A105 Battery Question

Hi, My girlfriend has a satellite A105 which has been up to now working pretty good. Last week the battery wouldnt charge no matter how long it was plug in.After checking out Toshiba's site, I upgraded the BIOS(flashed w/ 1.30) and it took. Now the battery would only charge up to 5%. Being a IBM Thinkpad user, I hope someone could help me since since this is something new to me.BTW she thinks I broke her laptop...with Valentines coming up,I'd rather buy her roses than a new battery pack,LOL!!

 

Does the battery indicator light on the notebook read green even though the notebook only has a 5% charge in its battery? Are the battery's contacts fully touching the notebook's contacts (Are the battery's metal prongs touching the notebook's metal prongs fully)? In addition, how long has she had the notebook and how frequently does she use it on battery power?

 

Good questions,she just bought it last Dec and has been using the battery pack for most part but it was drianed to nothing over a week ago thats when the problems started. Ill check the contacts when she gets home. Another thing the battery light would only flash an amber color when plug in,never got to green.Hope this helps.Thanks.

 

If the battery indicator is a yellow/amber color, it means the battery is still charging - I would trust the indicator pannel more than what Windows reads. I'd try taking out the battery, putting it back in and then charging the notebook over night and see what happens.

 

Well as soon as I got the laptop I checked the pins to the battery pack,nothing bent or pushed in .Reinstalled the pack and plug in the charger.The amber lite came on and stayed on for about and hour.After that no more lite. On these models isnt the battery lite suppose to turn green when fully charged?
I guess the battery is shot( only 3 mos of use)Laptop doesnt work,only w/ AC. This is sad considering my old IBM thinkpad battery even after 3 years still charges up and runs the beast for a whopping 50 MINUTES!!! LOL!

 

Yeah, sounds like a shot battery then, sometimes they just go bad. Both Toshiba's I've owned have had the charging indicator turn green when it was done charging. My Thinkpad battery is still good for over 2 hours after a year too

Matt

 

Draining the battery to zero can also damage the cells in the battery. If it really got drained down that far, that could be part of the problem.

 

If it was a lithium ion battery, it is quite possible that it has died suddenly. I found this happened when the battery had been discharged and recharged frequently, irrespective of the capacity of the battery.

I also know that discharging a li-ion battery too far can cause permanant damage to the cells, as the ions migrate too far away from the electrodes, preventing the cell from being able to recharge... I believe the discharge limit is about 3% of battery capacity, but someone please correct me if im wrong

 

Agreed with the three posts above - discharging a lithium-ion battery all the way can damage it and can reduce the total battery life. I'd look into getting a new battery to replace the old, spent one.

Red_Wolf: I've found that discharging a battery down to only 10%-20% is the best thing to do.

 

Thanks all for your input. I guess you got to be careful with these Li I type of batteries.

 

Well actually, Li-Ion batteries were supposed to make everything less complicated. The Ni-Cad batteries of the previous generation had the dreaded "memory" effect, where you could not charge the battery until it was depleted. Ironically, the newer batteries don't have the "memory" effect, but have to be charged before they're completely depleted.

 

Don't know if this will help. I just found it.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_dtlView.jsp?soid=1482876