Re: Laptop battery no longer gets charged

[BillW50]

In

I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which
is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software
which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed
that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1
year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon
showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0%
charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on.

I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe
there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie
with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way
to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was
charging fine.
Yousuf Khan

Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will
fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it
too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a
charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can
have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show?

I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap
on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC
adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80
bucks if I remember right.

If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the
best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs
(Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery,
floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5
docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay.

 

[BillW50]

In

The battery test button shows that there is at least some charge left
on it, one LED out of the 4.

Boy that is a tough one. With one LED lit, it could be either the
battery or the motherboard. Actually I would be interested in one of
those batteries that won't charge. As they are handy for use with the
docking station. As the battery actually hits the triggers to lock the
laptop into place. And I cut a piece of wood the same size and shape of
a battery to also work to trigger the lock. But a non-charging battery
would work nicely too. And if it is the battery's fault, I would be
interested in it.

Yeah, I know, this battery was bought on Ebay too. But even if it's
cheaper on Ebay, it's still too expensive if the charging system is
shot and no battery will get recharged by it.

Yeah I know. I checked for a working motherboard for a Gateway MX6440 on
eBay and I couldn't find one. Plus I expect it to cost 100 bucks plus if
you did find one. But that battery will work in hundreds of Gateway
models. So even if your Gateway MX6440 won't charge the battery, you
have hundreds of other Gateways that can.

Oh that's definitely in the cards too, but I gotta keep this machine
to run those legacy software that I no longer have disks for.

Yousuf Khan

Well if it were using an Intel CPU with integrated graphics, moving the
hard drive from one model to another usually works on these Gateways.
But yours is an AMD with ATI graphics. But I have Paragon Adaptive
Restore. Which allows moving the drive with Windows to a different
computer and allow it to work. Basically it replaces the drivers with
generic drivers so it should work on anything. And when you run it on
another computer, Windows will replace the generic drivers with the
right ones and you are all set.

Acronis True Image has the same thing, but called Restore to Dissimilar
Hardware. And it is only available on the Plus Pack. And that one costs
far more than Paragon's.

 

[BillW50]

In

I have managed hundreds of notebooks.

I have had batteries...
show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3
hours. (most common) show a percentage and never increase even when
charged overnite.
Just replace the battery.

True, but his isn't charging at all. This tells me it is either one of
two things:

1) The Li-Ion battery voltage is too low and the safety circuits refuse
to charge the battery (which is a good thing since if the cell drops to
2.8v per cell, they tend to burst into flames if you force them to
charge). Which means you need a new battery.

2) Or the laptop charging circuit has failed (which is also common). As
the laptop battery ages, it wants more and more current to charge the
battery up to 4.2v per cell. This puts greater and greater strain on the
charging circuits. Then one day, it just quits charging any battery and
end of story.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I have managed hundreds of notebooks.

I have had batteries...
show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3 hours. (most common)
show a percentage and never increase even when charged overnite.

Just replace the battery.

The original battery on this was like that, it was slowly losing its
capacity over time. It would get charged up to 100%, but the 100% was
just a lot smaller than before. But it lasted over 5 years.

The second battery is behaving entirely different. The charger is not
saying it's being charged to 100% (smaller 100% or not), it's showing at
0%, and there is no charging icon displayed, it's just showing that it's
sitting on the mains. In other words, the charger is refusing to charge
it at all. This has me worried that getting a new battery will simply
result in that one not being charged either.

I'd just like to find out if the charging mechanism is still functional
before buying a new battery yet again.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

In all the notebooks, that's hundreds, I have managed only ONE notebook suffered from a
problem with the ability to charge the battery.

Okay then, so it's exceedingly rare, you're saying.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Twayne]

In

In all the notebooks, that's hundreds, I have managed
only ONE notebook suffered from a problem with the
ability to charge the battery.

Got a cheapie voltmeter? Even one from RadioShack? Use/borrow one to see if
the ckt is putting out a voltage. You might need to put a 4.7k resistor
across the meter leads to trick the cktry into coming on. I didn't do the
power calcs, but you only need to see it for a seconds, long enough to see
the voltage is there or not.
f'ups set

 

[Twayne]

In
Interesting: I've seen bent/malformed tabs and pins, damage from attempted
forcing the battery and several other reasons, along with at least three
chargng ckt problems over the last 4 years or so. I've also seen drop-damage
now I think of it, and probably a few others, too. Newbies bring in a lot of
machines.

 

[BillW50]

In

In

Interesting: I've seen bent/malformed tabs and pins, damage from
attempted forcing the battery and several other reasons, along with
at least three chargng ckt problems over the last 4 years or so. I've
also seen drop-damage now I think of it, and probably a few others,
too. Newbies bring in a lot of machines.

Yup, I have seen those too. And those of us, who fly a lot with our
laptops... also discovered that most of the time the aircraft only
supplies so much power per outlet and that is it. And laptops are pretty
good about adjusting for a lower wattage supply. And what they generally
do is to disable battery charging but the rest of the laptop works fine
otherwise.

That is another thing to check once you know the problem isn't the
battery. Remember I offered to send you a battery to check your computer
with. Anyway your AC power supply could also not put out all of the
amperage that it used too. In that case, the laptop will refuse to
charge the battery, but work fine otherwise.

 

[BillW50]

In

Yup, I have seen those too. And those of us, who fly a lot with our
laptops... also discovered that most of the time the aircraft only
supplies so much power per outlet and that is it. And laptops are
pretty good about adjusting for a lower wattage supply. And what they
generally do is to disable battery charging but the rest of the
laptop works fine otherwise.

That is another thing to check once you know the problem isn't the
battery. Remember I offered to send you a battery to check your
computer with. Anyway your AC power supply could also not put out all
of the amperage that it used too. In that case, the laptop will
refuse to charge the battery, but work fine otherwise.

Oh yeah Yousuf, not only could I send you a battery to test, but I also
have AC power supplies too that I could send for you for testing. You
could email me by changing KOM to COM if you are interested.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

In

Oh yeah Yousuf, not only could I send you a battery to test, but I also
have AC power supplies too that I could send for you for testing. You
could email me by changing KOM to COM if you are interested.

Well, I ended up ordering a new battery online, and it came in today. I
put it in, and it's being successfully charged up. So my problem is
solved. Just wondering what caused the previous battery to fail in the
way that it did?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Paul]

Well, I ended up ordering a new battery online, and it came in today. I
put it in, and it's being successfully charged up. So my problem is
solved. Just wondering what caused the previous battery to fail in the
way that it did?

Yousuf Khan

I understand with the laptop battery technology, it isn't safe to
charge the battery, if the terminal voltage drops too low. The charger
won't touch it in that case. Now, why it's showing a little capacity
left, I don't know. Perhaps the undervoltage cutoff threshold value
has shifted ?

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

"Over-discharging Lithium-ion

If the discharge continues to about 2.70V/cell or lower, the battery’s
protection circuit puts the battery into a sleep mode. This renders the
pack unserviceable and a recharge with most chargers is not possible."

"Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells that can lead to a partial
or total electrical short. If recharged, the cells might become unstable,
causing excessive heat or showing other anomalies. Li-ion packs that have
been under stress are more sensitive to mechanical abuse, such as
vibration, dropping and exposure to heat."

HTH,
Paul

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I understand with the laptop battery technology, it isn't safe to
charge the battery, if the terminal voltage drops too low. The charger
won't touch it in that case. Now, why it's showing a little capacity
left, I don't know. Perhaps the undervoltage cutoff threshold value
has shifted ?

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

"Over-discharging Lithium-ion

If the discharge continues to about 2.70V/cell or lower, the battery’s
protection circuit puts the battery into a sleep mode. This renders the
pack unserviceable and a recharge with most chargers is not possible."

"Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells that can lead to a partial
or total electrical short. If recharged, the cells might become unstable,
causing excessive heat or showing other anomalies. Li-ion packs that have
been under stress are more sensitive to mechanical abuse, such as
vibration, dropping and exposure to heat."

Sounds good enough to me, as a possible explanation.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Twayne]

In

Well, I ended up ordering a new battery online, and it
came in today. I put it in, and it's being successfully
charged up. So my problem is solved. Just wondering what
caused the previous battery to fail in the way that it
did?
Yousuf Khan

Roll of the dice; not unusual. Look up how batteres work. f'ups set to stop
bombardment of non-relevant groups.

HTH,

Twayne`