Topic: Laptop Charging Issues

[persephone325]

My laptop isn't that old. About three years, I think. I keep it plugged in all the time. Usually on high performance and at 50-something percent battery life.

Lately, the little icon in the tray that shows the battery will go from showing it plugged in, to not plugged in and then back to plugged in again. I've tried taking the battery out and blowing into it to see if that helps. It helped once. But now it doesn't work anymore. I don't know what it could be.

I'm sure it's something super simple. But I'm just not smart enough to figure it out. lol

[The Dark Raven]

Could be the battery is starting to wear out?

[Izu]

First question: do you get a window pop out saying to plugin it in?
If you do - it means that your cord is problematic and is not supplying power properly (I'm having this problem right now);

Second question: when you have the cord plugged in without problems does it load the battery or the battery is never getting loaded fully?
If the battery is not getting loaded - it might mean that it cannot do so. Several reasons - it might be dead, the cord might be problematic, the little... (I don't know the word in English) hole where the plug is going, might not be making good contact, and so on.

Is your laptop working properly without a battery and only with the plug?

[persephone325]

First question: do you get a window pop out saying to plugin it in?
If you do - it means that your cord is problematic and is not supplying power properly (I'm having this problem right now);

Second question: when you have the cord plugged in without problems does it load the battery or the battery is never getting loaded fully?
If the battery is not getting loaded - it might mean that it cannot do so. Several reasons - it might be dead, the cord might be problematic, the little... (I don't know the word in English) hole where the plug is going, might not be making good contact, and so on.

Is your laptop working properly without a battery and only with the plug?

No window saying to plug it in.

When it's plugged in, the battery will charge and it does get full.

Yes, the laptop works fine plugged in without the battery.

Which leads me to believe that it probably is the battery that's causing the issue.

[Thesunmaid]

Look up the model and brand name. I had a laptop that it was a known issue with it that sometimes the port where you plug in the cord would short and sometimes it would not allow you to charge the battery...which in the end was not really a big deal with me since I got a new laptop and the old one became a media server so I just left it plugged in all the time at the bottom of my TV stand.

So it could be the battery is dying or the port is not picking up the charger like mine did. Hopefully its just a bad battery since you can usually get a replacement pretty easily.

[Psi]

Most batteries are rated to last 300 cycles under warranty these days, or 1 year - which is usually normal use.

With the battery out - does the laptop cut in and out or power down?   Indicates its the charging circuit most likely.

However - plugged in all the time is bad for batteries.   They need charge / discharge cycles.

[misterspock2]

Try tinkering with the power settings . Some preloaded system management softwares by the vendors might record the pattern of battery usage, as in your case you use it always with plugged in, and automatically set the charging pattern to give optimum performance. Looking into power settings might give you a clue.