Laptop Battery Not Charging...

[lennytiger]

Hey all,

By old folding laptop's battery isn't charging, the battery is in place and the transformer and everything is plugged in normally, the LED on the transformer box is ON meaning that power is flowing through, and the Laptop runs when it is plugged in fine. The battery just isn't charging.

It charges until a certain point usually 80% ish in windows power meter, then it stops and the battery charging light just flashes.

It runs out of battery power very quickly, and i have no idea where to start with this one!

The laptop is an IPC Starnote M (PIII 850Mhz)

Thanx
Lenny

[Arkaine23]

Laptop batteries are not invincible. Most are lithium-ion which last a logng time and recharge many times compared to others.

But if you run something that drains power like folding@home, even if you're plugged into the wall, the battery gets drained steady and the life is sucked out of it.

Folders and Crunchers should pull their batteries out and leave the machines plugged in. Also, be aware of the risks caused by high heat over long periods of time, especially to laptop hdd's.

Whenever I use my old lappy for a prolonged period to just fold or crunch, I pull my hdd and battery out and run it off an overclockix CD. Luckily, all my hardware is supported.

[Tebore]

Try Cycling the battery like 5 times. Disable all power features in the OS. Fully charge the battery as much as possible, unplug and put a small load(winamp) on it and let it drain till it just shuts down. Recharge. Do this about 5 times.
This worked for an old P166 I found near a dumpster. Brought it back to life. So far I didn't have to do this with my new laptop.

[skab]

When using Ni-cad batteries especialy they will build up a "memory" that can be changed sometimes by following the advice Tebore, Lithium-ion are supposed to be immune to the memory proccess which is why the newer systems are going that way.

[lennytiger]

i think this is a lithium ion battery and to replace it costs (£70 GBP) is there any other way to fix up this Lithium Ion Battery?

[Tebore]

I was only suggesting it, it's not like it can get any worse. But I noticed that on any kind of rechargable battery it's good to drain them completely once a month, and during the initial break in period.

[Cyrix_2k]

If the cycling didn't work, buy one off of e-bay. You can get them pretty cheap there :)

[lennytiger]

What about freezing it or something? I read somewhere that this might work, any thoughts?

[Cyrix_2k]

Originally posted by lennytiger
What about freezing it or something? I read somewhere that this might work, any thoughts?

I've never tried it so I can't say it wouldn't work. However, I think freezing it would make it worse as it just slows the electrons down. This keeps the battery from outputting as much voltage/amperage.

I'd think heating it up would be the way to go, however that will probably just cause the battery to blow up or melt. I don't think you want to that :eek:

[Cyrix_2k]

Please disregard my last post to a degree. I just did a google search and it does appear to work to some degree. From what I read, It appears freezing the battery breaks up some of the "sediment" on the contacts inside the battery and causes it to work better. I guess it's worth a shot after all. But there is a warning. Some guy said the chemicals inside the battery are volatile at low temperatures and the battery may explode. I don't know how true this is, though.

edit: freeze the battery overnight.

[lennytiger]

are you sure i really don't want to have an exploded battery and poisoned food it in the freezer!!?

Is there any danger of it exploding?

[Cyrix_2k]

There was some n00b user who mentioned it exploding. No else said anything and there were several users who actually used this method without a problem. I think you'd be fine. I've heard of something exploding because the temp was too low.

But to answer your question, I'm not sure.

[Tebore]

Double up on 2 ziplock bags. Best thing to do is to vacuum out the air so there isn't any mosture to expand inside the bag and the bags should protect the freezer if it explodes.

[TommyHolly]

Some chemicals really expand and could crack the case letting acid spill all over your fridge. That is what they probably meant by exploding.

Cool tip #276: Battery Acid tastes like sour candy...mmm mmm good. Pour it all over the food in the fridge to "Kick it up a notch" and BAM! (Sorry too much food channel network lately)

[lennytiger]

TommyHolly your mad enough to taste battery acid.... damn! :D

So I'm gonna try it in the freezer with some ziplock bags wish me luck!!

[Cyrix_2k]

Hope it works out for you :)

I wish I had known about this, I was stupid enough to buy a used battery off e-gay. :(

[lennytiger]

I'll let ya know what the outcome is ;)

Thanx

[lennytiger]

Right well i let her freeze for about 3 days!!
After that i let it warm up again, and dryed it off.
Put it in, and it got to around 8%, so i discharged it to nothing and recharged again. It got to 56%, another discharge. Its now at 80% I'm gonna try a full discharge again tomorrow. It appears that freezing does sort of work, but it's probably not worth the hassle. :)

[Cyrix_2k]

Cool! My friend has my OLD thinkpad and that has a bad battery too. I'll see if I can get him to try this method. It's interesting that freezing rechargable batteries can "fix" them a little.

[lennytiger]

Certainly using Ni Cad batteries this discharge - recharge method appears to work very well.

[Cyrix_2k]

I wonder if NIMH and LI-ION work as well. My old lappy had a dead LI-ION in it. If my friend tries it, I'll let you know how he made out.

[lennytiger]

One thing I have noticed about the battery is that only appears to
charge when the computer has some load on it, I usually run folding
or something as it charges, and it runs fine.
However it seems it takes longer to charge, and has a short battery
life even with minimal activity (no folding or cpu load).
I think a new battery is probably the best way to go if you can afford
it, the freezer thing works, but the results are in a sense, only cosmetic.

Lenny :)

[don256us]

I too will try it and post results here.

[lennytiger]

Great let us know how you get on, i'd like to see what the sucess rate of this method is. :)

[Cyrix_2k]

Do you think this would work on NIMH AA's? I might try mine in a few days.

[lennytiger]

The technology is slightly different with NiMH, nothing is broken down in order for electron transfer (flow of charges) to occur.

NiMH batterries are almost like a liquid form inside (from what i remember).

The freezing just helps to unstick some of that corroded metal gathered on the plates of some Litium batteries, allowing it to be moved for better flow of electricity.

Give it a try, I don't believe it will work too well. What NiMH batteries are they?

[Cyrix_2k]

They're 5yr old Energizer Accu rechargeable NiMH's. I'll try them later. Should I freeze them after a fresh charge or when they're dead?

[lennytiger]

I'd say dead is better then fresh charge them from flat once they've been frozen and thawed out again. The longer you leave them in the fridge the better the sucess is, at least that's what I found with my LI ION Batts.

[Cyrix_2k]

Ok, I'll wait until they're dead again. Do think I should charge them when they're still a little cold (not quite room temp)? OR should I wait until they're at room temp? I know you said thawed, so that's above 32F (I guess, what temps do batterys freeze at?).

[don256us]

I would think that you want the batteries to warm up to room temp so as to avoid condensation.

I just put my Li ION in the freeze as of 10:00PM EST 11/26/03. I hope that it doesn't explode. I'm taking a big risk because the holiday food is in the same freeze.

[Cyrix_2k]

"Introducing the all new SOUR thanksgiving turkey..."

Good Luck

[lennytiger]

don256us - use a couple of ziplock bags to be safe, i don't believe it will explode in any case!

Cyrix2k
Warm them up to room temp to avoid any condensation that could ruin the battery, and the charger for that matter!

[don256us]

I took it out at about noon today and let it warm for a couple of hours. I did put it in a strong zip lock bag but there were no troubles with leaking. It is charging now. I will check it out tomorrow 11/28/03.

[Cyrix_2k]

Cool. Hope it helps! And yeah, I don't want to ruin my charger. That wouldn't be too good.

[don256us]

Bad news all. I guess my battery was too long gone. It didn't help me a bit. If it had worked a little better, I would try it again but I have no life on my Li ION.

[DayUSeX]

hm great my inspiron battery lasts for about an hour then it reaches 50 percent then dies after about 10 minteus som im goign to try freezing it.