Battery Not charing beyond 35% - need some tips

[goodlad]

I have an 3-4 year old laptop, rarely use battery on it. May be on a whole used it 5-6 times - few times completely & lately once, when it ran out & turned off - due to my own fault.

Anyways, usually I don't turn off the lappy - its mostly under sleep mode. Usually battery shows 95% - 100% charging couple of times a week. After the latest battery ran out issue, battery charged normally till 33%, I was using lappy too, went to sleep at night - turning off the lappy but kept the power on. Today morning even after 3-4 hours it was still showing being charged - when I turned on the lappy found = it was stuck at 35%.

After I ran checkdisk, I turned my lappy off to check if I unplug the power cord & replug it - it might work. As it did once in the past but this time, it won't charge. I had doubt whether the power cord was properly set it or not, so I started the lappy to find out - power was fine but battery is no longer charging.

I'm a pretty novice/amateur, I hardly know how to open any parts of my laptop. Is there any way I can check if the battery is working or not or where the problem actually is ?

 

[Barman58]

Sounds like you could have a "battery Memory" Issue - It may be recovered at least somewhat, by a cycle of complete discharge - to the point that the laptop will try to shut down, and then continue until the device actually stops - and then a full charge. Repeat this until you see no further improvement.

Memory effect - Wikipedia

 

[goodlad]

Thanks Barman, actually lappy started to recognize the battery charge once again - at least, that's what I hoped for - as it moved to 36% now after a while, after turning on the lappy back again - after being online for a while.
But now its stuck at 36%. Battery charging light is on & the charging bar is not moving any further. It happened a while back, after composing my earlier msg too, moved to 36% but accidentally I turned off power after turning off lappy - it didn't charge, when I turned it on back, it was back at 35%. Its the reason I wanted to do an health checkup of my battery.

For me testing ain't an big issue - but the bigger question is, what if it stops charging altogether ? As this is my work lappy, don't have any alternative option to jump onto.

I rang up my local Dell dealer, he said my product is on EOS, it would take couple of days to get new Dell battery but he has an compatible battery ready if I wanted to use it. My dad isn't keen on using some x,y,z product on this - Dell battery costs double of this compatible one.

Is it possible power cable/modem line is faulty or the pin cord ? Just inquiring, in case I take it to the local Dell shop next week, if this doesn't resolve. I would like the service person to check the inner hardware as well, if I have an idea on where to look at.

And could an magnet placed near the lappy could've been a reason for the battery or any other component failure ? As an week ago, with power plugged-in, when inverter was being worked on by the service person, he kept some magnet near my lappy - my speaker picked it up - with some grr sound. So, I moved lappy away from it, still system turned off with in 10 minutes - with out any warning or anything, just like that. It did turn on back though, with out any issue. I'd noticed battery was showing at 80% & charging back then - it completed 100% though (inspite of not using battery). Just trying to put pieces together

 

[Barman58]

I doubt the induction field would have drained the battery directly.

I would order a new battery as soon as convenient, whether this is an original or not only you can decide.

I would then, once you have a spare battery, leave the system, with the original battery in place, overnight, (or day if you have free time to monitor), until the auto shutdown prompts you, (normally between 5-15% charge ), decline the option, (or maybe turn off in Windows/Bios if possible), and when the laptop shuts down wait at least 30 Minutes to allow the battery to cool, and then recharge completely. Repeat this over a period of time (as and when you have a time slot to spare), this will re-condition most batteries - Also do this with the new battery to prevent the issue arising.

Also there are universal laptop chargers, and cables available if you have a good battery and the actual charger s failing. The only issue is if the charging port in the laptop fails as the cost of replacing the small component can be as much as a new laptop due to the high labour costs involved