Satellite A30 - Battery starts discharging while power supply is connected

Hi all,

My Toshiba Satellite A30-871 notebook has started discharging the battery whilst the mains power supply is connected (The LED shows that AC is connected but Laptop consumes battery power instead of charging battery and using AC power). When the battery reaches 0% laptop will switch off. Removing the power plug and reconnecting does not solve the problem while the computer is ON, only shutting down computer starts the battery to charge. Which means that I can use laptop as long as battery retains some power. Sometimes when the notebook is off and battery is being charged, battery charging LED starts to blink and I have to remove the power jack and plug it back.

I don''t think its a loose power connector because the light shows the power is connected.

I wonder if anyone got a solution for me.

Regards,
nova

 

Is this battery 4 years or older? Mine does the same thing, sometomes unplugging main power will reverse the process.

Taking out the battery while on AC will do the trick.

Be careful with this when you loose all power you might corrupt OS or damage hardware.

Learux

 

Well yes, the battery is more than 4 years old. I bought this laptop back in summer 2004. I have never tried to take off battery while the laptop is on AC power (because as soon as I turn it on, the laptop shifts to battery power).

However, I have tried booting on AC power with battery removed. In this case, it starts, shows me Toshiba splash screen and shuts off just after few seconds.

nova

 

I got the address of Toshiba support guys from Toshiba's website in my city and took the notebook there. The guy there was of the opinion that the battery had completed its life. He however, instead of buying the new battery proposed me to get its cells repaired and referred me to a battery repair fellow. The point was that my notebook is worth hardly 300 - 350 USD and I should not pay 100 USD just for a new battery. Anyway, I took the notebook to the battery repair guy. He listened to me and said that if battery was giving a reasonable backup time then I shouldn't get its cells repaired. He believed that the connection between adapter's jack and the board's socket was loose and this improper connection was not letting battery to charge. I was once again referred to another guy who does board's repair.



Decided to take the chance and took the notebook to the board's repair guy. He also thought that the connection was loose, opened the machine, soldered the socket once again and re assembled the notebook, charged me around 12 USD.



The notebook seems to be working fine. Battery charging LED doesn't blink, it charges properly and when I turn my laptop on, it uses AC power instead of consuming battery. I have been using my notebook since yesterday and so far I am a happy man with the hope that some other problem will not pop up



Regards,



nova