Battery not charging

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but it was the only place on here I could find that dealt with laptop hardware.

My aunt had her laptop (Acer Aspire 5570z) plugged in and turned on overnight. When she woke up, her laptop was off. This was at least a month ago. The laptop is not set to hibernate or anything when the battery gets low, so it would have run the battery dry most likely, unless there is a battery-saving hardware feature to cut power when the battery is too close to dying.

The problem was the power board (the piece where you plug the AC adapter into). The power board on this laptop is not a part of the motherboard. It is a separate board. I replaced the power board last weekend, and my uncle unplugged the laptop for about 30 seconds to switch power outlets, and the laptop ran off the battery for those 30 seconds just fine.

Now, he's telling me that the battery doesn't work at all. It's not charging and is stuck at 0%. That tells me that the battery is detected. If he unplugs the AC adapter, the laptop instantly shuts off. It does not run on battery for even 1 second now. I had him run BatteryMon on the laptop, and the things I had him check (design capacity, full charge capacity, current capacity, voltage, and charge rate) all say 0.

Since the battery was working for at least 30 seconds on the same power board that it is now not working at all on, I am thinking either something came loose or the power board is bad.

I'm going to take apart the laptop again next weekend and see if something obvious is out of place. Anyone have any other ideas for what could be the problem? Could the battery have died after working for those 30 seconds because of the long time that it was close to a true 0% charge.

 

Yes, but it's unlikely that that was the cause. Still, I remember reading batteries being pushed to close to their limit and not being able to charge again. But not sure if that was lithium battery? Nevertheless, I'd look for a simpler solution before taking things apart again. 1) Will the battery charged in a similar laptop? 2) Do you have a second battery? (I always recommend a second/back-up battery for instances just like this.)

In any event, finding the problem would be significantly easier if you start with the big things first. On the other hand, the battery could just be kaput. How old is it?

 

What happens if you remove the battery while on AC power? Does the computer detect a missing battery?

Before dismantling the machine, try removing the battery and cleaning the contacts on it. Then replace it try again.

 

I am not going to have access to the laptop before the weekend, so I'll check if they have another similar laptop or battery then. I'll also see if Windows detects a missing battery when I take it out on AC. I do think Windows recognizes the battery exists, though, because my uncle said it is stuck at 0% in the taskbar.

 

Two things come to mind. The battery may just simply not be reporting back even though there is a charge. However, continuing to charge a battery after its reached its rated capacity typically leads to much cursing and physical pain (whether from punching the computer or a dangerously volatile chemical reaction in the battery)

The second is that the safety triggered inside the battery from being stored at 0% for too long. It shouldn't have worked at all for those 30 seconds though, so I don't think it's all that likely. It may have died in that one week span though. In that case, try a new battery. Trying to revive the old one can cause the same consequences as above.

 

Some more information:

The laptop is running Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3.

They do not own a second battery.

I can possibly repair the broken power board, depending on if my uncle can find his soldering iron. If it works with the old board fixed, it would obviously be the new power board that doesn't work.

When you look in the bottom-right where the background programs have their little icons, there is the picture of just the AC adapter. There is no battery in the background. Unless I have forgotten what XP is supposed to look like since I haven't used it in years on a laptop, it is supposed to have a battery picture in the background of the AC adapter.

If I double-click the picture of the AC adapter, a dialog box opens. I have attached a picture of this dialog box and the other dialog box that shows up when you click the battery. I have whited-out the Unique ID for security reasons (I don't know if it matters, but just on the safe side).

I have tried another power cable (the iGo). I know that it works because I was able to use my laptop with the cable. I also currently have the Acer running off of it. So the power cable is definitely not the problem.

With both power cables, if I suddenly unplug the cable, the laptop shuts down. It does not run on battery for even 1 second.

I have blown air on the battery connector and the connector on the motherboard. It still does not charge the battery.

 

I believe that woofer00 guessed it first: the battery stayed at 0% charged for too long and is effectively dead. The 30 seconds it 'lived' for was simply a glitch (maybe that is what effectively killed it actually...).

Either take the battery to a Battery World type of place where they can safely test/try to recharge it while bypassing the safety circuits or simply just buy a new battery.

If the computer runs without the battery inside I'd be more than a little surprised that it was the power board causing this with the information you have provided.

Good luck.

 

No, if it's charging, XP will put a little lightning bolt over the power cord picture. If it's on battery, it will be a little blue battery, with the blue level going down as the battery discharges.

Your picture shows that the battery is present, at 0% charge level, and not charging. The second battery information picture is more for identifying the specific battery and model than anything else.

 

One other thing I forgot to mention is that when I initially plug the power cable in, the battery light will turn a solid orange. After a little while (a few minutes), the light will start flashing orange. It will stay this way until I disconnect and replug the power cable.

Another thing is that the laptop was set to go to Standby when the battery got to a critical level. I'm not sure if that might have helped kill the battery because standby uses a little battery.

I'll see if I can find a place to take the battery and have it tested. There aren't any computer repair shops nearby except a Best Buy, but I don't know that they could test it for cheap, or if they can even test it.

Judicator: Yes. I now remember the lightning bolt. Also, the second half of the picture was to show that the battery was getting recognized by Windows.

 

I suspect the flashing orange light is a signal that it's having issues with the battery. I'm not absolutely sure, though, as that would be more of a specific Acer thing...

Aha. A quick google of Acers and flashing orange lights say that it probably means that the battery has a short, or there's an issue with the power board recognizing the battery. Which brings us right back to the original problem, either the battery is shot, or the power board is.

 

The battery on this laptop plugs into the motherboard, not the power board. However, the power board, of course, provides the power to charge the battery.

Maybe a pin on the power board is broken? The pins on it had to slide into the motherboard the same way a VGA cable slides into a VGA port. I don't think a pin could be bent because it wouldn't have gone into the port on the motherboard. I don't know what the pins are supposed to do. I'm sure some provide power, while some provide data (there are 2 USB ports on the power board).