plugged in, not charging + ONLY runs on AC power

Question

Laptop Model: Acer Aspire V5-473P

Laptop Age: 22 months

OS: Windows 10 (Upgraded 6 months ago)

Problem Occurred: 5 months ago.

Problem Description:

• Battery icon suddenly started showing "plugged in, not charging" at 80%. Since then, laptop ONLY turns on with AC power (doesn't matter battery is plugged in or not), when the AC power is removed, laptop stops running immediately(no regular shutdown process, because battery is not supporting it at all).

• Battery started being depleted since then, after 5 months, now it is 0%, and still showing "plugged in, not charging", and laptop still only runs on AC power.

• The led indicator for battery is always on when AC power is connected (its perfectly stable, not blinking).

• From the battery report, battery seems OK to me (Please notice that "Full charge capacity" is still a healthy amount)

What I tried:

Method 1:

1. Disconnected AC power
2. Shut down laptop
3. Removed battery
4. Connected AC power
5. Started laptop
6. Opened "Device Manager"
7. Uninstalled "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery" (all occurrences)
8. Shutdown
9. Disconnected AC power, inserted battery
10. Connected AC power, started laptop

Result: Did not work.

Method 2:

1. Removed the power adapter and Battery.
2. Pressed and kept holding the power button for 40 seconds.
3. Connected the power adapter without fixing battery.
4. Power on the laptop .
5. After logon to the windows, Shut down the laptop.
6. Fixed the battery and connected the power adapter, then powered on the laptop again.

Result: Did not work.

Is it a battery issue or a charging circuit problem? What should I do now?

Answer 1

I had the same problem in the past with an old Dell XPS15z. Turned out that the battery was broken beyond repair. Since it's been 5 months I assume you have tried the obvious stuff: checking the connection, letting it cool down, restarting the computer, etcetera. You should try using the same charger for a different laptop if you haven't already, and also check to make sure the software isn't corrupted or anything. Otherwise it's probably a hardware problem with the battery. It's likely that the electrolytic part of it for some reason isn't working properly, and you most likely will have to get it replaced.

Answer 2

If you have a spare battery that you know is good, place it into the laptop and see if that one charges. If it does, then your battery is bad. If it doesn't then you may have a charge issue.

As unfortunate as it is, it's not uncommon for laptop batteries to die like this.

Answer 3

There are only two possible scenarios here:

1. Your laptop battery is dead. Common occurrence.
2. The battery's power calibration sensors are off , and may require recalibration. Unlikely, based on the observed symptoms.

Answer 4

On some Acer laptops there is a micro switch under the ram access cover that needs to be pressed for the battery to work. The battery will not charge or deliver power and the computer will say “plugged in not charging” if this switch is not pressed properly. The switch is supposed to be pressed in by the ram access cover. I just discovered this today after hours of troubleshooting a Acer aspire 5 after the battery stopped working while I was working on it. Turns out the problem was simply that I didn’t have the ram cover installed.