Plugged in and not charging?

Anyone seen this before? Dell XPS 15. A/C adapter has power. it's plugged in, and yet the battery is draining. when hovering over the battery icon, it says it's not charging. Ummmm.

I've owned laptops for years and never seen this unless the adapter was bad.

Edit: I should add the battery was showing at 51% charged. After coming out of hibernation.


I just realized this happened once before. The battery gauge after coming out of hibernation read half charged. but when checking the battery gauge on the battery itself, it was fully charged. Perhaps it's just a software issue with windows 7 as it doesn't happen every time.

 

Did you accidentally turn on that setting in the Dell Battery Meter "Do not charge battery until restart" or something like that?

 

Nope. I'll have to test more to be sure but I think it only happens when coming out of hibernation. After a restart the gauge is showing 100% charged and just before the restart it was showing 51% for some reason.

 

Yea I've always hated hibernation cause weird stuff always seems to happen when I use it. Haven't tried hibernation with my XPS yet though.

 

I've never seen it happen before, but then I've never personally owned a Dell before. It appears to be just a software glitch of some sort though. I was just like "what the heck did I do to damage the A/C adapter already?" heh heh heh.

 

This same problem was a constant on my XPS m1530 (had 2 or 3 motherboard replacements, 2 heatsink replacements, 5 or 6 AC adapter replacements, even bought a new battery - nothing really FIXED it)... just got a brand new xps 15 and hope it's not a problem... I'd call dell and have them help you, since you're clearly still under warranty.

 

I know there is a charging option in the BIOS, dunno if that could have gotten toggled.

 

3 possible causes that I can think of:

1, Power Adapter is busted (most likely, I had the same problem)
2, Motherboard is busted
3, Battery is busted (not very likely, but possible)

Well, let's hope the power adapter is busted and not the motherboard

 

I had this problem at one stage. Based on your descriptions, I suspect you might be having the same issue.

Here's what I did to fix the problem on my end:
1. Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)
2. Expand the "Batteries" section
3. Right-click "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery" and select "Uninstall".
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT uninstall the Microsoft AC Adapter driver or any other ACPI compliant drivers you may see listed.
4. Select Action > Scan for hardware changes from the menu bar. Windows will proceed to install the necessary drivers, and the charge indicator should report that the battery is charging as normal.

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Disclaimer:
This information is provided "as is". I hereby disclaim any liability resulting from losses either directly or indirectly incurred as a result of following these instructions.