While using AC adapter alone or battery alone, laptop works. While using them together, I am getting a problem.
I’ve been longing for an answer for my Compaq NX9020 laptop’s battery problem.
Basically, last battery did not work so I bought a new one from HP store. I got it yesterday. It seemed fine. However, from this morning, problems came: while using AC adapter alone or battery alone, laptop works. However while using them together, laptop LED lights blinks and the power meter for battery drops down immediately to 0% critical level, whereas the battery LED indicator says it’s full. I tried to unplug the AC adaptor while it went down to 0%, then the power meter for the battery came back to normal 85%.
I think there could be a few different reasons why it happens:
1. It might be an issue with the BIOS. Make sure the laptop has the latest version of BIOS installed, update it if needed.
2. It might be a software related issue. If you have some kind of Compaq power management utility installed try uninstalling it and use Windows power management utility instead. Also I would try reinstalling the operating system if upgrading the BIOS or removing the power management utility does not help.
3. If you still experience the same problem even after upgrading the BIOS and reinstalling Windows, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard. Apparently the charging circuit is not working properly. I assume it’s not a problem with the battery because you just purchased a new one. You’ll have to replace the motherboard in this case.
February 26th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Just to update on what’s happening here. I’ve phoned HP support centre in UK. Described the symtoms and their reply was the charger connector on the MB was faulty and they suggest me to change MB for about £387. I thought it’s not really worth paying that amount.
ps, Laptop Freak, I’ve tried to update BIOS and checked that it is not using HP’s power utilities. The only thing I haven’t done is to reinstall the OS. Do you still think that I might need to do that? Your comments would be very much appreciated. Thanks
Toto
February 27th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Toto,
I think it could be a power jack related problem but from my experience this problem has different symptoms.
Here is what you usually see when there is a problem with the power jack located on the motherboard.
1. The laptop switches between battery and AC power when you jiggle the power plug on the back of the laptop. The power icon in the lower right corner of the desktop switches from AC to battery, but the battery shows some charge left (if you have a good battery of course). The battery charge doesn’t go to 0% right away, it discharges normally.
2. The battery charges fine when the laptop is off but when you turn it on the battery stops charging.
3. When the battery stops charging you can unplug and plug the power adapter and it “fixes” the problem for a while. The battery charges for a while but later it stops charging again.
It’s from my experience with Toshiba laptops and HP laptops might fail differently, not sure 100%.
You mentioned that the power meter for battery drops down immediately to 0% so I’m not really sure if the problem is related to the power jack. Try reinstalling the operating system, it will not hurt.
July 10th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I have a TOSHIBA SATELLITE 1415-S173. For some reason, if I shut it down, and leave it unplugged, when I come back to it a few hours later, it starts charging the battery a few hours later. Even if the battery was completely charged prior to putting it away.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
My Dell C640 will not charge the main battery, although Windows “power meter” says it is charging. Same behavior in either modular bay, and with different batteries. The battery will charge fine in another Latitude, but not in my C640, whether running or shut down.
I suspect some part of the charging hardware on the motherboard has gone bad. Can this be repaired, or should I look for a replacemnt motherboard? If I replace the motherboard can I look for one with more video memory?
Thanks!
July 12th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Clint,
I think you’ll have to replace the motherboard. I doubt that you can charge the battery charging circuit at home.
Not sure about installing a new motherboard with more video memory. I think it’s possible but I’ve never done it myself.
You can try this. Find a new motherboard witch has more video memory on here. Then contact the seller and ask him if the motherboard is compatible with your CPU. In most cases, sellers are experienced technicians and they can tell you if this upgrade is possible.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Jarrod,
It could be a bad battery. This laptop is pretty old and the battery is old too. Does the laptop work properly when it runs on the battery power? How much time it takes to discharge the battery from 100% to 0%? The battery still keeps charge for a long time or it discharges quickly?
July 13th, 2007 at 5:30 am
The battery is dead. It only holds a charge when in use for about 20 min, depending on what I have running. I guess I wasn’t expecting the battery to discharge if it was powered off.
August 9th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Hi i have an Acer Travelmate 290 that wont work when the battery is installed. The problem started when the laptop was plugged in to a laptop car charger with correct voltage etc ajusted. The laptop would not boot and now it will only work if the battery is not installed. any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Geoff
November 11th, 2007 at 6:07 am
Hi, I have a gateway computer MX6426 Notebook. I am having a couple of problems. I recently upgraded to windows Vista and now for some reason when I shutdown my pc when the power cord is in it will shut down but it will not power down. The Power LED light stays on and sometimes I can still hear the fan running. I am 100% that I am clicking shut down and not hibernate. It does this same thing when I click restart it will not restart. My wireless LED lights stays on as well and I know it doesn’t shut completely down because i can hold the function key and turn the wireless on and off. After about 5 minutes I manually shut down the power by holding the button. This happens sometimes when the power cord is not plugged in. (FYI-The power cord seems like it still charges the battery when it’s plugged in.)Any Ideas?
Second last night when i logged off and manually shut down the battery was fully charged. I did not leave the power cord in to charge it because I knew that it would still have power in the morning. Well this morning, the battery was 100% dead. So much for me knowing something. Anyway, I am thinking this could be a battery problem, however I am thinking it could be related to the upgrade because this was not happening prior to the upgrade.
I checked gateway.com for all the latest updates for the BIOS and I flashed my BIOS with the latest version. I checked and it is using that version now. Are the BIOS drivers the only drivers that would affect the battery? Or is there some other driver that I need in order to make the battery work correctly or the power button to go off and actually power down the PC. I am at a lost hear. This laptop is fairly new(about a year old) Thanks in adavance for your help.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I have a Compaq EVO N610C laptop.
When i power off the computer and then turn it back on.
Once the unit powers on the date ant time default back to 1980.
do you know what the problem can be
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Hi, I have this problem of blinking battery orange light whenever i plugged in the battery.. once i plug out the AC plug, it shuts down within seconds.. and when i have the AC plugged in, it say charging but it keeps at 0%.. when i tried to boot with only battery it boots up for awhile roughly before entering window vista and shuts off as well.. yet when i tried putting it at another laptop of the same brand, its indicated that it has 100% power… may i noe what happen? Thanks
By the way.
I am using a Acer Aspire5052AWXMi.. Thanks
November 4th, 2008 at 5:46 am
hello,
i m also facing problem with laptop hp nx6110.that perfect works on ac adapter but not work on battery.i know it is moherboard problem cause i tested everything.can anyone help me about this?serious reply needed on my email sait7@hotmail.com thanks in advance.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
the laptop of my wife (Acer Aspire 5050-3205) has presenting this problem: if the battery is fully charged, the laptop turns off during Windows XP login screen (sometimes at boot-up process), but in the Linux system works properly. With AC adapter and without battery, the laptop works properly in both systems.
I checked the integrity of the memory, hard disk, ac adapter…. both works fine. So, I formatted the hard drive to install a new copy of XP, but the problems persists. What be happening?
Thanks in advance,
October 1st, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Hi,
I have an HP G50 190NR laptop. I bought a new battery and within 2 weeks, it just stopped charging. The weird thing is, when the battery is installed, it shows that it’s charging but it’s stuck on 66%.
When I unplug the adapter, the computer shuts off so it will only run on AC adapter power. Now, I”m finding, that sometimes, it’ll charge 1-3 % more, meaning, instead of 66% charge, it’ll show 67% or 68%.
Any ideas what this might be?
November 27th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I have a toshiba Satellite A215-S4747
1) 2 weeks ago I swtiched my battery because my old battery would not carry a charge
2) Yesterday the battery light and power on button, were blinking rapidly at me, then started to turn itself off. Upon turning it back on, it would shut itself off again.
3) Thinking it might be the new battery, I switched out the batteries and put the old one in and it worked fine.
4) However, today, the same exact problem is happening with both batteries.
Any suggestions?
January 18th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
I think the battery is dead. And the laptop is old.Buy a new one is a simple method!
February 1st, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Dell Inspiron 8200… Am using it 99% of timke at home on my desk top. Should I remove & store battery? I don’t want to overcharge it.- Thanks , Pete
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:10 am
I have a problem where while my laptop is using battery alone it works great with no problems but as soon as I plug in the ac adapter after a couple minutes any internet pages will stop loading any program I’m working with will freeze up which will cause every other program on my computer to stop working and if I try to right click on anything the whole computer will freeze and it won’t even shut down properly. I have tried using a different ac adapter but this problem is still occurring.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
June 15th, 2010 at 8:09 am
Hi,
My Gateway FX runs only on battery charge. Around five minutes after the AC adapter is plugged in, the computer shuts down. I have tried running the computer with only AC and the battery removed but it still shuts down. Please Help, thank you.