What is the reason that the laptop suddenly stopped charging? Can this be fixed without calling a repairman? This article discusses the 5 most common charging problems that users face, as well as ways to fix them yourself.
Battery connected - no charge
Here the age of the device and its manufacturer do not play any role. , Xiaomi, Prestigio or other firms are equally prone to this problem.
The defect is found out as follows - in the notification area next to the icon indicating the charge, a message is displayed with the text: "Connected, not charging." Windows (version 10) users will read a slightly different message: "Charging not in progress."
The first cause of the problem is software anomalies that only a specialist can figure out. What can you do on your own? The universal method is to "reset" the BIOS.
This is done in 10 steps:
- Turn off the device completely.
- Pull the battery out.
- Disconnect the gadget from the network.
- Hold the power key on (1 minute).
- Connect the device to the network (without battery).
- Press the power key and go to BIOS.
- Reset the settings to the factory settings (menu EXIT - Load Defaults).
- Save changes and turn off the gadget.
- Disconnect cord from laptop.
- Return the battery to its place, connect the charger.
At the end, it remains to turn on the device (user settings will be saved) and observe its operation. If everything is done correctly, then Windows will please the user with the message: “connected, charging.” In case of failure, it is worth studying the following sections of this material and applying other methods of troubleshooting.
New laptop - battery won't charge
Devices "only from the assembly line" have a pre-installed licensing system. In this case, the battery of a brand new laptop does not charge for 2 reasons: a factory defect or incorrect battery initialization.
You can help the device like this:
- turn it off;
- disconnect the gadget from charging;
- take out the battery;
- hold the ON key on (20 sec);
- return the battery to its place;
- connect charger.
It remains the case for small things - turn on the device and make sure that it works correctly.
A couple more tips for those who have a removable device. For example, elementary method:
- turn off charging completely;
- remove the battery from its compartment;
- press and hold the power key for 1 min.
Then you need to follow the steps in sequence: return the battery - turn on the charging in the network - wait 15 minutes and turn on the device. Everything.
New variation of the previous method:
- Turn off charging when the device is on, do not touch the battery.
- Press and hold the power key until the device turns off.
- Connect the power supply.
- Wait a quarter of an hour.
The procedure ends with turning on the device. Thus, the problem can be dealt with on its own, without the involvement of a master. 3 more typical problems and their elimination are discussed below.
Battery overheating - causes, consequences, solutions
The problem arises if the owner of the gadget did not monitor the cleanliness of the cooling system. As a result, dust accumulates in a dense layer and the battery, along with the entire device, simply overheats. Also, this defect may occur if you use the device in stuffy / dusty rooms. In the hot season - this reason is one of the first in the list why the laptop battery does not charge.
How to determine if the battery is overheated? The switched on device charges quite normally for a certain period of time, and then the message “the battery is not charging” appears. This is a sure sign that it is overheating. What are the solutions? First of all, it is necessary to clean the device from dust accumulations. To do this, you should contact a laptop maintenance specialist.
In addition, the battery will be saved from overheating for the laptop. They help to cool the device as a whole, and therefore extend the life of the gadget.
Battery charge does not reach 100%
Most laptop manufacturers develop and install specialized software on devices to monitor and control battery consumption / condition. Most often, these "optimizers" are the culprits of incomplete charging.
In such utilities, there are 2 modes of battery operation, the first of them saves energy and does not fully charge. Switching to the second mode will restore 100% charge. A radical solution is to disable or completely eliminate the utility.
If the last procedure did not help, then the matter may be in the natural wear of chemical elements, controller failure, contact oxidation. In this case, you cannot solve the problem on your own.
Laptop not charging? Blame the software!
The creators of the devices often fill the devices with various utilities. Their purpose is to increase the performance and life of devices. The other side of the coin is that because of this, the battery charge does not reach 100%. The same applies to the official software in which the error has crept in. You can deal with this by searching for and eliminating unnecessary software.
Finding harmful utilities is easy:
- click "Start" - "Control Panel";
- go to "Programs and Features";
- select unnecessary software (hint: it is easy to recognize a software pest - its name contains the brand of the laptop);
- select it with the mouse button and click "Delete".
To consolidate success is to reboot the gadget.
In the end, all of the above methods are effective in 90% of cases of laptop charging troubles. Even beginners with the help of these instructions will be able to help the gadget get back to work. If, despite all efforts, charging has not improved, then the problem lies in the equipment itself: wear and tear of the charger, lack of power, problems with the connectors on the laptop, and more. In this case, only the master will be able to find out why the laptop, or another brand, is not charging.
The battery in a laptop is used to power a laptop without the need for an AC adapter. The length of laptop battery life is related to the size of the battery and the amount of power that system resources use.
General diagnostics
If the laptop battery is not charging then it can be caused by many different reasons, but in general troubleshooting is the same as other troubleshooting principles - to fix this problem, double check and make sure that the AC adapter used to charge the battery is properly connected to the laptop and an electrical outlet. Also make sure the electrical outlet is producing power (to do this, plug in another device to make it work).
Correct voltage and current
Notebook batteries require a certain voltage and current from the AC adapter. If the AC adapter being used will not supply the correct voltage or current indicated on the laptop battery, it may cause the battery to fail to recharge.
Bad connection
Dust and particle buildup between the battery and the laptop itself can cause poor communication, resulting in loss of power or inability to charge the battery. In this case, diagnose the laptop battery by removing it from the laptop and checking for buildup or residue on the battery connectors.
Battery memory
If the laptop is running on battery and then connected with the AC adapter, over time the battery will charge itself in less time than is normally expected. This is caused by a problem with the battery's memory and can be set by draining the battery completely before fully charging it from the AC adapter.
A laptop battery, like any battery, has a limited resource and often over time its charge begins to decline, which leads to a reduction in the battery life of a portable device. But, as practice shows, the rapid discharge of the battery is not always associated with its wear. Therefore, before you run to the computer store and purchase a new battery, you should make sure that the reason is in the battery itself. You may be able to correct the situation and avoid prematurely replacing the battery.
Battery Status Diagnosis
The first thing to check is the degree of deterioration of the laptop battery. Over time, the battery capacity decreases, and the decrease in this important indicator does not always depend on the period of operation. So, improper operation of a laptop can lead to a rapid deterioration in the battery of even a recently purchased mobile computer.
There are several ways to find out the battery capacity of a laptop. As a rule, diagnostics are performed using special utilities, including standard Windows tools. But for a better analysis, it is better to use a powerful tool - the AIDA64 program. After downloading a free version of this software from the Internet and installing it on your computer, open the "Computers" section in the list of equipment and click on the "Power" subsection. In the properties of the battery, pay attention to the parameters "Named capacity", "Capacity when fully charged" and "Degree of wear". If the degree of wear is more than 20-40% and, accordingly, the "Capacity at full charge" is lower than the "Passport capacity", then irreversible processes have occurred in your battery. In this case, the laptop will no longer work with this battery as before. The higher the degree of wear, the less time the laptop will be able to function offline.
To understand whether battery wear is the determining and main factor that affects battery life, you need to perform a simple calculation. For example, the battery life of this laptop model in normal mode is claimed by the manufacturer to be 5 hours. 5 hours is the duration of work in ideal conditions. Approximately 20% of the time should be deducted immediately (adjustment for actual working conditions). As a result, instead of 5 hours, we get 4 hours. The degree of deterioration of the battery you have is 30%. We subtract these 30% from our real 4 hours and get 2.8 hours or 2 hours 48 minutes. Now it remains to compare with how quickly the laptop battery is discharged in light mode of operation (working with documents, on the Internet, etc.). If the time approximately coincides, then the reason is the battery, but if the time in reality turns out to be half as much, then you should think about it and look for other reasons for the accelerated discharge.
Driver update
One of the reasons why the laptop battery runs out quickly may be the lack of suitable drivers for the chipset (power management drivers). Often, those users who are used to reinstalling the operating system on their own do not care about the relevance of the drivers, and often this leads to crashes, errors and a decrease in laptop battery life.
Even if you have never reinstalled the operating system, it will not be superfluous to update the drivers. To do this, go to the official website of the manufacturer and go to the service, support or download section. Select or enter your laptop model, operating system, and search for software products and drivers for your device. We will need to download and install the chipset driver and system utility to work with the motherboard. Also look for a BIOS update that is available for your laptop model, there may have been some changes to the power management settings in newer versions. In this case, you should also download the latest firmware for the BIOS.
Installation of all components must be carried out according to the available instructions on the site. After installing and updating the drivers, restart the laptop and check the battery life.
Process optimization
If your battery continues to drain heavily and you can't figure out why, then you should analyze running and downloading applications. Launch Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and see which processes are using the most RAM and CPU. The more the processor is loaded, the less time your laptop will run on battery power. If you find a process that constantly loads the processor by more than 10-20%, then such a process may be a virus. You need to find out which program this process belongs to and what it is responsible for. If it belongs to a program known to you, then you need to figure out why it loads the processor so much, in extreme cases, stop using this application. If the process is unknown, then scan your computer with an antivirus.
Next, check the programs at startup using the standard MSCONFIG utility (for Windows 10, you can use the same Task Manager). From the list of automatically loaded applications, remove unnecessary ones that do not need to be launched with Windows. Leave only the most necessary software, for example, an antivirus, an email client, etc. By the way, system freezes and slowdowns indicate that your system does not work in the best way and, as a result, in this case there is always increased power consumption. It will not be superfluous to perform the procedure for optimizing the operation of the operating system.
Other ways to reduce battery drain
As one of the sources of increased consumption, it should also not be discarded. If you hear that your laptop has become much noisier, the fan rotates very quickly, and air is not always blown out of the ventilation holes, then you may need to clean the computer from dust. You can either clean the laptop yourself or entrust this matter to specialists. In any case, after cleaning, your electronic assistant will work more efficiently and power consumption will noticeably decrease.
Do not discount the power management plans that can be configured in the Windows Control Panel (Power Options section). Lowering the screen brightness and turning off unused equipment will allow you to optimize the energy consumed offline, respectively, the laptop battery will not drain as quickly.
To prolong battery life, do not allow it to fully discharge or leave it in a discharged state for a long time. At the first opportunity, when the charge level drops below 70%, connect the charger and charge the battery. However, you should not work on a laptop all the time with a connected charger, this also reduces battery life.
