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Got a laptop and the battery is refusing to charge. When mains power is removed, the computer shuts down. When plugged into mains the battery icon in the tray shows that power is applied, but charge remains at 0%.
I've looked at the battery settings and nothing seems out of place. I've removed the battery and drained power by holding power button - reattached battery, but no joy.
Is it new battery time or is there anything else I should check prior to ordering it?
Were there any symptoms leading up to this with poor performance from the battery? Generally they won't go from fully functioning to zero charge without some event causing it like the laptop being dropped or dropped on the charge point.
In my experience it's usually the charger connection (majority of the time)
the cable becomes damaged from use
It will still supply mains power but not charge the battery
Get a new charger would be my advice
you can sometimes verify this (easier to do if some battery charge left, not when it's at 0% by connecting and reconnecting until you get lucky on the connection and it starts charging the battery again, by bending cable near the connection. in this case just try bending the cable near entry point to laptop as you can't remove it)
Can I check the power cord with a multimeter? The laptop works as long as the power cord is attached. As soon as it is removed, the laptop dies. That indicates that the power cable is operating. Cable looks fine - no kinks or damage.
TBH - I never really got to use it much since Covid started. Parents mostly using it. I think it was getting steadily worse as father mentioned that it was getting harder to use. No real idea about performance though as it was mostly used when plugged in.
Laptop is ~4 years old. It is a custom build by PCSpecialist.co.uk.
Ideally if you knew someone with a similar laptop you could try the battery in theirs to rule out the battery being the issue. A new battery might be anything from €40-€150 if you go down the genuine parts route, then if it's not the battery you could be in to a costly repair of the laptop.
don't think that it will show up on a multimeter but I've had this happen to 2 different laptops that I've had
the cable looked fine
the cable would power the laptop but increasingly would not charge battery unless fiddled around with the connection until battery charge started working
over time it got more annoying to get this to work
got a new charger and the battery charges fine
of course a battery can go dead also - but not normally for 5+ years
I've got access to another power source from brothers laptop. Will try it tomorrow and hopefully that will narrow down the problem to either the power cable or the battery itself.
Uninstalling doesn't help. Can't get a battery or cable to suit.
So, do I purchase a new cable first? Where is the charging circuitry held - is there anything else I can check before purchasing either the battery or cable?
not with the cable I don't think so - the damage will be inside the cable in the point of the last 6 inches to the connector
even if you opened it up probably wouldn't' see anything (repeated bending / stress )
you have to buy the charger as the cable is a fixed connection from the charger to the laptop charging port
so there are no replacement cable parts to buy
the only thing you can do is to try to manipulate the cable to see if you can get a "battery charging" connection. but I found that this only worked by disconnecting the charging cable and re-inserting (resets the connection) whilst also bending the cable . that's not going to work with 0% battery obviously.
The charger is a CHICONY A13-040N3A 19V, 2.1A 40W. Laptop is a Clevo W950JU.
Struggling to find the correct cable for it as most with the PSU model number are for an Acer laptop and have 5.5mm pin. However, this would appear to be a 4.8mm pin. Is there anything to denote what the pin is as I'm struggling to tell the difference between a 1.5mm and 1.7mm pin.
Pretty sure it is 5mm outer diameter - which is probably the 4.8mm pin diameter.
as said, any charger that I've seen, the cable from the charger to the laptop port is not removable
you don't have to buy the official charger
there will be non-OEM versions
try aliexpress - search by the volts amps watts spec (e.g. 19.5V 3.34A 65W) and visually look at the connections and check connection measurements if given
@Atlantic Dawn - me too! I only posted back on this thread on a whim instead of purchasing a battery. Surprised that it worked, as these things usually don't do anything for me.
Any ideas as where to go from here? Is it the charging circuit or the battery? Would seem to be the charging circuit to me, but I can't get it to work again.
