Hi I have this issue with my laptop, one day stopped working when unplugged and turns off instantly when disconnected from the charger, check the status and it says battery charging in ubuntu but still not getting juice to the battery. When connected to the charger the orange light (charging light) lights up for about four hours then it starts blinking. Replaced the battery, same problem, replaced the charger, problem still there. The power jack felt a little bit loose (not from the motherboard, just the contacts inside it) so I fixed that too but problem still there. Then I checked without battery and the weird part is that the battery it is still detected in the OS and it says charging but of course porcentage does not go up because there is no battery (of course even with battery it does not work). I'm starting to believe that it might be a motherboard problem. I talked to a repair shop and they don't fix it, they replace the motherboard and it's more expensive than the laptop itself. I really like the laptop and would like to keep using it but I need it to work properly. I ran out of ideas about what to do. Any suggestions? Past experiences? Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this!
Are you wondering how to check the health of your laptop battery? Or are you not sure what the signs of a worn-out battery are? Knowing how to take care of your laptop battery will help it last longer.
Your laptop battery is important. You rely on it to keep your computer running, whether you’re working on a presentation or catching up on emails. So it’s important to make sure your battery is healthy and performing at its best.
Firstly – Is Your Battery Working as it should?
1. Observe the battery percentage closely and notice when it drops quickly after a full charge.
2. Look at the laptop’s technical specifications to see if they now match those of your computer’s original specifications before you bought the laptop with its battery pack or those recommended by your laptop manufacturer. If not, then it is time for a new battery pack!
3a) After use, let your laptop run until your laptop automatically turns off due to low battery power. Then remove all external devices connected to the computer (external hard disk drive, USB flash drive, mouse or another pointing device, keyboard, USB wireless mouse, or another pointing device).
3b) Plug in the AC power supply to recharge the battery.
3c) Then turn on your laptop and let it run until your laptop automatically shuts down due to low battery power again.
4a) With no external devices attached, remove all AC power supplies (via the use of a surge protector/UPS device if any are running) and fully charge the battery while turned off.
4b) Turn on your computer without connecting to AC power cords after charging for one hour while turning off.
5 ways to check your laptop’s battery health
Windows PowerCFG Battery Report
Powercfg is a command-line tool that can be run in Windows XP/Vista/7.
To check your laptop’s battery health using the powercfg command, follow these steps:
1) Open Command Prompt with ‘ Run As Administrator ‘. Type powercfg -batteryreport and hit enter.
You can also save it as a text file by changing the ‘Save As Type’ to All Files (*.*), giving it any name you want, and hitting enter after clicking ‘ Save ‘. Then open this saved text file to view all of the battery’s information.
a) Check if the status listed under “State says “Optimal” or not.” is “Optimal” or not.
b) Optimization status means that your laptop’s battery has been given an ideal cycle count and will remain in its top condition until it reaches the maximum threshold. In other words, your battery health is optimal. You can also see this detailed information from within the Battery Report from Step 1c.
c) OPTIMAL: The highest a healthy battery should ever get is 100% full while plugged in before dropping down to ~95%. If it never gets over 100%, there might be a problem with one of your laptop’s components draining voltage when you don’t need it to, such as a software issue.
Note: It might be hard to tell if your battery is in its optimal condition if you never let your laptop run off the battery and always keep it plugged in.
Note: 100% full while plugged in should be considered as a general reference and not an absolute answer because batteries lose charge over time even when they’re not being used. The actual voltage might fluctuate between 95-100%.
d) NORMAL: If your laptop’s battery dropped below 80% after installation, this means that it has been cycled more than 4 times already and will be at risk of losing total capacity until you get your new or existing battery replaced.
e) DECLINING: Your laptop’s battery drops below 60% and keeps dropping whenever you use it (charging/discharging); this is considered as the battery aging indication.
f) BAD: This is NOT NORMAL if your laptop’s battery drops below 50% more than 5 times now; this means that you should replace it soon or look into getting a new one before doing anything else to prolong its life.
BatteryMon
This is the BatteryMon software that will be used for checking your laptop’s battery health. You can download it here (it’s free). The steps are as follows:
1. Download and install BatteryMon on your PC (Windows 7 or above).
2. Once done with the installation, plug-in your laptop into AC power before launching the program. For non-AC power laptops, unplug them first then plug-in to AC power after running this program. Keep in mind that if you’re using a laptop equipped with an external docking station/port replicator, please detach it first whenever necessary – having both plugged in at the same time could cause a short circuit.
3. Once your laptop is plugged in, hit the ‘Refresh’ button to update information from your laptop battery controller chip then hit ‘Test battery’.
4. The test results will be displayed on a new window along with the estimated remaining hours left before it is fully discharged which you can find under the Remaining capacity bar chart and Estimated discharge time chart.
HWMonitor
One of the most precise apps to monitor a laptop’s temperature, voltage, and battery health is HWMonitor. It displays information about the laptop’s hardware components on its main window.
Once you installed the app, run it and wait for its sensors to detect all necessary data like temperature, voltage, and wattage to start checking your battery health condition. Hit the ‘F10’ key or ‘Update Status’ button on top of the app first before hitting ‘Test battery’.
The test results will be displayed at the bottom part of the app window along with temperature charts if it detects any abnormal temperature levels detected by its sensors like Lithium-Ion protection circuit that should not exceed 100°C.
BatteryCare
A comprehensive battery-monitoring app with customizable alarms and detailed information on your laptop.
It also allows you to control the settings of your laptop’s battery.
BatteryBar
This is a simple Windows tray icon that shows:-
i) Current battery capacity as a percentage and as an icon with an indication for charging mode
ii) Remaining estimated time till next recharge based on current power consumption and/or rate of discharge
iii) Estimated time from now till running on fumes with both time remaining and estimated power left.
iv) A charge indicator with color codes for different levels of battery life. Just download it from their site, run the installer then choose a hotkey to run the app. The app will start running then integrate itself into the system tray. Right-click on its icon anytime for more options like calibrating the battery.
v) A power consumption pie chart indicating how much power each of your hardware components is consuming.
vi) A general system health indicator with estimated time left for running on battery power.
vii) The option to enable or disable all notifications, sound alarms, or window pop-ups when the laptop’s Battery Health drops below a certain level.
i) Current battery capacity as a percentage and as an icon with an indication for charging mode: This built-in feature allows you to check the current Battery health by seeing its charge rating in Windows itself. You can right-click on the desktop and select ‘Battery Status’. Here it will show you the current rating of your laptop’s battery and what it implies about your laptop’s battery health.
Our laptop repair experts are just a phone call away if you need to replace your laptop’s battery, so why not give us a call today?
Most laptop batteries are smart and consist of the “chemical battery” that is managed by the “digital battery.” A common protocol is the System Management Bus, better known as SMBus.
The typical SMBus battery has five or more battery connections consisting of positive and negative battery terminals, thermistor, clock and data. The connections are often unmarked; however, the positive and negative are commonly located at the outer edges of the connector and the inner contacts accommodate the clock and data. (The one-wire system combines clock and data.) For safety reasons, a separate thermistor wire is brought to the outside. Figure 1 illustrates a battery with six connections.
The positive and negative terminals are usually placed on the outside; no norm exists on the arrangement of the other contacts.
Some batteries are equipped with a solid-state switch that is normally in the “off” position and no voltage is present at the battery terminals. Connecting the switch terminal to ground or pulling it up often turns the battery on. If this does not work, the pack may need a code for activation. Battery manufacturers keep these proprietary codes a well-guarded secret to which even service personnel have no access.
Use a voltmeter to locate the positive and negative battery terminals and establish the polarity. If no voltage is present, a solid-state switch may be in the “off” position and needs activating. Connect the voltmeter to the outer terminals, take a 100-Ohm resistor (other values may also work), tie one end to ground and with the other end touch each terminal while observing the voltmeter. Repeat by tying the resistor to a positive voltage potential. If there is no response, then it is possible that the battery is dead or locked by a code. The 100-Ohm resistor is low enough to engage a digital circuit and high enough to protect the battery against a possible electrical short.
Establishing the connection to the battery terminals should now enable charging. If the charge current stops after 30 seconds, an activation code may be required. Some battery manufacturers add an end-of-battery-life switch that turns the battery off when reaching a certain age or cycle count. They argue that customer satisfaction and safety can only be guaranteed by regularly replacing the battery. Mind you, such a policy also rotates inventory.
If at all possible, connect the thermistor during charging and discharging to protect the battery against possible overheating. Use an ohmmeter to locate the internal thermistor. The most common thermistors are 10 Kilo Ohm NTC, which reads 10kΩ at 20C (68F). NTC stands for negative temperature coefficient, meaning that the resistance decreases with rising temperature. In comparison, a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) causes the resistance to increase. Warming the battery with your hand is sufficient to detect a small change in resistor value when looking for the correct terminal on the battery.
After repair, the fuel gauge might not work, is inaccurate or provides wrong information. The battery may need some sort of an initialization/calibration process by fully charging and discharging the pack to reset the flags. A “flag” is a measuring point to mark and record an event(See BU-603: How to Calibrate a “Smart” Battery)
The circuits of some smart batteries must be kept “alive” during the replacement of the cells. Disconnecting the voltage for only a fraction of a second can erase vital data in the memory. An analogy is open-heart surgery where doctors must keep all organs of the patient alive. The lost data could contain the resistor value of the digitized shunt that is responsible for the coulomb counter and other data.
To assure continued operation when changing the cells, supply a secondary voltage of same voltage level through a 100-Ohm resistor to the circuit before disconnection. Remove the outside supply only after the circuit receives voltage again from the new cells. Furthermore, some fuel gauge chips run wires to each cell. These must be reassembled in the correct sequence beginning with cell one, then two, three and so forth.
You will also need to be aware of compliance issues. Unlike other regulated standards, the SMBus allows variations and this can cause problems. The repaired SMBus battery should be checked for compatibility with the charger. Batteries for critical uses, such as heathcare, are typically replaced and not repaired. See also www.sbs-forum.org and www.acpi.info.
Simple Guidelines when Repairing Battery Packs
- Only connect cells that are matched in capacity. Do not mix cells of different chemistries.
- Never charge or discharge Li-ion batteries unattended without a working protection circuit. Each cell must be monitored individually with a protection circuit.
- Include a temperature sensor that disrupts the charge current on high heat.
- Apply a slow charge to a repaired pack to bring all cells to parity.
- Pay attention when using an unknown brand. Elevated temperature hints to an anomaly.
- Li-ion is sensitive to reverse polarization. Observe correct polarity.
- Do not charge a Li-ion battery that has physical damage, has bulged or has dwelled at a voltage of less than 1.5V/cell for some time.
- Check a repaired pack for self-discharge. Intrinsic defects often have high self-discharge.
References
[1] Courtesy of Cadex
Batteries In A Portable World
The material on Battery University is based on the indispensable new 4th edition of "Batteries in a Portable World - A Handbook on Rechargeable Batteries for Non-Engineers" which is available for order through Amazon.com.
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