Acer battery problem

Hi everyone,


I am new to the forum and am a little bit uncertain if this is the correct place to post this so please excuse me if I got it all wrong.

I have actually copied someone else's post below which is exactly what I'm going through. I would appreciate any help as I desperately need to use my laptop.

Many Thanks...

"I have an Acer Aspire 5672Wlmi and recently my battery went completely dead. I went to the Acer website to find out that they are out of stock which meant that I am out of luck. A quick search on amazon gave me some promising results and a few days ago I bought a battery that is an equivalent of the one I need.

If I try to boot the computer using the battery I get an error saying that I have the wrong battery and I should insert the correct battery and press any key. This message is shown immediately after the Acer logo flashes momentarily during the POST so I guess this restriction comes from Acer's BIOS. Right now it seems my chances of having the right battery are as high as being able to find a key that says "any" o my keyboard.

However I know that the battery is fine because it runs fine if I insert it once the latop has booted. Even if I remove the power plug after that it runs just fine. Also the fact that I am able to read the message when the latop is running only on battery is sufficient to convince me that my battery is fine and my BIOS is wrong.

My questions is, what should I do to fix this problem? I have already contacted the seller but I thought you guys might know more about how to fix this. I guess it would involve flashing the bios which is fine with me.

If it matters for the BIOS version, the laptop was bought in the UK."

 

Calling Hoggie or Big O

 

Hi TeeJay,

Thanks for your advice but could you be a little bit more specific? I don't know what "Calling Hoggie or Big O" means.

 

Hoggie and BigO are knowledgeable members of the ACER section but they don't come so often as they used to.

Anyway a couple of questions:

Is the battery genuine Acer battery?

Did you actually try to flash your BIOS to a new version? The latest version for your laptop appears to be this one.

Caution: flashing the BIOS is risky as if something goes wrong and the process get interrupted you may end up with a dead laptop. Make sure your system is stable and you turn off all the programs that you may be running in the background and I mean ALL of them.

 

Hi ATG,

Thanks for the reply. I think the battery is not genuine, I bought it from the Amazon.com (it says that its a replacement notebook battery TravelMate 2300 Series).

I haven't tried to flash the BIOS to a new version as I don't know how to do it and I don't want to take your time if it's something complicated.

Thanks again..

 

Well unfortunately I don't have this model and BIOS updates are different for each model. The way the BIOS is flashed is also different. I downloaded the BIOS for your laptop and it seems that you need to install Winflash first(BIOS flash software) and then use the software to "load" the BIOS and flash it.
As I can't be sure I suggest you wait for someone with 5672 to jump in and explain the process in details. Also, if you feel insecure I'd suggest you ask someone more knowledgeable to do the flash for you.

 

The aftermarket non acer batteries can be very dangerous. With all of the reports of exploding lithium ion batteries recently I would be very cautious not to use just any aftermarket battery. What if the cells in that after market battery are the ones that were recalled for risk of exploding.

I remember a thread from last year when a user stated that an aftermarket battery that was bought to replace the OEM acer battery would only charge to 50% and died after 2 weeks(stopped charging). Honestly if I were in this situation I would wait till acer gets the OEM battery for the 5672 or other compatible model (some acer series actually use the same battery) back in stock.

The main reason I think that the 5672 is complaining about the battery is that the after market battery does not support acer's quick charge technology which the aspire 5672 uses to quickly charge the battery. Some acer laptop internals, especially the models that have acer's quick charge technology require batteries that can handle the rate of charging. The battery may work if you put it in once past the BIOS check but remember the charging circuitry is pushing the power to the battery and if it can't handle it you could actually be risking a "battery incident".

 

Many thanks for your advice. I think you're right, it's probably not worth taking the risk which may cause irrepairable damage to the unit and even personal injury.

 

Thats a lie ...

ACER does not make batteries .

ACER buys batteries from China ... Lithium batteries are well protected by internal circuitry .

This circuitry identifies it self , in a software level .... some ACER running software , dislikes the ID of the battery , and thats all about it .

The same story happened on other Laptop brands , and by stopping the software nager , the laptop kept working normally .

The laptop handles the battery in a hardware level , and if battery charges and discharges normally , then its ok to use .

There is no danger about exploding batteries , all batteries are now protected.

The only risk by getting a battery , is the question .. how fresh is it .

All sellers offer a minimum warranty about a year , when its known , that common battery life , is no more than three years from the production .


Its silly to threatening people about exploding batteries ... Just because they are not marked as ACER .

I replaced the DVD drive on my ACER and got 30 seconds delay , because the ACER boot loader did not like it ...

All the mysteries in this world comes from company s , that try hard to keep control over the choices of the user .



.

 

* I never said that acer makes batteries most manufacturers (sony excluded) don't make there own batteries but the difference between an acer OEM battery and an after market battery is quality control. Alot of these after market batteries often come from questionable companies who source the cells from who knows where.

Ask yourself this question for the last few years with all of these battery recalls (which acer notebooks also suffered from) did you ever see any of the after market companies recalling any of the batteries that would have been sold on say ebay or amazon cheaply? The only people that recalled batteries were the manufacturers because they had a responsibility to their customers.

* You said "now all batteries are protected" always remember contaminants inside the cells can defeat these safety devices. This statement is true for OEM batteries but can you say so for a cheap after market batteries that a company claims can work on several dell, hp and acer notebooks. Any lithium ion battery can overheat and melt from cell phone batteries to digital camera batteries; if the cells are faulty then they could cause a short circuit which will lead to the battery overheating. With the battery recalls from the manufacturers within the last few years the reason why those batteries were recalled is because the cells in some of them were proven to be faulty (microscopic metal contaminants in the cells) and could pose a risk to the customer.

* I wasn't threatening anyone about exploding batteries just because they are non acer batteries. It was more like a reminder that the aftermarket batteries don't have the same quality control as manufacturer batteries and therefore since you don't know the origin then you are taking a chance using them. A friend of mine purchased an extra lithium-ion battery(after market non nokia battery) for his cell phone last year and 1 week later while charging his phone the battery started to smoke good thing he was within sight of the phone and was able to unplug it in time. After that experience he went out and bought the OEM nokia battery for his phone the risk just wasn't worth it the phone was worth alot more money than a battery.

As for your dvd drive well I replaced my dvd drive on my previous aspire 5102 and had no problems with the bios or bootloader it worked perfectly. I say this to say that a dvd drive is not a good example to use of using non acer factory parts there is no serious danger to you using a dvd drive from another manufacturer, it either works well or it doesn't but when it comes to batteries it is a whole different game.

 

Nasty post Kiria. Lets be nice here.

Cheers

 

1) There was one recall at 2003-4 .... those batteries right now had become dust and water because of age ... ( those packs are all dead now)

2) There about 8-10 factories that build Cells , and in all the white papers , from any maker , they all still refer to safety guidelines ..

This does not make batteries , as the major source of Evil.

You must study more , the technology of batteries .

I just got from eBAY my second pack of batteries , the Chinese seller offers 1 year warranty ...
I asked him .... because he was saying "Japanese cells inside " .. what cells his batteries have ..... he honestly replied LG from Taiwan .

Thats a honest reply ...

He will get feedback in one year from now .
Thats how it works .

Every buyer could be easily become a victim , of a bad seller , we have laws in such case .

Finally there is even rules , of how to use batteries ,
does any one read them ?

I have recently waste lots of hours and days , looking and finding info about battery makers ...

Sony does their own
Sanyo too
Panasonic too
LG too

Samsung has a Chinese maker ( ICR )
Toshiba too

And they are , and three Chinese brands , that promote their own name .
( Capacity are less than described , still promotes them for other uses as torches and games )

Plus (ICR) brand , has factory even in China and Canada ,
my first no-name pack had their cells , and stopped working in 7 months.
( Yes another eBAY seller who offered 3 months warranty ).


Thats the worldwide market ... thats what we have .


I had even get to find the true cost of batteries ,
The true fresh ones 2008 2009 , cost as 12 $ its .

The 2007 - 2008 cost half .

The 2006 - 2007 cost half of the above .

My pack holds 8 Cells ... i did an estimate and found ... that one truly fresh battery pack will cost to Europe as 120 EU .

The point is .... were to really find one .
If ACER or any company was totally honest , their batteries should have date of production , on a visible spot , and the label to was made with a thermal way on the plastic , and not as a paper sticker .

They do not offer , even a paper sticker ..... conclusion .... about batteries and trust .... it will always be a lotto about getting true fresh packs .

In such messages that promotes panic ... nastiness has less value that the value of truth.

 

TJ is right though, you can tell the truth without nastiness.

Please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks - respect each other opinion. If you don't have something to say - related to the OP questions - then don't post.

 

ATG if you will permit me I have one last thing to point out in this discussion... Note I am not carrying out any personal attacks on anyone (or calling anyone names) I am simply carrying out a calm post in a thread.

Actually you missed the major recall of dell, hp, toshiba ,sony etc battery packs from 2006 as well as the smaller recall that happened as recently as last October (2008). See here and here as well.

It is not that there is anything "wrong" with batteries built in China...but, where/who you buy them from does make a difference. There are high-quality, top-flight batteries manufactured in china...and absolute junk as well which can be down right dangerous! For all you know those LG cells could have been a reject from the OEM line that the seller buys cheaply and sells to customers think about it.

Anyway in all of this all I have been trying to point out to the OP is the fact that you can trust the OEMs they know their notebooks (they test the batteries to make sure they comply i.e no corner cutting to save a $) and where their batteries are sourced and made therefore if there is a problem with the manufacturing processes (as no man made process is absolutely perfect 100% of the time) they can let the public know and recall the battery packs and replace them free of cost. The same thing cannot be said for other after market sellers. I am not trying to portray lithium-ion batteries as being some "major source of evil" but as I said in my previous post with all of the recalls recently I would be very cautious who I buy replacement batteries from.

If you have found a seller on ebay who you truly trust and are comfortable that their products work with and are compatible with acer notebooks then point the OP to that person so they can purchase from them its as simple as that there was no need to be so nasty just because we have a difference of opinion.

In conclusion I just want to say that for some reason some people who post in these acer forums can be very hostile sometimes; whenever I use to post regularly on here there was often alot of very angry and sometime nasty postings made; I think hoggie and teejay know what I am speaking about.
Anyway on that note I am finished with this thread...

 

If you manage to get second class mergentize for LG .. give me a call .