Lap Top Battery Problem !

[Ivan_MC]

Well like few hours ago my battery went to 7% so i plugged it in to charge. But all of a sudden the little light that goes on/off depends if it''s charging or not, started blinking like car indicator light. When I go with the arrow on the battery icon on the right bottom corner it says: Plugged in, not charging.  So is it possible that the battery is dead or I can fix it somehow? Help please, thanks.

[Vaeldious]

Dell system?

[Trevor.]

Well, Same shit is happening with me and I guess mine is battery problem my laptop got shuted down in 15 minutes If I do not Plug-in the charger.

[arifaiman]

If you turn the power brick off and your laptop went off instantly and it won't turn on without the power brick connected and turned on, then yes the battery is dead.

[Ivan_MC]

Nope, it's working without the cable but it's low on percentage so I am keeping it plugged.

It''s Toshiba.

[Vaeldious]

Then the battery has simply reached the end of its lifetime charge cycles. You can check to manufacturers website to see if there's any battery tools available, but recalibration went out of style when Nickle/Cadium batteries were replaced with Lithium/Ion. I don't recall ever using any kind of Toshiba specific tools. If the system operates fine with the battery removed and charger plugged in, then theres no issues there. Dell and HP are the only companies I know of that use identification circuits (that pesky center pin) to discern whether or not the system/battery/charger are all the same brand and not aftermarket.

You can confirm this with the freeware app from Nirsoft BatteryInfoView or download the portable app here, just run from ZIP archive, delete when done, no install required. This will tell you the Designed Capacity in mWh, and its Full Charged Capacity of how much of a charge the cells actually have left.

[DarkPower202]

Well, All you can do now is "Get a New Battery" or "Bring it to Service Center"

[Ivan_MC]

It looks pretty dead to me  . What's your opinion V?

[Vaeldious]

ye, get you a new one lol. Its pretty fried. Pro-tip: When you get a new battery, give it 3 full charge cycles (100% -> as close to 0%, then charge back to 100% = 1 cycle) to properly calibrate the battery. This tip works for any kind of Lithium/Ion battery, which is pretty much any battery on the market...smartphones, electric razors, and so on. Batteries only have so many charge cycles, and people constantly kill them by leaving them continuously charging all the time, or 100% -> 80% then charge to 100% over and over. These "smart batteries" tend to "forget" about the rest of their capacity like this. Always go the full range you can, and you can stretch a batteries life to over 3 years, though 1-3yrs is pretty standard use. Plugged in charging all the time can lead to a 6month lifespan, and if you get aftermarket from Amazon/Ebay, don't go for the super cheap chinese aftermarkets. Pay a few extra dollars and get the mid-priced ones. Most easily removable laptop batteries only range from $10-40USD anyway, and are fairly inexpensive, but they are considered "consumables", so look for something with a long warranty (1yr+). OEM, is preferred, but sometimes you just can't find a good priced NEW OEM (Toshiba, in this case) battery.

[Janar]

When you get a new battery, give it 3 full charge cycles (100% -> as close to 0%, then charge back to 100% = 1 cycle) to properly calibrate the battery. This tip works for any kind of Lithium/Ion battery, which is pretty much any battery on the market...smartphones, electric razors, and so on.

Is not necessary. Li-ion batteries do not need calibration, they do not suffer from any such 'memory effect' that NiMh did. They are already at full capacity in the beginning and work just fine.

Batteries only have so many charge cycles, and people constantly kill them by leaving them continuously charging all the time, or 100% -> 80% then charge to 100% over and over. These "smart batteries" tend to "forget" about the rest of their capacity like this.

Battery may show incorrect capacity, but they still last until fully empty. This is from my own experience - phone has shown 1% battery for hours before shutting down. Once it actually turned off and re-charged, it displayed correct percentage from full to empty (with my smartphone).

[Vaeldious]

Is not necessary. Li-ion batteries do not need calibration, they do not suffer from any such 'memory effect' that NiMh did. They are already at full capacity in the beginning and work just fine.

It was just our standard procedure for troubleshooting and advice to customers. It's always felt like Li-on held true to this, but don't have any evidence either way...I'm pretty rough on my own equipment. May have just been legacy knowledge from the Nickel/Metal Hydrate(iirc) days.

Battery may show incorrect capacity, but they still last until fully empty. This is from my own experience - phone has shown 1% battery for hours before shutting down. Once it actually turned off and re-charged, it displayed correct percentage from full to empty (with my smartphone).

Yeah, but at that point you're dealing with whatever API between your AHCI and OS is using and how the "percentage" is formulated. The more handles, the more fairly unreliable the information is, in the same manner that Windows will report 100% charge, even if that charge only lasts for 15 minutes. Dealing with the actual reported mWh levels tends to be more reliable when gauging a battery, in my experience.

[Ivan_MC]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will get a new battery as soon as I can.