Aspire 7520 won't start on battery alone, requires A/C

Imagica

Upgraded to Win7 Pro 64 bit.  Have tried 2 brand new 100% batteries, no change... starts and runs perfectly if power supply plugged in irrespective of battery present.

finlux

Hi Imagica

 

It might be the actual charger. Sometimes when chargers go bad, they produce enough power to run the laptop, but not enough to charge it as well. I've come accross this situation a few times before - and a new charger solves the problem. See if you can borrow a charger (of similar power input/output) to test.

 

However, if your laptop's battery/charging icon reports as "Plugged in, not charging" then try :

 

1. Shutdown laptop & disconnect mains power
2. Remove battery
3. Connect power & restart
4. Go to device manager (right click "Computer" & select manage)
5. Under the Batteries section, right-click all of the Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery (or similar) listings, and select Uninstall.
6. Shutdown laptop & disconnect mains power
7. Insert battery
8. Connect power & restart

Hopefully, the message will be gone & it should now charge.

Imagica

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I'm trying to rustle up another power supply just to double check but I've already run a voltage check on this one and it's reading 19v spot on, so it looks ok.

 

I'm not getting that "plugged in, not charging" icon message but I thought I'd try your idea anyway.  All I'm seeing under Batteries is "MS A/C adapter" (which I'm leaving well alone,) "MS Composite Battery" which doesn't have the option to disable or uninstall, and  "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery."  If I uninstall this, Windows puts it back on start up and if I disable it the only effect is to drop the battery icon in the tray area.

 

The only tray battery icon messages I'm getting is either 100% charged or just a red X through the icon if the battery is out.

 

The only other thing I have noticed is that the manual says the battery status LED on the front panel starts off amber and then changes to green once fully charged.  When I got the brand new replacement battery the other day I put it in and saw that LED immediately show green when I plugged the power back in.  I was very good and left the battery to supposedly charge up overnight but I have a nasty suspicion that had I started Windows immediately the tray icon would have shown 100% fully charged!

 

I have an even nastier suspicion now that the problem is "onboard" somewhere which being a laptop means the Mboard, and a replacement which is likely more than the system is worth, but are we talking about software, hardware or firmware as to location of the problem?

 

My background, before I retired, is DP/ EDP (now IT) on the hardware side... I started out in 1966 working with a 36k Univac 9300 which would fill my house here and now I say to people "the first 50 years are the worst."  I've kept up enough to be quite happy digging / fiddling around inside my desktops here at home but I've never got close to these new fangled things called laptops/ notebooks/ netbooks/ tablets/ whatever... they are all too **bleep** small and too **bleep** complicated.

 

I'm helping out a friend trying to sort out this laptop for him but he only really wants one for appearances and not really to be mobile.  I'm about to tell him to get a laptop bag / case big enough to take the power supply as well for when he goes anywhere!!!

 

Thanks again for your time and best wishes.

 

 

finlux

It might well be the motherboard....

 

Just an thought. When you tested the charger, did you put a load on it? As I'm sure you'll know, it might give the right reading when tested, but might drop when a load is drawn.

 

If you do manage to locate a charger, lets us know how you get on!

Imagica

Thanks for reminding me about testing under load... I'm definitely trying to scare up another one to try.  I see this one is marked "Replacement" so maybe it's not OEM... you never know!!!