Acer 5740 (from OfficeMax) battery problem

Good afternoon,

Hope you all are doing well. I'm new here, although, I have been lurking for a while.

I purchased the Aspire 5740-5513 from OfficeMax. It has the I3 processor, 320 gb and 4 gb DDR3. Thought I bought a nice machine, at least until today.

The battery will not charge while the notebook is plugged into the wall. The research that I've done is that it appears this model has been offered in Europe and Austailia, I cant find anyone other than OM in the US that offers this model.

Is my battery dead? Is there something else wrong? Is it something that I did?

I've tried to limit the amount of cycles of the battery, I have been reading about that here, by pulling the battery out while plugged in.

Is the power requirements in Austrailia and Europe different thus affecting my battery?

BTW-I've had it for 10 days.

I have contacted Acer and will contact OfficeMax (tomorrow) to see what they can do.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks for your help,
Steve

 

I have enountered this issue before what will happen is Acer is suppose to reset the battery software with one of their specialised tools after that it will work as normal.

 

weinter,

thanks for the quick reply. I went onto Acer's website, there is a bios update there that references "change battery criteria"

There is no description on what that means, I wonder if that is the issue?

I have never flashed a bios before, so, I will probably wait until I get feedback from Acer.

Thanks again,
Steve

 

What I mean is there is no way you can fix it yourself.
I had this issue and had to go to the Acer Service Centre.
There they took my battery and attach it to some special adapter and return it to me 5 min later issue fixed.
I would also recommend a BIOS update since Acer BIOS are pretty buggy the first few release.

 

Can anyone confirm the graphic card's mxm type on 5740g? Is it reachable from backplate?

 

Guys, gotta a question for you then. The laptop was purchased on the 20th of January. OfficeMax will exchange it within 14 days from purchase. Would you exchange it for a new one? Or, would you see what Acer is gonna do?

It was kinda interesting, I noticed when it was brand new that the battery would only charge to 97%. I didnt think much of it as the company thinkpad that I use has a "threshold" that you set for the battery charge. I figured it did this (97%) to save the battery. Maybe I just have a faulty batter?

Thanks again and I appreciate your help,
Steve

 

NM: I have the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD. Hope that helps you out.

BTW- I think Office Depot has a similar machine with BlueRay for 499 this weekend.. Kinda wished I'd waited another week, although I am not complaining as thats what I paid for mine.

 

youre not going to believe this, but, I took the computer back to OM to return/exchange due to the battery not charging status.

We tested my battery on the store model and it immediately began charging. We then put the store's battery on mine and same thing. They couldn't find another computer in the system, so they offered the floor model to me. I was hesitant but realized it still had a full MFG warranty. As we were transferring the battery back to my computer, and gettting it ready to exchange I noticed that the battery had begun charging on my computer.

Its been charging great, at least, until today. The "plugged in, not charging" prompt came up again.

Acer support had emailed me and suggested that close computer down, remove battery, hold power button down for 30 seconds, turn on computer and then reinstall the battery. This has not helped, still the same issues.

Any suggestions why this is so sporadic? Why would the other computer have reset the battery?

Any help would be appreciated.

Steve

 

Steve

I just got the same problem as you have. Brand new 5740G and the battery stopped charging. Thats nice!

I am still in the return period, and i am just gonna return the unit.

Regards
Odd

 

Hey Odd,

Yeah, I would return it if I were you. Stupid OfficeMax couldn't find another one for me and wouldnt give me my $ back without a 15% restocking charge. Yeah right, a 15% restocking charge on a product that was defective.

This issue is strange, I will get the plugged in and not charging notification for a while then all of a sudden it begins to charge. It doesnt matter if I go thru Acer's proceedure or not.

I have a call ticket with Acer right now to send it in, but, it is working fine for now. My luck is that it will work correctly when they get it so they wont even do a thing with it and send it back to me. Then it will screw up at a later date.

I'd be interested in how you get your issue resolved or if you return and get another one.

Good Luck,
Steve

 

Hi.
i i've subscribed just to share my experience.
i've purchased an aspire 5740 (i5 with ati 5470) after reading this thread, as it was the only one i've found reporting an issue.

the first thing i've done after booting up the system has been the bios update; so the very first battery discharge has been made with bios version 1.16.
I've had no problem in recharging the battery; it reaches 100% in less than 2 hours' time.

my guess it the the original bios setting allows the voltage to drop down to such a level that the lithium elements "dies"; that is a problem well known to rc hobbyst.

hope it helps.

 

Dave,

Thanks for the information. Thats an intersting observation and one that I should consider.

I'm an extreme noob and I'm afraid that I don't know how to upgrade my bios. Is this simple?

I would like to do a clean install of Windows 7, but, again my NOOB status precludes me from such an adventure.

I have looked at the sticky as well as a posting in the Acer forum and still think I should wait a while, at least, until I get this problem resolved.

Its funny the way this computer has this peculiar issue, perhaps not a problem!!!! It's so sporadic in its charging status, I just don't know.

Would you kindly tell me how to upgrade my bios?

Thanks for your help,
Steve

 

steve,
i'll help you with pleasure.
i'll try to be as accurate as i can.. as you would surely have noticed english is not my mother tongue.
upgrading the bios is not a hard task; it require less than 10 minutes, but you have to pay attention to what you do.

first thing to do is to determine which bios version in currently installed in your 5740.
when the system is booting, press F2 to access to your bios setting.
you will be prompted with some information about your sistem (date, time, memory and bios version
if version is 1.16 (very unlikely) you're already up to date.
if your bios version is 1.09 (factory default) or 1.10 you will have to upgrade the bios.
go to acer site.
select service&support/driver download
select notebook->aspire->aspire 5740 (5740, 5740g or 5740dg... all have the same bios).
select the bios tab
download bios 1.16
unzip the zip file in a folder of your choice.

now the tricky part
pay attention; making a mistake in this step will require you to send the pc to acer for assistance.
don't be afraid, thought; the only risk is a power breakdown during the update procedure.
to minimize (reduce to almost 0, to be exact) be sure that your battery is full and keep the pc connect to a/c power
browse your hard disk to the folder where you've extracted the bios update.
double click on KBC.BAT (or KBC if your windows setting are preventing you from seeing files extensions).
you have just triggered the bios flash procedure; it will last about a couple of minute.
when finished (you'll be prompted by the program), reboot the system and enter the bios setting again by pressing F2.
system info should now show bios version 1.16; congratulations

about the windows reinstall from scratch...well i strongly suggest you to do so.
acer has the (common) bad habit of installing quite a lot of trialware, most of which quite useless.
keep in mind that, should you make any mistake, you can always revert your system to factory default using the D2D procedure.

 

Dave,

Thanks for taking the time to help me, it is much appreciated. There is no problem whatsoever with your english, in fact, it is much better than many people I know with english as their native language.

I downloaded the bios and there are a lot of files. If I double click the readme note i get "Run "Flash.bat" to flash BIOS in pure DOS or Windows x86/x64 OS environment."

So, Do I double click the the flash icon with the two gears on it? There is a winflash64, DOS, KBC folders as well as files that are BIOS, FLASH, KBC, and the readme.

Flash sounds right according to the readme doc, but, I keep leaning towards the BIOS option for some reason.

Again, thanks for your help and please forgive me for the incessant questions. The fact that if I make a mistake I may mess up the computer is making me hesitant.

Thanks again, we should be good after this, I hope.!!!!!

 

steve, don't mention it.. i'm doing it with pleasure; we all have been noob, once in the life

double clicking on the "flash" file should do the job.
flash first try to excute the flashing operation in dos mode by "calling" the kbc file; if unsuccesfull (and it will, if you run it from within windows) it will call the flash file.
So, for our intents, both the procedures will be fine.

if you're successful a small window should pop up, asking you a confirmation before actually flashing the bios.

let me know

 

Dave,

Thanks again: just for clarification:

Do I use the "bios" file or the DOS file? I assume I double click that file and pray??????


Thanks again and apologies for the redundent questions,
Steve

 

steve,
just click on "flash".

to be sure yesterday i reflashed my bios just to track down the right procedure.

here it is, step by step

- unzip the archive to whatever folder
- browse to the folder
- double click on "flash"
- after a few seconds a "please wait" window should pop up; it will stay on for a while
- after that another windows will appear, showing you a few info and a green progress bar. it took me about a couple of minute to reach 100%
- when completed the system should reboot; you have successfully updated the bios.

 

Dave,

Just wanted to let you know that I successfully upgraded my BIOS.... Thank you so much for walking me through this, it is greatly appreciated. I will be interested to see if it changes or improves the problem that I was having.

That was kinda cool...Kinda scary knowing that if I screwed it up I would be sending to Acer and asking for forgiveness.

Thanks again, Steve

 

no problem, really

ps.
i've run into a strange malfunctioning, yesterday.
i left the pc unattended for about 15 minutes.
when i went back to the keyboard the pc was not in standby (ie the monitor was lit) but battery level was at the same level as before; clearly impossible.
i manually switched to standby and back and... voilà the battery level was updated.
i've no clues about it, but i'm planning a full sistem reinstallation for this weekend, removing all the unwanted stuff from the pc.
if you are interested i can post my progress log.

 

Dave,

Sorry to hear about the quirk you noticed. Hopefully you can get it remedied soon.

I would be very thankful if you would update me on the progress of the unistall and reinstallation process. Good luck with the process.

Steve

 

I performed the BIOS update today and as soon as Windows restarted, My battery meter read: 98% available (Plugged in, not charging)

 

hi matt,
it happens to me, sometimes.
it seems that the battery is not under charge until the meter drops to 96-97%.

try unplug the ac adapter for some minutes, then plug it back; battery should charge to full capacity.


btw... i reinstalled the pc from the scratch.
boot it is much faster now