Not Charging

[okken]

Hi All,

I have a strange situation here. My one and half year old Toshiba Satellite laptop started behaving funny that last few days. I have the original OEM battery and the only way I can get it to charge, is by taking the battery out and putting it back in...Otherwise no amount of draining the battery fully and rebooting will kickstart the charging....

Battery Bar says there is a 35% wear and when it charges, it only charges to 99%. The charging light turns off at 99%. Before it used to turn green when it charged to 100%. Battery Bar also says it will last for 3 hours at 99%.

Do I have a faulty battery? Are the cells getting bad or is the chip on the battery going crazy? If the cells are bad, then why is it charging to 99% and I can get about 3 hours of use on a 99% charge?

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Attached are some screenshots.

Ken

[Chris]

The battery stopped charging before 100% isn't all that strange. Usually that means that the battery is fully charged but the smart chip in the battery is out of calibration with what the cells can physically store. This is usually corrected for by a jump in battery wear, which means that "100%" will actually be a lower capacity value than it is right now.

The not charging bit is a bit more worrisome. In my experience, that sort of behavior can be a sign of a cell going bad. I would prepare yourself for the eventuality of getting a new battery (like saving up the $100+ you'll need for an OEM). If you need to be on battery power a lot, it may be worth it to buy a new battery and swap the two back and forth to reduce the strain on both.

[okken]

Thanks, Chris.

But I am still wondering as to why if I remove the battery and stick it right back in, it starts charging? That action somehow seems to trigger the charging process....Do you think a bad cell could be the cause for this?

Many thanks!
Ken

[Chris]

Ken,

I can't give you an answer. I write software that uses Windows APIs to collect data that the battery reports. While I have experience dealing with laptop batteries and have anecdotal evidence from users, I'm not a hardware engineer so I don't have the expertise to say for sure what may or may not be happening. I wish I could give you a better answer.