Samsung Series 7 - Weird Battery Issue

Hello,

i have a Series 7 and am dealing with an "interesting" issue.

My battery charging seems to randomly switch on and off for no reason.
I have tried removing the battery saver settings in "Easy Settings" but no change.

Sometimes the battery charges full and then goes into a cycle of charging/not charging switching back and forth every few seconds.
I have found no pattern to this, sometimes it doesnt charge for no apparent reason.

There is the possibility that the power supply is defective or this is a connector issue, but before I go down this route, i wanted to check here if anyone has seen similar issues, and if so is there a setting/driver/udpdate that can help?

Thanks very much in advance,
Kai

 

The Battery Life Extender option in Easy Settings, if enabled, limits the maximum charge to 80% and will allow the charge level to drop a few percent before replenishing to 80%. if BLE is disabled then the charge is 100% but may drop a few per cent before top-up. However, the few per cent drop only applies if the computer is left plugged in to the mains power. If you disconnect / reconnect at 79% then it will do a top-up to 80%.

It is possible that what you are seeing is the result of a poor connection on the mains power. Are you sure the power plug is fully plugged in? Perhaps try pushing a bit harder and seeing if there is a "click" as it engages properly. Once you have excluded this possibility (not an unknown problem) then suspicion must fall on the mains PSU cutting out intermittently (again, check all connections up to and including the wall socket).

John

 

Hi All,

I appear to be having a very similar issue. When I connect the cord to the laptop, it struggles between charging and not charging, with the battery icon in the tray flickering between the 2 icons. Sometimes it will work as soon as I plug it in. Sometimes it won't even recognize the cord has been plugged in. For the most part, I will plug it in and it flickers for a while and eventually takes.

All is in use properly and connected. I'm curious if anyone out there has solved this issue, and whether it was in power settings, the charger, the battery, etc. Have called Samsung and the only input I received was "send it in and we will send it back in 2 weeks"

Thanks for your help.
Andrew

 

My only suggestion is to repeat the above advice to make sure that you are pushing in the power cord far enough. It might need an extra push to make proper contact. This has caught out a few people (including myself).

Also see if the problem occurs with the Battery Life Extender both enabled and disabled.

And you can use the Sensors tab in HWiNFO to see if there is any correlation between CPU / GPU activity and not charging. If, for some reason, the PSU is delivering insufficient power and is, at times, unable to meet the power demand of the CPU then battery charging will temporarily stop.

John

 

I have the exact same issue, and I should had that it isn't only when it is almost charged, but also when battery level is very low. It is extremely annoying under Win8, since it keeps interrupting my work with a big dialog and beeping, and that goes on for some ten minutes!
Has anyone had any luck with the "support" from Samsung? This is apparently a firmware issue, and it only started to happen to me recently, after a bios upgrade...

 

If charging sporadically comes on and off, regardless of the charge level, I would think the most obvious cause is a connection issue (power socket, or a break inside the cable); or a defect in the charger. A firmware issue would not be my first guess, but of course I could be wrong.

I am sure you already verified that all cables are plugged in firmly. Did you try and connect it to a different wall socket -- preferably in a different room and on a different power circuit? Also, if you have another power cable, that's one thing you can test without having to buy another charger.

Otherwise I think you will have to contact Samsung service. But give it a couple days day here first. Maybe others have suggestions.

 

Hi,

I don't have another PSU/charger to test, but it does not seem to be a physical connection issue, because it doesn't seem to matter how much I tweak, twist, or push the connector or the cable. Also, after some time, that is, with intermediate battery levels, it doesn't happen at all. But I have noticed that the laptop draws a lot of power when the battery is deplected: at about 5% charge, the charger is providing more than 40W, according to gnome power settings (I dual boot Ubuntu 13.04 and Win8 (factory installed)). The connector and the back of the laptop get very, very hot (I will try to measure the temperature next time - but the metal part of the connector is difficult to hold for more than a few seconds!). So I guess either the battery charge control circuit or the power supply are cutting down the power. My battery has 93% capacity (60.5 Wh reported energy when full, with battery saving disabled), and holds for about 7 hrs normal use (with screen brightness turned down).
I will try to plug the charger to some load and see if it shuts down above some current/power level.
Could you fellow members who have similar models (NP700z3c) report if your chargers's plug get very hot when charging?

Thanks

 

I have NP700Z3A which is same physical platform as yours, but Sandy Bridge. Charger model is AD-6019R. It gets warm during charging, but never uncomfortably hot. Same with the plug: warm, but not uncomfortably hot.

 

I think there's something wrong if the plug going into the computer gets hot. It should be metal connecting to metal with negligible electrical resistance.

Can you figure out whether the heat is coming from the plug itself or from inside the computer. If the latter then, if the power board is close by, heat from an overheating component could be transferred along the connecting wires.

I think you should refer this to Samsung. If you are outside of warranty then they ought to be interested to investigate the overheating problem on safety grounds. And whatever is overheating is most likely related to the erratic battery charging.

John

 

I have had this issue with my Np700z5c for a year now. If it is fully charged and I keep it plugged in it seems to be fine and wont go on and off, most of the time. If the battery gets low it is really bad, sometimes I wonder if it will ever charge again and after turning the computer off and letting it flash on and off for about an hr it will finally hold and charge. If I turn the computer on or cause a big draw on the charger like playing a game alot of times it will start flashing. Best way I have found to make it stop is put it to sleep and it seems to settle out. I took it back to Best Buy and they sent it in to Samsung and it came back exactly the same and no explanation at all. My guess is they plugged it in and it charged fine so they sent it back. I just ordered a new brick so hopefully that will fix it. It seems like the charger is giving out under heavy loads.

I have about tossed it out the window a few times, it is so aggravating. Still have yet to find anyone that has fixed the problem only people with the same problem.

 

Had the same problem on my 700Z7C, except it usually only happened while playing games. But during game sessions I always throttle my CPU to 1.9 GHz to keep the temperatures low and to keep from overloading the 90W power supply.

Went and bought a Samsung 120W charger (for their All-in-One computers) to replace the underpowered 90W, and the problem disappeared completely. So in my case it was a slightly defective charger.

 

Finally someone with a real answer. I ordered a Ebay charger so will see what happens when it comes in. Whats always been weird about is if I wiggle the plug at the computer it will help or make it stop charging like the charge port is broke loose. But other times it makes no difference and it will act up at times just sitting there doing nothing. Been driving me crazy for year now.

 

Hi!

How did the new charger work out?

I had exactly the same problem for more than a year until i reached a point in which I wasn't able to charge at all.
Even tho I am not an expert I have noticed a few things:

1. At the beginning it only happened when power was low (as already mentioned by others)
2. When it got worse I was only able to charge in a steady manner when the laptop was off.
3. The aluminum chassis is sometime transmitting electricity. I can feel it on the top of my fingers.
4. I bought a new charger ( non official one) that at the beginning seemed to work perfectly. But in two days time I had the same problem again: no charging.
So 2 options:
A. The charger is because it is a fake
B. It seems there is a kind of short circuit/ static electricity.... Due to a flaw in the laptop that destroys chargers.


Any ideas?

 

I have exactly the same issue,

I think the problem is the AC Power Adapter but I am not so sure.

Really annoying, does anyone have found the solution ?
Thanks

 

Yep, same problem here. Noticed it just before 1 year Warranty was running out a few months back. Called Samsung, guy barely spoke English, with a thick accent. He told me to push the plug in. Well, as you guys know, was no use...hit and miss. I have the NP700Z7C-S01US, which is just like the S03US, except mine has the 2Gb Graphics chip (which btw is useless on battery power since it only seems to come on when plugged in). It's probably using the Intel Integrated Graphics when on battery alone. ANywho, I told the guy at Samsung to make note of the issue since I knew it was something more than that. But do I want to be without my laptop for 2 weeks!!! No! One thing I have noticed is that the green light on the charging cord's transformer stays green even when the laptop's charging indicator on the Laptop flashes on and off intermittently, which tells me it might not be the charger itself. Just a guess...wish someone had the answer here 0_o

 

This is long overdue but I've had the problem posted for a while now. I just left it as is until recently I cut out the the smallest level of rubber on the charger.
Not the black piece that connects to the computer inside, but the rubber that stops the charger from going in any further (smallest ring).
After I did this, I found that charging the laptop became a lot easier

 

Not that overdue. I've just about had it with this laptop. It's like they make such an awesome laptop but all the little things ruin it. I've had HDD failure so now there's an SSD. Windows 7 was running slow so I flashed Windows 8.1 and that helped...but it slowed down again. The pads on the screen wore off and you can see the keyboard outlines on the screen. Crashes left and right...but hey...it runs Wow at 60 fps so that's good. Just cut the black ring off the charger, we'll see what that does. Anyone else notice poor battery life after Windows 8 upgrade? Thanks for the post btw...

 

I have a Samsung Series 7 Chronos NP700Z5C-S01UB laptop that I bought almost two years ago.

I have the exact same problem described here. I have zero control over when the computer chargers. Sometimes it will charge without many issues, other times it will charge on and off disconnecting multiple times per minute. A few times it has gone completely dead and I thought it would never charge again, only to all of the studden start charging again.

This is exactly what the problem looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUW5YwhQdX4

I disassembled it and took out the battery to see if it could be a battery/controller issue, but the behavior remained. The charging port is soldered to the motherboard, so it is very difficult to replace and I don't want to do that unless I know for sure that is the problem.

I measured the voltage coming out of the power adapter and it was a steady 19 Volts, which is the correct voltage. I'm not sure whether replacing the power adapter would fix the issue. Has anyone else fixed the problem by replacing the power adapter? Almost seems like a too easy to be true solution.

 

One detail to check is that you have the power plug fully pushed into the socket. A little firmness is needed to make sure it clicks into place.

If that makes no difference then testing with another PSU should be the next step. Behaviour with a meter under a no load condition is not proof that the PSU is working OK under load.

John

 

Oh, you have not idea how much I've pushed, turned, and twisted that power plug to no avail. It seems to make a firm connection and you feel a little bump as it goes it, so it does appear to be connected properly.

The PSU could be the issue for sure. I'm going to see if there is a way I can test it. Is there anyway to get a repair manual for this laptop? The official user manual offers very little to no information on how to remove the different components.

 

The Service Manual is $12 from SamsungParts.com.

John

 

Maybe a friendly class action will motivate to respond, it's not merely incidental and we're being neglected.

 

I'm having this exact issue, has anyone found a fix? So frustrating!

 

If you haven't already, I suggest you read all the posts in this thread, including the various suggestions for diagnosing and fixing it (it's only a few posts). My thoughts are essentially the same as I wrote here.

My Series 7 (NP700Z3A) is two years old now, and I've never seen this, nor do I remember (m)any complaints about it outside this thread.

 

Hello guys I fix laptops for a living in Scotland, samsung is at fault here because it is a firmware issue for sure. I formated drive and dual booted with win7 and 8 all worked fine upgraded to 8.1 and fault started right away.

Tried lots of different chargers all displayed same charging fault.

If it was an intermittent fault then why will it fully charge when powered off as it does without any issues?

Samsung needs to work on this problem with windows 8.1

Windows 7 works just dandy on same charger/s.

I should add that most windows 8 or 8.1 EASY SETTINGS can only be forced on using the windows 7 in compatibility mode so perhaps microsoft updates has screwed up the power settings???

Also had ATI driver crashes due to win 8.1 > Samsung firmware issues.

Samsung could sort this issue in less than a 1 day but will they???

 

Very interesting. I also found it very weird that it would charge the laptop when it was off. It even got to a point where I could only charge it by turning off. That could very well be a firmware issue.

However, I do not think this problem is Operating System dependent, as it happens whether or not an OS is loaded. It happens in the latest version of Windows 7 and It also happens in Ubuntu 13.04.

 

Did someone in Samsung get worried about overloading the PSU through the combined demand of system power under heavy usage plus battery charging and then took the easy way out by disabling charging while the computer is running?

John

 

Sure seems like something along those lines! This problem just bugs me, so weird and random. The way it progressively gets worse is also very confounding.

 

It appears I'm late to the party, I should have googled last year when I noticed the issue.

I cut the 1st ring around the charger. It does appear to get a little closer to the unit, but I'm still having connection issues. Has anyone tried to shave the black ring on tip? Just a dusting, not completely remove. I'm assuming it's important. Is it possible to tighten the actual port without damaging it or the mobo?

I saw a few other posts that chargers heat up significantly, I'm pretty sure you can grill a steak on mine. This seems to be a more recent problem, units barely 2 years old. I tried to get Samsung to swap my charger a couple months back, they said no. Pretty sure this is my last samsung product ever, I expect my 1200 laptop to carry me further than 2 years.

-Andrew

 

I been having same issue for year and decided to remove battery from computer as I thought it might be the issue but with no luck from looks of it one of 2 things a heating issue causes the issue or DC jack is bad my laptop gets warm but not to point that i I could cook on it

 

This has nothing to do with firmware or OS or any software for that matter. The issue is the connection at the laptop. If you're experiencing any issue with connectivity, it most likely the DC charging port on the laptop is worn out. Replacing it isn't too terribly hard. If you're uncomfortable take it to a computer shop to have it replaced. They range from $8-20 on ebay. Shaving portions of the black plastic away may fix it temporarily, but will eventually wear out over time. Having the same issue with mine and doing tests with the case open, and swapping the charging port back and forth from the new port to the old port and that was definitely my problem. Hope you find the same results.

 

I know this is an old thread but after reading all the above, no one came back with a solid solution, and I had the same problem. So in case someone came here from Google, this is what happened to me: My laptop (NP700Z7C), just like the rest above, would suddenly go on battery mode then back to "plugged in." In the beginning, it would do this maybe once a day. Then after a few weeks, it became more frequent. Finally, in the last 3 days, it would keep flickering back and forth every few seconds. I was pretty sure it was a charger port issue since if I hold the cord in a certain position, the connection would seem stable.

In any case, I bought a new power jack to replace the old one. When I was taking the old one out, I found that all 3 legs (Power, Data, Ground) had completely disconnected from the solder. There wasn't much solder around the legs at all. All the solder seemed to be inside the holes. I guess from the heat and cold cycles the little solder holding the legs gave way. One of the holes, likely the positive, was brown as well. So I cleaned it up a bit, put the new jack in, put heavy solder on all 3 legs. Few hours in now and not once the power disconnected. So just replace the jack and don't mess with the adapter plug. If you aren't skilled at soldering and don't have the right equipment, I suggest you have a professional do it.

Oh, and I suggest you sand the legs a bit before soldering. Th metal they use is kind of smooth and solder does not attach to it very well. If mine starts going bad again, I will take it out and sand the legs so the solder have a better bite.

I hope this helps someone in the future.

Edit: Just an update so it won't push the thread up. Since I resolder the power jack, it has worked perfectly. It has not disconnected once. Since I've read about similar problems on different forums about this, all with unreliable/unconfirmed solutions, I'm confident this is the cause to all those problems. This is clearly a design flaw. There is too little solder between the motherboard and the power jack legs. The solder not only helps conduct electricity, but it also acts as a heat spreader. In this case, the heat can be spread to the metal housing of the power jack through the solder. If you are having intermittent connectivity or charging issues or random disconnects, this is the first thing you should check.

You could likely salvage the old power jack but I would suggest you remove it, clean the legs by sanding it, then resolder it with generous amounts of solder. Or you could just get a new one to be safe for a few bucks.

 

H folks, I've just had the power jack socket professionally resoldered and sadly it still hasn't fixed the problem. As has been noted the fact that the laptop charges fine when turned off seems to indicate the problem may not be a connection issue. Does any one have any other ideas?

This Samsung laptop has been woeful. The hard drive gave up almost instantly. The build quality is frankly like cheese. I brought it on the back of good reviews sadly rarely do such reviews test for any length of time. I will not be buying another Samsung

 

My experience so far with the NP700G7C is quite different, a truly hardy machine.

 

SOLUTION: For reference mine was definitely a power adaptor issue. I tested it with a multimeter and it was fine but I'm told you need to test it under load. Hence why it charges when the computer is off but when the processor starts working it draw more power and cuts out. The way to check is to listen to the adaptor and see if it cuts out with the charge light.

 

Mine is NP680z5e-X01US battery is inside the laptop and its killing me . I spent so much money on this 1200 and another 400 on SSD. Its ridiculous the laptop is keep getting shut off when battery is 20%. I tried changing power plans many times but no luck. charger looks fine but it stops charging intermittently . My another problem is fully charged battery drains in 5 or 10 minutes. I want to throw this laptop out of window through frustration but amount of money I spent is stopping me. BTW I did send this to samsung for fixing and idiots said replace motherboard as its faulty and it will cost 1349.00... Samsung is so ****ing insane..

 

Have you run the battery calibration option in the BIOS? This will reset the voltage-capacity data in the chip on the battery.

However, I suspect that the battery needs replacing. If it is around 3 years old and you have been frequently using its full capacity then, by now, it's very likely well past its best.

John

 

John,

Thank you for reply. Yes I did that . I did battery calibration on bios . It shuts down at %5. Then I tried battery calibration twice by keeping it shut for more than 12 hours. its no help and frankly I don't care for battery anymore .. this stupid expensive machine ...I am fine if just run on power. I can make it connected to power and monitor so that at least my kids can use it for homework. I am fed up and given up

 

The full calibration process involves (i) disable battery life extender if you have it enabled; (ii) full charge the battery; (iii) go to the battery calibration in the BIOS, pull out mains plug and watch the battery drain - it should go to 0% before stopping; (iv) once the computer has gone off then fully recharge the battery.

Compatible replacement batteries are now available for these older Samsung notebooks at more reasonable prices than the Samsung batteries.

John

 

Thanks John, I tried your suggestion to drain the battery but the problem is it shuts off at 8 % and after waiting like almost 15 hours there is still little battery left like 4% or so.

 

Please confirm that it is showing 8% in the battery calibration in the BIOS (not Windows) when it shuts down. If so, the chip in the battery which stores the voltage-capacity data should be updated to reflect the new empty point. Windows prevents a full draining of the battery which is good for general battery health but prevents the recalibration.

John

 

Hi John,
Thats correct its in the battery calibration in the bios. How do do what you mentioned?
"voltage-capacity data should be updated to reflect the new empty point"
I was thinking of opening it and take out the battery for few days so that it can drain to empty.

 

You can try, but I don't think it will help. The battery self-discharges very slowly.

John

 

mine is series7 700Z3C, same problem. charging on and off randomly when laptop is on. but steadily charging when laptop is off or sleep. definitely the power adapter's fault.

i had the charger exchanged couple years ago for the same problem when it was still under warranty. but the problem came back again a few months ago. i tried other solutions like wiggling the charge port, even re-soldering the port legs. but still didn't solve the problem. i concluded that it must be the power adapter at fault. since it's charging fine when laptop is off but randomly on and off when it's on, it must be the power supply cannot keep up when it's under load.

but two factory charger already failed, i wouldn't trust samsung's charger anymore. aftermarket ones from ebay probably even worse. so i modified an old dell 90w charger (by swapping the plug from the original charger) and use it instead. and problem solved. now it's steadily charging even under heavy load.

 

I've had a couple of the Samsung 40W PSUs (as used for the Series 9 notebooks) die so maybe they haven't engineered in as much longevity as Dell (or more likely the PSU suppliers such as Liteon and Delta). However, remember that the PSUs are first in line to receive any spikes and surges coming through the power system so this can be one cause of premature death. However, erratic performance is more likely due to component degradation.

John

 

the dell charger is bigger and heavier than the samsung original charger. you can tell that the dell charger is much better built by just looking them. from my personal experience, 5 dell, 2 hp, 3 toshiba, and 1 asus, all lived longer than the samsung, but none had a charger failure ever. so i would say samsung charger is the worst of all. but the upside of the samsung is that you carry a little less weight when traveling with your laptop

 

I've had this frustrating issue for a while now...The power jack was replaced by a local repair shop last December and the charging worked fine for a few months then I started having issues again (charges on/off, only can do sometimes in sleep mode, etc). I have also purchased the more powerful 120W adapter, nothing really helped. I'm going to call Samsung authorized repair center next week, though I'm cautiously optimistic - as I'm not too crazy about sending it in for 2 weeks (based on others' experience). It is a shame, as otherwise it is a great laptop.

 

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but out of EVERYWHERE I could find on the web, this thread seems to be the go-to place for strange battery/charging problems on the 700z models. I have some to add, and some new questions as well.

I'll spare you the details of my struggles, but here's the quick rundown:

1.) Zero battery charging at all. Doesn't matter if I leave it off and plugged in, or on. It never charges.
2.) Charging light goes to orange as if it was charging, but after hours or days (no real pattern), begins alternating orange/green to indicate a charging problem.
3.) Windows (BatteryCat program) and Ubunutu both show a really low charge voltage (about 8v) with 0 watts, and zero rate of charge, even though it reports the battery is good, present and chargeable. Here's the specs as reported fro Ubuntu:

Code:

Device - battery_BAT1
Type - Laptop battery
Vendor - SAMSUNG Electronics
Supply - Yes
Refreshed - 7 seconds
Present - Yes
Rechargeable - Yes
State - Charging
Energy - 0.0 Wh
Energy when empty - 0.0 Wh
Energy when full - 71.0 Wh
Energy (design) - 80.2 Wh
Rate - 0.0 W
Voltage - 8.0 V
Time to full - 0 seconds
Time to empty - 0 seconds
Percentage - 0.0%
Capacity - 88.6%
Technology - Lithium Ion

What has been tried/tested:

1.) Plugged power adapter into various wall outlets, an UPS, and even a power conditioner.
2.) Two power adapters have been tried, one a generic 90w replacement, the other a modified Dell 120w adapter as mentioned previously in this thread.
3.) Two different batteries have been tried, the original one (registers as 88% usable), and one new-old-stock (registers as 98% usable), both genuine Samsung.
4.) The power jack on the mo-bo appears to in excellent condition, both physically, and the solder points. Multimeter shows 19.6v at one terminal, ground at the other two, plus ground for the 4 jack outer case mounts.
5.) Multimeter readings for the battery connector - The 4 red wires all test at 16.5v, a single blue wire tests at 3.3v, and 4 black wires test as ground.
6.) Voltage reading for the power jack and the battery connections remain consistent when powered off, and when powered on and under load (no voltage drop). Readings are also nearly identical between the 90w and 120w power adapter.
7.) BIOS is the latest release.


I'm to the point where I'm leaning toward a bad motherboard, specifically the charging circuit. What the motherboard reports (8V) is NOT what's actually going on (16.5V).

Other than trying a genuine Samsung power adapter as a last resort, it seems the motherboard is the most likely culprit.

Before I spend the money on trying a different motherboard, is there ANYTHING else I can try? Is anyone willing to probe their laptop with a multimeter while its' running to confirm the same voltage readings on a properly working model?

 

Check my post there: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-laptop-i7-3615qm-650m-review.660337/page-215

its not the MB, the socket, the cable, the battery. It is the stupid PSU...

So many people have got lost wandering and trying all sorts of things, this issue has been so annoying to me, but it has been solved once and for all. Buy a lavolta 90W PSU or any other quality one.

 

I read your post. The reason I'm leaning toward mo-bo over the PSU is because batteries won't charge even with it off and sitting plugged-in unused. Yours would charge when off and only struggled when you were using it.

I've tried 2 PSU's already, one brand-new cheapie 90w and a high-quility 120w. Zero charging with either, even when powered off. Yet, they both are good enough to run the computer just fine. It's a ZERO charging issue that I face.

I'm purchasing another one of these that doesn't have a charging issue. From that, I'll have good working parts as a template for troubleshooting this one further. I'll report back what I end up finding.