[LABFE]

The two battery replacements I've tried that won't begin charging have been lower priced replacements. I've been searching for an actual Acer brand battery, but it appears Acer is no longer making one. I even went to the Acer website and you can't buy one there. Worth it trying a more expensive non Acer brand since that's only choice? The two I've tried have been $20 and $30, but I've seen ones for $43, $64 (big Jump), and even a Duracell brand one for $89. Could I possibly have success with the $43 or $64 ones; as in you get what you pay for?

 

[carmen617]

I've had good luck in the past with Anker brand batteries.

 

[katz]

...back to the high drain rate that you previously mentioned. I just get the feeling that the motherboard is defective.

Personally, if I were working on this unit I would be tempted to pull the mobo, check the numbers and get a replacement from ebay if one is avail. at a reasonable price. I would check the voltage in the area of the dc jack, see if I could trace it on the board to verify charging voltage, most likely a bad component, IMO.

 

[LABFE]

...back to the high drain rate that you previously mentioned. I just get the feeling that the motherboard is defective.

Personally, if I were working on this unit I would be tempted to pull the mobo, check the numbers and get a replacement from ebay if one is avail. at a reasonable price.. I would check the voltage in the area of the dc jack, see if I could trace it on the board to verify charging voltage, most likely a bad component, IMO.

Hmm, the other day I did a test. I turned my timer on 10 minutes and unplugged the AC to see exactly how fast the battery was draining. It drained 5% in 10 minutes. When you posted this I decided to do another test. This time 20 minutes; when the timer went off and I went to check how much it drained when I simply clicked the mouse the pc just died, completely, nothing. And flashing battery light no longer blinking. I plugged the AC back in to power it on to see what the battery icon said and lo and behold 0%; it was at 48% at beginning of test. Strange! So is this yet another indicator that there's an issue with the motherboard? Even though I've tested the voltage at the battery connector?

 

[LABFE]

Anyone else want to chime in?

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

I had this exact issue with a acer 7250 last week. It would read 0% charging but would never actually charge the battery. I flashed the bios and it fixed the problem. Note that the bios was already the latest version but I flashed it to the same latest version. I used the Windows tool to do it then rebooted. I bet this will work for you as well.

 

[LABFE]

I had this exact issue with a acer 7250 last week. It would read 0% charging but would never actually charge the battery. I flashed the bios and it fixed the problem. Note that the bios was already the latest version but I flashed it to the same latest version. I used the Windows tool to do it then rebooted. I bet this will work for you as well.

Ah, you're a saint, we'll see what happens..

 

[Porthos]

Some Toshiba's wont let you do a Bios update if it does not have a good battery.

 

[LABFE]

I had this exact issue with a acer 7250 last week. It would read 0% charging but would never actually charge the battery. I flashed the bios and it fixed the problem. Note that the bios was already the latest version but I flashed it to the same latest version. I used the Windows tool to do it then rebooted. I bet this will work for you as well.

Did you simply download v1.10 for 7250 from Acer website, extract files and you get exe file for both Windows and DOS. Run the Windows file and voila? I ran it, the pc appeared to just hard power off, after I saw it wasn't going to do anything else after about 15 seconds I powered it back on but no change. Should something else have happened here?

 

[LABFE]

I had this exact issue with a acer 7250 last week. It would read 0% charging but would never actually charge the battery. I flashed the bios and it fixed the problem. Note that the bios was already the latest version but I flashed it to the same latest version. I used the Windows tool to do it then rebooted. I bet this will work for you as well.

Okay, I've found some guidance online that I know is credible. So I went back through the steps of correctly flashing the BIOS and no luck for me. Thanks for the tip though, was definitely worth a try.

 

[LABFE]

...back to the high drain rate that you previously mentioned. I just get the feeling that the motherboard is defective.

Personally, if I were working on this unit I would be tempted to pull the mobo, check the numbers and get a replacement from ebay if one is avail. at a reasonable price. I would check the voltage in the area of the dc jack, see if I could trace it on the board to verify charging voltage, most likely a bad component, IMO.

Care to share what motherboard tester you like to use? Would a tool like this work: http://smile.amazon.com/Optimal-Sho...1457065164&sr=8-1&keywords=motherboard+tester. Should I look to spend a little more?

 

[katz]

Care to share what motherboard tester you like to use? Would a tool like this work: http://smile.amazon.com/Optimal-Sho...1457065164&sr=8-1&keywords=motherboard+tester. Should I look to spend a little more?

Nothing like that. I just use a digital multimeter to check voltage in the area of the charging jack, tracing it back on the motherboard as far as I can reasonably get. From that point, it is difficult, time consuming, and not very feasible to spend all that time on motherboard diagnosis, especially on a client's laptop.

Instead of wrapping up long hours in troubleshooting, I would rather get a replacement. I've bought many used laptop motherboards from ebay and have had great luck with that. Of course, you have to be confident in your diagnosis that it is indeed the motherboard, but after you've eliminated all of the possibilities, not much else remains.

 

[Vince]

...at this point (unless it's a very new laptop) I would cut my losses and suggest to the client:
a) use as a desktop - always connected - I will not charge as I have failed to diagnose the exact problem
b) new laptop where I would step in and offer to move their stuff over from the old laptop and emphasize that I am not charging for troubleshooting the battery problem.
In my experience, ppl will go for the second option as they need a working computer.

 

[LABFE]

This is actually a refurb so there's no time constraint, but you'd have to read thread from beginning to know that and this thread has become pretty lengthy. I'm fairly new to troubleshooting hardware problems or I probably would have solved this a long time ago, unless I've just gotten some sort of extremely rare pc problem here which would be just my luck. But I figure anything is fixable. I've ordered one more, more expensive battery to try and if it doesn't accept a charge I'm leaning towards @katz's input and will be looking to replace the motherboard.

 

[Vince]

This is actually a refurb so....

LABFE, I did read your post but I missed the point where you mentioned that you are refurbishing this for yourself.
Frankly I thing that you have now failed in your endeavor to troubleshoot the problem and replacing the board will only add to the bill and will not teach you anything as all you have done is replace nearly everything...
What if you replace the board and it is still not working? How much money and time would you have put in this at that point? Worth it?
If you argue that it is not about the money, I say buy another refurbish that works and save your time. If you argue it is not about time but to learn and troubleshoot, I will tell you that ones you get to swapping boards there is nothing left to troubleshoot or learn - you might as well swap the whole machine and say "I fixed it".
Hope this helps.

 

[LABFE]

LOL. I'm not refurbishing it for myself. I'm just going to leave it at that.