Old Asus Laptop Plugged In, Charging 0%

[paulyjames]

Have an old laptop asus u45jc-a1. I haven't used this laptop in a while since its i3-370m processor and thus slow for what i do. Well i recently powered up this laptop and then put the charger in it...


I get 0% available, plugged in, charging. Basically that means the moment i unplug the charger, the laptop immediately shuts down. Thus even if it has a few minutes, that would be okay. I had bought a replacement charger on ebay a while back for pretty cheap, it was under 20 dollars i recalled. It worked for a while but i never really used this laptop but got charger mainly because well the asus laptop still works and thus just get a replacement charger.


Does this mean my charger doesn't work? Or could it be possibly the battery?


I see a thread here a while back where someone fixed it by going to this and uninstalling it. Is this safe to do? It ask are you sure you want to delete this and well... that seems to be important.

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/153161-plugged-not-charging.html


Thanks.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi
Worth a shot

 

[paulyjames]

Hi... well i dont want to try it in case something bad goes wrong. Thus i want to know are there any other alternatives first.

 

[oscer1]

it not going to hurt anything to uninstall it. you should be fine. I would try what was suggested.

 

[paulyjames]

okay but any other alternatives? I didn't like that message since it seemed okay that means i have to download it again and not sure where to dl it from.


Someone in another forum said i could check to see if my battery is actually defective using some program called hwmonitor and hwinfo? Anyone has done that before?

 

[paulyjames]

i downloaded hwinfo64. someone had mentioned to download this to test battery. When i went to battery, it shows battery number 0 and shows


Designed capacity 84000 mwh
full charged capacity 61815 mwh
wear level 26.4%


power status critical on ac power
current capacity 0 mwh
current voltage 5.908v

 

[Digerati]

I would power off the notebook, plug in the charger, and leave it alone for a few hours, then see if it works.

Does this mean my charger doesn't work?

Will it power the notebook with the battery removed?

 

[paulyjames]

Do you mean if i remove the battery, the plug in the charger, does my laptop work? If so... yes it does.

 

[Digerati]

Okay, then that suggests either the battery is bad, or it is so far discharged, it is trying to draw too much current from the charger to support both the battery charge and running the notebook. If the battery is bad, you have no choice but to replace the battery. If the battery is still good but is really deep discharged, plugging in the charger but leaving the computer off for a few hours (or even overnight) may allow the battery to charge enough (or even fully) so it will cut back on what its demanding from the charger, and allow you to run the computer with the battery installed.

Note this is because all batteries attempt to draw as much as they can from a charger when they have been deeply discharged. Then the more charge they take on, the less they demand from the charger. The closer they get to fully charged, the weaker the demand on the charger. This is exactly why, BTW, chargers are always rated at a higher voltage than the batteries they go with. You have a 12V battery in your car, for example. But if you checked the alternator/charging voltage, you will see it typically is between 13.8 and 14.2VDC.

 

[Mellon Head]

Keep in mind as well that many batteries have integrated circuits in them that will only allow them to be charged a certain number of times, or will cut out when the battery declines in capacity enough that it trips the circuit in the battery that monitors things -- and presto! No more battery.

It's the same concept as the page counters in a laser toner cartridge. You may have lots of toner left, but once you hit that magic number of max sheet capacity, it won't print anymore, and you have to buy a new cartridge.

It's the same with batteries, they are intelligent these days. You might have to buy a new battery for the laptop. If you do, I suggest that you buy original equipment (That means an ASUS battery designed for your laptop. Not a knock off from eBay), in order not to have problems with these kill switch chips again, at least in the near future.

There are some sites on the web that advocate opening the battery and bypassing the kill switch. I don't recommend trying it. It likely won't work, but it is a great way to start a fire.

 

[Digerati]

Certain number of times? I believe that is a myth. Got a link?

While batteries are commonly rated for a specific number of "cycles", I have never heard of one that refuses to charge because some arbitrary number is reached.

There are often, however, monitoring circuits (firmware) that will prevent a battery from charging if there is a fault condition noted in the battery. These include shorts inside the battery, excessive heat, or reversed polarity - that is, when some unsafe condition is encountered.

I note too that notebook batteries, especially with older notebooks, do occasionally need to be calibrated with the notebook's charging monitoring circuits. The notebook manual will show how to do this - though typically it says to unplug the charger, run the notebook until it discharges to the point it automatically goes into hibernate mode. Here's a decent guide from the How-to Geek: How to Calibrate Your Laptop’s Battery For Accurate Battery Life Estimates.

Note too you cannot run a battery to 0V in a working notebook. However, because the chemical action never fully stops in a battery, if you put a notebook with a discharged battery in drawer or on a shelf and leave it there for many months, it can go completely dead, and need to be replaced. For this reason, you should always charge a battery before putting it in storage. And best to remove the battery from the notebook too.

 

[Mellon Head]

Certain number of times? I believe that is a myth. Got a link?

Once the connection to the battery terminals is established, charging should be possible. If the charge current stops after 30 seconds, a digital code may be required. Some battery manufacturers go as far as to add a defined end-of-life switch. If a preset age, cycle count or capacity is surpassed, the battery stops functioning. When asking why such codes are added, the manufacturers explain that enduring safety can only be guaranteed if the battery is tamper-free and well performing. This makes common sense but the leading motive may be pricing. In the absence of competition, replacement batteries can be sold at a premium price. Newer batteries are generally more service friendly than older ones.

(Emphasis mine)

From:
Can laptop batteries be repaired?

And:

Some battery manufacturers add an end-of-battery-life switch that turns the battery off when reaching a certain age or cycle count. They argue that customer satisfaction and safety can only be guaranteed by regularly replacing the battery. Mind you, such a policy also rotates inventory.

From (which is, I believe, the source of the first article. I would tend to put more credibility into this one):
BU-911: How to Repair a Laptop Battery ? Battery University

And just for interest sake, here's an example of needing to work around the DRM in a battery because of manufacturer lockdown (yes, they really do it). The comments are especially enlightening (btw, these are guys who know what they are doing):

Unlocking Thinkpad Batteries | Hackaday

The Smart Battery Specification, http://sbs-forum.org/specs/sbdat110.pdf has a parameter for "Cycle Count" to keep track of how many times the battery has been discharged. Why should it be a stretch of the imagination that a manufacturer uses that cycle count to kill the battery after a certain number of discharges? As a system, a laptop battery is very intelligent, and it has to be for safety and efficiency. Why wouldn't a profit driven OEM take advantage of that fact? It doesn't surprise me in the least that a manufacturer would go to these lengths to sell more batteries. They do the same thing in laser printer cartridges.