A friend asks for your help with his laptop that doesn't power on without being plugged in but the battery never charges. What would you do?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 08:02:06 -0400

Response by SGT Laura Delgadillo made Jul 22 at 2016 8:09 AM

SGT Laura Delgadillo — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 08:09:12 -0400

GTS (google that shit)

Make sure BIOS is the latest version.

Make sure there is no issue with the connector pins on the battery, such as bent or corroded pins, or other physical issues with the battery.

Make sure there is no corrosion on the battery pins where they connect to the motherboard. If you find corrosion, replace the motherboard.

Try draining battery completely, leave it out of the system for a day, then charge it fully.

You may need to replace the battery anyway, even though it works fine when the system is started from AC power. This laptop is rather old and if you still have the original battery that came with it, it may be starting to go out.

If this happens even with a different, known working battery, the motherboard might need to be replaced.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2016 8:53 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 08:53:57 -0400

Get a new battery.

Response by TSgt Craig Crews made Jul 22 at 2016 9:20 AM

TSgt Craig Crews — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 09:20:12 -0400

Ask a couple of questions first. 1. How old is the LAptop? 2. Is the charger New? 3. If the charger is new does it meet the specifications for that particular Laptop. To begin with.

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2016 9:27 AM

Maj Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 09:27:05 -0400

Check the storage cells of the battery and replace if needed.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2016 10:37 AM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:37:52 -0400

Here's the answer all my Apple fanbois give whenever there's a problem:
"Tell them to buy a Mac"

In seriousness, I use Occam's Razor. The battery never charges. Replace the battery.
If that fails, sell both batteries and the laptop on eBay and get another laptop.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2016 11:07 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:07:45 -0400

Tell him to buy a new computer.

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jul 22 at 2016 11:11 AM

PO1 John Miller — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:11:04 -0400

Unless you have a specialty gaming laptop or something like that, make sure your data and programs are backed up (I prefer external HD's but use cloud storage a little as well), and buy a new or refurbished laptop. Then give your old laptop to me or SGT Private RallyPoint Member so guys like us can refurbish it and sell it, LOL...

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Jul 22 at 2016 12:11 PM

LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:11:31 -0400

try a different battery...

Response by SSG John Erny made Jul 22 at 2016 1:15 PM

SSG John Erny — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:15:03 -0400

Batteries on laptops are notorious for failing, especially when the end user does not run it on battery power often. It is important to run a laptop on its batteries until nearly drained then give it a full charge on a regular basis. This will increase the life of the battery.
Getting a new battery will likely fix the problem; but there is a chance that it is something physically wrong with the connection from the battery to the computer itself. If you happen to have a like batteries test the hardware first to confirm that it is or is not hardware.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2016 4:33 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 16:33:36 -0400

Yup. Like everyone else has said, bad battery. Typical laptop batteries are rated for 1-2 years of use. If you're lucky, find someone with the same battery and try and see if your laptop will charge their battery. If so, 100% a battery failure. If your laptop will not charge it, but theirs will, it's either a motherboard issue or a connector pin problem; either way, not worth the investment versus replacing the entire laptop.

Oh, and before the entire thing takes a nosedive since it's likely several years old and the hard drive is gonna fail soon, tell your buddy to back up or make an image of his data on an external storage drive.

Response by SrA Matthew Knight made Jul 22 at 2016 5:34 PM

SrA Matthew Knight — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 17:34:25 -0400

Try a new battery. If that doesn't work then it would probably need to be brought in to a computer shop of some sort as there's likely a problem with the connection between the charging port and the battery itself. You could fix that on your own with the knowledge but that is one issue I would be too afraid to make worse so I would just bring it to a professional.

On a side note, if it's still within warranty then contact the company that made the computer. My first laptop was a Dell Inspiron that crapped out on me within the first month. Contacted Dell and they sent a box to me to use to send it to them. All shipping and repairs were free of charge and the laptop still works to this day (although it's relegated to being solely my flight simulator computer).