New Qosmio - "Plugged in, not charging" Why?

Hi again, folks.

My Q894 just arrived. I mentioned elsewhere that I had to return a Q896 because it was D.O.A. I really hope this one doesn't turn out to be a return, as well.

Simply, I have the power supply plugged in. In the Windows toolbar, the battery icon shows "0% available (plugged in, not charging)." I have never had to activate charging in Windows before -- is there something I need to do to activate charging with Toshibas?

Concerned it might be a bad power supply.

Thanks.

 

Wow TBolt, that is some bad luck.

I just connected my power supply to the laptop and it automatically started charging.

I would return the laptop; no doubt.

I don't know what to say, maybe go with a different manufacturer? OR try with another Qosmio.

Keep us updated.

 

That is exactly what I was expecting. I will call Toshiba before I return it. Maybe a new brick will fix this.

I thought the 3rd time was supposed to be a charm. lol. I guess this doesn't count as my 3rd since the first laptop was a piece of junk ASUS. hehe.

 

Oh wait . . . 3rd reboot -- it's charging now! Sweet!

I'll still order a new brick from Toshiba.

Thank you.

 

Maybe it's a sign! I do know the new Qosmios will be hitting the market THIS month, so maybe karma wants to to buy the newer model

Anyways, 3 times is horrid. I only wish there were other stores that had similar return policies as Costco; so you can have more time playing with these suckers before something bad pops up.

 

WTH? How did you do that?

 

All I did was reboot a couple of times. According to this, though, it is a hardware issue. If the bad hardware is in the machine, not the power supply brick, I will still feel better returning the laptop.

I did not know the new Qosmios are coming out as early as this month. Hmmm...something to think about.

 

In case anyone needs help later, this is what Toshiba support did.

1. Shut down PC
2. Unplugged power supply
3. Removed battery
4. Reconnected power supply
5. Booted PC to Windows login screen
6. Shut down PC
7. Unplugged power supply
8. Re-installed battery
9. Booted PC to Windows login screen (in my case, the battery had already charged a bit; so, I was able to boot)
10. Reconnected power supply

If, after this, your system will not boot on battery alone or show the battery is charging once plugged in again, I'd call Toshiba Support.

 

FYI this is a windos 7 thing. I to had the same thing, some times when your laptop needs to update it will do this. I had my not charging on 0 percent to for a few times. Also when its 99-96% the system will wait till more has drained before it starts to charge. There is a simple fix to this also. Ill post the link when I get it.

Ok here it is( link). The instructions should be simple. If you cant get it here it is

and lastly heres my thread( link) I made for the exact same problem. I never did the uninstall thing tho cause I new right when it was explained to me nothing was wrong. Havent had it happen since, but the battery wont charge between 99-97 % so be aware of that.

 

Since I bought my laptop this happened to me twice. The first time caught me completely unaware. I was playing a game, the PC was plugged in, and the PC just "shut down" which I thought was simply some kind of a Windows crash. When I rebooted, the battery was at 0% power even though the laptop was working fine AND it was plugged in. So apparently it was working off AC power but not charging. I rebooted a few times, unplugged and re-plugged my AC adapter a few times, and lo and behold, it started charging again.

It happenet to me again several weeks later and has not happened since. I just assumed it was some sort of a glitch.

 

TBolt, if you decide to return, Walmart.com has the Sandy Bridge Qosmio in stock!

Walmart.com: Toshiba Omega Black 18.4" Qosmio X505-Q8104 Laptop PC with Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium: Computers
Though it is $1600.

 

thank you for the follow-up, guys!

 

lol. Wow. That's not even listed on the Toshiba site, yet. I wonder what resolution the screen is.

 

Sorry, it's actually $1700.

The specs sheet: http://i.walmart.com/i/rb/0088397468300.pdf

MANY upgrades: i7-SB, 1 TB ROM, 8 GB 1333 RAM, 1080p screen, Bluetooth 3.0 (vs 2.0 for 89X series),

 

Thank you. I love being on the bleeding edge of smartphones. With computers, though, I don't mind being a year or so behind.

I like the price I paid for this Q894. Unless you guys can convince me that the performance is so amazingly better that it is worth about $1,900 (including taxes, etc.), I think I'll live with my $1,500 machine for now. hehe

Looking forward to hearing reviews from any other owners of the new machine, though.

 

I also had that problem with my Qosmio once. As I wasn't home, I simply assumed the electric plug was defective and plugged the computer into another one. It worked fine.

The funny thing is, I was playing a videogame and I didn't notice any drop in performance while this happened. (For those not familiar with this issue, the gaming performance of the i5 Qosmios drop while gaming on batteries, probably due to Optimus. It's only noticeable with newer and demanding games.) Anyway, that made me think this issue is software related and a clean install of Windows 7 should solve it. Any thoughts?

Good luck with your new Qosmio, TBolt. Hopefully, this will be the only issue.

 

To others that may still be looking for an answer to this.
There is a certain threshold before it will charge the battery.
On my Gateway 7811FX that threshold is 92% battery charge.
Anything above that, it will simply display plugged in, not charging.
When plugged in, it will also maintain at that charge.
If you want it to charge, simply unplug it and drain the power a few percentage points. The rebooting 3x of the NB without the charger as we know takes a lot of juice. It may have drained enough power and caused it to hit the threshold.