Battery charges only when the laptop is off
I have a Toshiba Satellite A70 laptop. Picked it up on eBay without an AC adapter. I tried several adapters rated 19v as required but shy on the required amperage. I was using a 450watt one. I noticed it would charge the battery OK when the laptop was off but once in windows it would not charge the battery. I read some threads above that pointed to anything from a bad motherboard, voltage regulator power supply or battery problem. Long story short, I bought the proper AC adapter for it, 19v 6.3amps and voila, problem fixed. It now charges in Windows. So if anyone has the same problem, that is how you fix it. Spend the money and get the right adapter for your laptop. Hope this helps someone.
This is very important to choose the right AC adapter for your laptop. The output voltage MUST be exactly the same. If your laptop requires 18.5V you must use 18.5V adapter. The amperage should be the same or higher. If the laptop requires 4.74A adapter, you’ll have to find an adapter witch provides 4.74A or MORE.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
HEy i have a similar problem. I have Toshiba P30 RV200E to be exact. its been working fine except latly its been switiching to battery power even when im plugged in to the AC adapter. if i shut down, remove the battery and restart. it will run of the AC power. if i then put the battery back in it will charge for a bit and then run off the battery again. what can i do abt this?
April 17th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Have a question, have a A70 Satellite that i thought needed a new battery. After buying a used and then a new battery still have same problem. Unit will not charge the battery fully. the battery lite charge idicator will come on constant yellow and in the morning after a 8 hour charge it will be flashing yellow and will only last 5 minutes on a charge. Occasionally the bsateery charge indicator will be constant green after an evening charge but battery will only last 1/2 to one hour. any ideas? have cleaned case contacts and brand new battery stll no luck….
May 15th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I have a ASpire 3620. When the AC adaptor is plugged in the laptop wont shut down properly. It powers down as normal then restarts, or if the screen is closed i can see the power light come on and the cooling fan cycles on and off periodically. Cant shut it down unless i hold the power button down for a few seconds. If its shut down and i plug the cord in, it starts up on its own. Help!.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I have a toshiba A75. I have the same issue as Anwar. It runs off the battery just fine, but it doesn’t switch to ac power when you plug it into the wall. If you pull the battery out and plug it into the wall it runs great off the ac power adapter. If you put the battery back in, it will immediately switch to battery power. If you turn the laptop off it will charge the battery back to full. I replaced the power adapter with the exact one required and the battery to no avail. I tore the laptop down and looked at the power jack and it looks good and tight and I saw no breaks in the contacts and the solders looked great,…but then it also runs great with no battery, off of ac power and never dies. Any ideas, I am stumped.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:38 am
David Wilkerson,
That sounds like a problem with the motherboard. Apparently there is something wrong with the battery charging circuit on the motherboard. I’m afraid that you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
July 14th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I have the same problems with a P30 JC100E. It would only charge when shutdown then only run on battery. I think it might be problems with the power managment system. I have found that if I boot up in safe mode then shut down and boot to windows normally it will charge up to 100% while running on AC power.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
After spending my money in so called tech guys, for a blue screen (well i was swamped) after one week that i paid lots of money in my country, died again and the guy said it was the HDD. Well surprise, after a month, i decided to work myself in the laptop and install everything like brand new:Voila! I have been using without any problems but now I noticed the problem , the battery charging.And it is the adapter (not the plug) because when i move only the rectagular thing starts going off and on (from using outlet to battery).
Ok what is my problem? I need an adaptor but I can’t find in here , in the country,the exact same adaptor (family p-17 50 W)
hoewer I find one with everything else but 60W. Do someone think that I could use that even if I have to fill my laptop off?
August 30th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I have a toshiba satelite M45, It has a similar problem.
It started like most of you said, it would run on battery power even while plugged in for maybe 5-10mins then switch to charging/ac. Now a few months later it runs only on battery power whether it is plugged in or not. When the computer is on standby, or off it will charge the battery. The moment I turn it on it will only run on battery power. If I take the battery out, the green light for ac power will be on, but I cannot turn on the computer.
I wonder if this problem has a simple solution, this computer is going on three years old, and I might just have to buy a new one anyway.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I have a hp pavilion zd7000 laptop and the jack plug was broke so i replaced wit new replacement jack and now it doesnt charge whilst laptop is running.
Also screen goes green and fuzzy!
Any ideas???
October 12th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
i have a gateway M-6750. Original power adapter (19v,3.5A) broke probably due to cable strain (i have not tried fixing it yet). Bought a generic power adapter, with different voltages and 3.5 A. Switched it to 19v. It would work for a week, then it only charges properly when computer is turned off. If it is on it would charge for a couple of seconds, then run on battery power, and then again charge,and the same story goes on. If i try running on AC power it would suddenly turn off at any moment. Any suggestions?
November 13th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I have a similar problem with a Gateway MX-6437. Battery charges when laptop is off. When I turn the laptop on, it switches back and forth between charging and remaining on battery power. Doesn’t actually charge that much. At the same time, when the laptop is on, the charger gets very hot and even throws the GFCI circuit breakers in the outlets in my home. Only an outlet with a higher capacity circuit will remain on. I have already had the power jack replaced. Also, interestingly, the touch pad is completely useless when on AC power. When on battery it works fine.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:35 pm
hey my friend has some sort of gateway laptop.. i guess it has been physically broken but still manages to work.. I guess the problem has somthing to do with the AC adapter. The computer only charges when it’s off, when turned on and still plugged in the screen flashes and the battery icon appears/disappears with some wiggling. to me it sounds like some loose wire or somthing is possibly wrong with the AC adapter. I’m going over his house on sunday and would like to know what im looking for before i go there and possibly kill it. So any suggestions or comments please reply via email
thanks , Tim
May 9th, 2009 at 6:08 am
I have an IBM R 40
Usually when I plug in the charger it makes one little
Beep
But today
it keeps beeping and the monitor blinks.
Tried rotating the plug so the long prong went into the wide outlet slot
and vis versa…
Got any ideas?
I double clicked on the battery icon
to see if we’d get any diagnostics
when I plugged it back in
But no diagnostics,
just plenty of beeps and blinking monitor.
when the lap top is off and charger plugged in the battery lite is orange and blinking…
Does this mean I have a
Fried charger?
when the lap top is off and charger plugged in the battery lite is orange and blinking…
May 9th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Mike Condon,
If the laptop makes a lot of beeps on startup, usually it indicates a problem with the keyboard. Most likely you have a stuck key and the laptop “thinks” you are pressing the key.
You can find out if your problem is related to the keyboard using the following method.
1. Remove and unplug the internal keyboard. You’ll find instructions in the service manual.
2. Plug in an external keyboard and start the laptop.
3. Test the laptop.
If the laptop works fine with an external keyboard when the internal keyboard is unplugged, most likely there is a problem with an internal keyboard and it has to be replaced.
Isn’t it normal? Maybe it’s charging the battery?
May 12th, 2009 at 10:23 am
when I plug in the charger.
You answered as if I had said upon start up.
The multiple be-beeps came after I plugged in the charger.
I ordered a new charger a couple days ago should get here Wednesday.
I’m hoping it is the charger and I don’t have to go in and check connections.
Thanks
March 25th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I have a Toshiba P30 Satellite that i thought needed a new battery. After buying a used and then a new battery still have same problem. Unit will not charge the battery fully. the battery lite charge idicator will come on constant orange and in the morning after a 24 hour charge it will still be orange and will shit down immediately on removal of mains power. any ideas? have cleaned case contacts and brand new battery stll no luck….
May 30th, 2010 at 11:20 am
My HP Compaq will only charge when switched off. I have tried removing the battery and switching the computer on so it works through the AC Adapter and it works, is this safe?
July 26th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hi I have Toshiba Tecra A-8 Series laptop.Recently i brought a new battery & charger.As my previous charger died because of short & battery never used to charge.So i replaced them.
What happens now is.When i put power cord and use laptop initially,everything works fine.But when i take power cord off from the laptop & plug it again the laptop completely stops immediately and orange light blinks.I am not sure whether it is battery,charger or motherboard problem.Appreciate if any one can help.Please anyone help.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:31 am
i have one dell vostro 1510 laptop where iget some problem.The problem is that when i connect the charger, the laptop will be shut down. and also the charger has no problem cause when i connect the charger another laptop, the laptop will working properly.another problem is that when i reconnect the battery, then the laptop working properly.
September 20th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
my l305-s5875 work well on a full charge battery but when u plug the power cord it the laptop rebot itself then some time freezes
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
is it fine to off the battery charger when the battery haven’t fully charged
September 29th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
candy,
There shouldn’t be any problem.
October 30th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I HAVE 2 DELL C610′S. BOTH WILL NOT POWER ON WITH AC ADAPTER ATTACHED, HDD & RAM. I TRIED THE 30 SEC TEST W/O AC & ATTACH AC AND POWER BUT, DI NOT WORK.
ONE OF THE 610′S WHEN AC ATT’D WILL SHOW BATTERY CHARGING-MEANING POWER IS GOING THRU MB BUT, WILL NOT POWER ON. THESE LT’S DID POWER UP A MONTH AGO.
ANY SUGGESTIONS.
THANX
March 31st, 2011 at 8:36 pm
I have the opposite problem on my IBM T42 my battery only charges when the computer is turned ON.
When shut off or in hibernation the battery does not charge it used to and the charging light used to come on when off now it doesn’t.
It’s got me stumped any ideas on this twist?
July 6th, 2011 at 11:01 am
I have an identical problem with 2 Dell D510 laptops. Neither will detect when an a/c adapter is installed (so will not charge the battery or run the laptop) UNLESS I plug an external monitor into the laptop. As soon as I plug it in, the laptop works fine and the battery charges properly. As soon as I unplug the monitor, the adapter is no longer detected or functional. Both laptops work fine on a charged battery. Same results with multiple adapters. Any ideas?
October 11th, 2011 at 1:22 am
hi! i have fujitsu amilo li 3710. the problem is only with the LED charge indicator (AC plugged in).. the indicator functions only when windows is loading or running.. if i plug it into AC while laptop is off the charge indicator shows charging although the charger stops charging the batteries. i solved this problem once by updating one driver but i don’t remember which.. it stil appeared after i formatted my laptop. can you pls help me what can it be related with?
December 9th, 2011 at 10:00 am
hi i have toshiba satellite a70 at first i tried with a charger that dint have the right amps to it but i recently bought the exact right charger for it and its still doing the same thing it will charge the battery when its off but when i power up into windows it wont charge at the same time could it just b that battery is too old or is it the main circuit for the battery any help would be nice thx in advance
Mike