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Question

How do I fix my laptop battery charging issue?

Dec 21, 2014 3:10PM PST

Hello! I'm an owner of a dell inspiron 5520 laptop, and my battery has started ceasing to charge, which is causing me problems.

About a year ago, a year and a half into my laptop's life, the battery stopped charging consistently. I would always be able to charge it with the laptop off, but often got "plugged in, not charging" with the laptop on. For some reason, the computer considerably slows down (60 fps to 10 fps) whenever the battery is not charging.

Now the battery occasionally doesn't charge even when the laptop is off, so I'm forced to combine the tactics of uninstalling Microsoft acpi compliant whatever, removing the battery, restarting the laptop, unplugging and plugging back in the adapter, etc.

Since my battery has worn down, I thought it might be the battery's fault. I appear to be wrong. I got a brand new 9 cell battery, which charged fine for a moment, but has since started doing the same thing. And now I find myself completely unable to charge either battery using my previous tactics.

Does anybody know what is causing this and how I could fix it? Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Does the computer
Dec 21, 2014 8:24PM PST

work on AC power?

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Kind of
Dec 22, 2014 4:52AM PST

It does just about the same thing. If I take the battery out when it wasn't working, then it still runs slowly. But if I take the battery out after it was working, then it runs fine.

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Answer
Charging etc.
Dec 21, 2014 10:47PM PST

If it is not the battery nor the inverter...then it is shop time, MB issue related the charging circuit.

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Answer
Just last week (I see a lot of machines!)
Dec 21, 2014 11:52PM PST

I had a laptop that did that. We lucked out that the contact area was a little off. Just powered it down, removed AC, battery, did the usual 60 second power button reset (see the web?) and slipped the battery in and out a few times to scrub the contacts. Applied AC and let it sit overnight to get a full charge.

Now if you have a battery over 18 months it can be worn out. (Again, the web shows why)

Bob

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Connectivity
Dec 22, 2014 12:02AM PST

Yes, I have seen that as well..not uncommon...and yes if the battery is a couple of years old...that is another issue. Believe it or not I have a 7 year old Toshiba L/T that STILL has the original battery, very rare indeed. I don't use the unit much any more but the thing has been here there and everywhere and it functions flawlessly...Win 7 w/ Linux Mint on the backside as DB. If it goes much longer I think I'll donate it to a museum.....