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#1
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is
about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Yousuf Khan |
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#2
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
... I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. You will find at least one specialist battery store in each city of about 1 million population. Thes stores can test your battery (free) to show whether it can hold a charge or not. Depending on laptop electronics, they may also be able to test the mains adapter and llaptop charging circuit. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#3
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In ,
Yousuf Khan wrote: I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Yousuf Khan Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#4
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In ,
Yousuf Khan wrote: I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Yousuf Khan Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#5
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
From: "Yousuf Khan"
I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Replace it. They don't last long. That's why a notebook might have a 3 yr warranty but the battery only has a 1 yr warranty. The same goes with powertools like Makita and DeWalt, etc. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#6
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In ,
David H. Lipman wrote: From: "Yousuf Khan" I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Replace it. They don't last long. That's why a notebook might have a 3 yr warranty but the battery only has a 1 yr warranty. The same goes with powertools like Makita and DeWalt, etc. It depends on how you treat them. I have had Li-Ion batteries last up to 10 years while Barry Watzman got 12 years out of his. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#7
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
On 8/15/2011 6:21 PM, BillW50 wrote:
Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? The battery test button shows that there is at least some charge left on it, one LED out of the 4. I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. Yeah, I know, this battery was bought on Ebay too. But even if it's cheaper on Ebay, it's still too expensive if the charging system is shot and no battery will get recharged by it. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. Oh that's definitely in the cards too, but I gotta keep this machine to run those legacy software that I no longer have disks for. Yousuf Khan |
#8
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In news
Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 8/15/2011 6:21 PM, BillW50 wrote: Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? The battery test button shows that there is at least some charge left on it, one LED out of the 4. Boy that is a tough one. With one LED lit, it could be either the battery or the motherboard. Actually I would be interested in one of those batteries that won't charge. As they are handy for use with the docking station. As the battery actually hits the triggers to lock the laptop into place. And I cut a piece of wood the same size and shape of a battery to also work to trigger the lock. But a non-charging battery would work nicely too. And if it is the battery's fault, I would be interested in it. I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. Yeah, I know, this battery was bought on Ebay too. But even if it's cheaper on Ebay, it's still too expensive if the charging system is shot and no battery will get recharged by it. Yeah I know. I checked for a working motherboard for a Gateway MX6440 on eBay and I couldn't find one. Plus I expect it to cost 100 bucks plus if you did find one. But that battery will work in hundreds of Gateway models. So even if your Gateway MX6440 won't charge the battery, you have hundreds of other Gateways that can. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. Oh that's definitely in the cards too, but I gotta keep this machine to run those legacy software that I no longer have disks for. Yousuf Khan Well if it were using an Intel CPU with integrated graphics, moving the hard drive from one model to another usually works on these Gateways. But yours is an AMD with ATI graphics. But I have Paragon Adaptive Restore. Which allows moving the drive with Windows to a different computer and allow it to work. Basically it replaces the drivers with generic drivers so it should work on anything. And when you run it on another computer, Windows will replace the generic drivers with the right ones and you are all set. Acronis True Image has the same thing, but called Restore to Dissimilar Hardware. And it is only available on the Plus Pack. And that one costs far more than Paragon's. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#9
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
From: "Yousuf Khan"
On 8/15/2011 6:21 PM, BillW50 wrote: Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? The battery test button shows that there is at least some charge left on it, one LED out of the 4. I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. Yeah, I know, this battery was bought on Ebay too. But even if it's cheaper on Ebay, it's still too expensive if the charging system is shot and no battery will get recharged by it. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. Oh that's definitely in the cards too, but I gotta keep this machine to run those legacy software that I no longer have disks for. I have managed hundreds of notebooks. I have had batteries... show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3 hours. (most common) show a percentage and never increase even when charged overnite. Just replace the battery. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#10
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
From: "BillW50"
In , David H. Lipman wrote: From: "Yousuf Khan" I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Replace it. They don't last long. That's why a notebook might have a 3 yr warranty but the battery only has a 1 yr warranty. The same goes with powertools like Makita and DeWalt, etc. It depends on how you treat them. I have had Li-Ion batteries last up to 10 years while Barry Watzman got 12 years out of his. Maybe. But normal usage shows the average battery doesn't last long. As a function of time any given rechargable battery is less capable of holding a charge for its rated discharge period as well as its ability to supply full power decreases. Then you have to look at how the charge/discharge cycles affect different technologies; Lead/acid, LiION, NiMH, NiCAD, etc. I just had to replace the battery in my Makita some months ago. It would charge up but when I used the Makita it wasn't long before I had to recharge it again. Think about your automobiles (or boats) and over their life span you had to replace the battery. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#11
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In ,
David H. Lipman wrote: From: "BillW50" In , David H. Lipman wrote: From: "Yousuf Khan" I got an older model laptop running XP, it's a Gateway MX6440, which is about 6 or 7 years old now. I keep it around to run older software which may not have been ported to Windows 7. Just recently I noticed that it's no longer charging its battery. The battery is just over 1 year old, and it replaced the original battery. I see the Power icon showing that I'm running on the AC mains, and that the battery has 0% charge left on it, but the icon doesn't show any charging going on. I could possibly get another battery, but I'm afraid that maybe there's nothing wrong with the battery, and the problem might lie with the circuitry that charges the battery from the mains. Any way to test this? The problem just occurred last week. Before that it was charging fine. Replace it. They don't last long. That's why a notebook might have a 3 yr warranty but the battery only has a 1 yr warranty. The same goes with powertools like Makita and DeWalt, etc. It depends on how you treat them. I have had Li-Ion batteries last up to 10 years while Barry Watzman got 12 years out of his. Maybe. But normal usage shows the average battery doesn't last long. As a function of time any given rechargable battery is less capable of holding a charge for its rated discharge period as well as its ability to supply full power decreases. Then you have to look at how the charge/discharge cycles affect different technologies; Lead/acid, LiION, NiMH, NiCAD, etc. I just had to replace the battery in my Makita some months ago. It would charge up but when I used the Makita it wasn't long before I had to recharge it again. Think about your automobiles (or boats) and over their life span you had to replace the battery. Yes all true! But there are some things to keep in mind. They say that Li-Ion batteries lose 2% of its charge per month. This isn't 2% of its capacity per month, that is different. I am not sure if they mean 2% of a full charge, or 2% lose from its current state. In my experience it seems like the former. So based on this belief, a freshly manufactured Li-Ion should be able to last on the shelf for about 50 months before the capacity drops to zero (which is about 4 years). And it isn't really zero, as the battery probably still has 3.2 to 3.4 volts per cell. Although devices that uses Li-Ion batteries will refuse to power up when the battery is this low for a good reason. As once the battery hits 2.8 volts per cell, they tend to burst into flames if you try to charge them. Thus safety circuits up that value a bit and will refuse to charge a battery that is too low. Now an 8 year old or younger Li-Ion battery, age has little to do with the drop in capacity in my experience. Although there are other factors which does reduce the capacity. 1) The number of recharges does drop the capacity. They claim that Li-Ion batteries can be recharged 500 times. I personally have never seen any laptop Li-Ion battery last 500 full recharges. 500 particle recharges yes. I only have seen Li-Ion batteries last only about 150 to 200 full recharges and then the capacity is so low they are worthless. 2) Heat also reduces the capacity. The trip point seems to be around 112 degrees F. Say keep a battery at about 115 degrees F and the capacity with be worthless in about a year to a year and a half. Most of this heat is generally from the laptop itself, but charging or discharging the battery also adds to the heat. 3) This one I really hate, because it is done by design and could be prevented. As Li-Ion batteries which still has most of their capacity left, can handle up to 4.1 volts per cell very nicely. I dunno, this is only using like 90% of the battery's capacity and manufactures don't like losing 10% of the battery running time. So they charge the cells to 4.2 volts to gain longer running time. They can't push them higher yet because they would burst into flames. So 4.2v is safe, but it also reduces the long-term capacity hard. And you probably could get full 500 recharges if you stopped charging them at 4.1v per cell. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#12
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
In ,
David H. Lipman wrote: From: "Yousuf Khan" On 8/15/2011 6:21 PM, BillW50 wrote: Too bad we are not neighbors... as I have seven good batteries that will fit that model. I also have two worthless batteries that will fit it too. They basically have virtually no capacity, but they will show a charge if you use them on AC. If you want to pay for shipping, you can have one or both of them. So what does the battery test button show? The battery test button shows that there is at least some charge left on it, one LED out of the 4. I have nine Gateways that use that same battery. They are pretty cheap on eBay (under 40 bucks). There is also a charger that uses the AC adapter to charge the battery on eBay. But it isn't cheap, like about 80 bucks if I remember right. Yeah, I know, this battery was bought on Ebay too. But even if it's cheaper on Ebay, it's still too expensive if the charging system is shot and no battery will get recharged by it. If it were me, I'd look for another laptop. I like the Gateway M465 the best (manufactures '06 to '07). As it can handle lots of different CPUs (Celerons, Core Duo, and Core2 Duo), removable bay for a second battery, floppy, and even a second hard drive. Plus they work with the RQ5 docking station. They sell for between 50 to 100 bucks on eBay. Oh that's definitely in the cards too, but I gotta keep this machine to run those legacy software that I no longer have disks for. I have managed hundreds of notebooks. I have had batteries... show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3 hours. (most common) show a percentage and never increase even when charged overnite. Just replace the battery. True, but his isn't charging at all. This tells me it is either one of two things: 1) The Li-Ion battery voltage is too low and the safety circuits refuse to charge the battery (which is a good thing since if the cell drops to 2.8v per cell, they tend to burst into flames if you force them to charge). Which means you need a new battery. 2) Or the laptop charging circuit has failed (which is also common). As the laptop battery ages, it wants more and more current to charge the battery up to 4.2v per cell. This puts greater and greater strain on the charging circuits. Then one day, it just quits charging any battery and end of story. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#13
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
On 16/08/2011 8:08 AM, David H. Lipman wrote:
I have managed hundreds of notebooks. I have had batteries... show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3 hours. (most common) show a percentage and never increase even when charged overnite. Just replace the battery. The original battery on this was like that, it was slowly losing its capacity over time. It would get charged up to 100%, but the 100% was just a lot smaller than before. But it lasted over 5 years. The second battery is behaving entirely different. The charger is not saying it's being charged to 100% (smaller 100% or not), it's showing at 0%, and there is no charging icon displayed, it's just showing that it's sitting on the mains. In other words, the charger is refusing to charge it at all. This has me worried that getting a new battery will simply result in that one not being charged either. I'd just like to find out if the charging mechanism is still functional before buying a new battery yet again. Yousuf Khan |
#14
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
From: "Yousuf Khan"
On 16/08/2011 8:08 AM, David H. Lipman wrote: I have managed hundreds of notebooks. I have had batteries... show they are fully charged yet last less thatn 30 mins instead of 3 hours. (most common) show a percentage and never increase even when charged overnite. Just replace the battery. The original battery on this was like that, it was slowly losing its capacity over time. It would get charged up to 100%, but the 100% was just a lot smaller than before. But it lasted over 5 years. The second battery is behaving entirely different. The charger is not saying it's being charged to 100% (smaller 100% or not), it's showing at 0%, and there is no charging icon displayed, it's just showing that it's sitting on the mains. In other words, the charger is refusing to charge it at all. This has me worried that getting a new battery will simply result in that one not being charged either. I'd just like to find out if the charging mechanism is still functional before buying a new battery yet again. In all the notebooks, that's hundreds, I have managed only ONE notebook suffered from a problem with the ability to charge the battery. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#15
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Laptop battery no longer gets charged
On 17/08/2011 2:51 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
In all the notebooks, that's hundreds, I have managed only ONE notebook suffered from a problem with the ability to charge the battery. Okay then, so it's exceedingly rare, you're saying. Yousuf Khan |
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