Plugged in, not charging (Solved)

[mikeh]

I bought my daughter a second hand laptop a couple of months back - Dell Latitude E6510. All was well until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed the battery light flashing.

It's stuck at 7%, and I haven't been able to resolve the problem.

I produced an "Energy Report" through the command prompt, which indicates it should have around 80% of the original capacity (Capacity 48840, Last Full Charge 39694).

However in the bios it says the battery needs replacing (it's not a Dell battery).

 

At the moment I'm thinking it's a software issue, and I've tried following many of the YT vids to sort it (uninstalling battery, shutting down, reinstalling battery etc etc).

 

 

Can anyone suggest any more reliable methods to identify the problem?

 

Thanks for any tips.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Mike, there are two basic things to look into first.

Remove the battery and will the laptop still work on just the power supply? If so there is nothing wrong with the power supply.

Second, put the battery back and remove the power supply plug, does the laptop run OK on the battery and for how long? If not at all or only for a short period, less than half an hour, the battery is dud.

After that, there is the possibility of something burned out in the power management system on the mother board.

 

Nev.

[mikeh]

The laptop works fine without the battery.

But it shuts down immediately if the mains is unplugged (but it is only on 7%).

So does that really mean the battery has suddenly died, even though the energy report suggests it should be ok?

[Plastic Nev]

Without specialist test equipment such that a repair shop might have, the only other check of the battery would be to put it in a similar laptop and see if it charges or not.

If that isn't possible, a new or known good battery should be tried. If still a problem with a new battery, it will be some part of the charging and voltage regulating circuit, usually part of the motherboard, though some laptops do have a separate circuit card for that.

Sorry that may be bad news as I know new laptop batteries are expensive, the only other option is to have it checked out by a repair shop, if however it turns out to be the charging circuit, that can be even more expensive..

 

Nev.

[mikeh]

Thanks for your help Nev. I contacted the vendor and they first sent a replacement charger. That didn't work, so I sent the laptop back to them. I've now had it returned - different battery and charger - and no problems. Not sure if that's all they did, but thanks again for your help.

[Plastic Nev]

Good to hear all is OK now, even if it did mean the expense of a repair or at least a new battery. I will mark this as solved.

 

Nev.