Acer W510 keyboard dock battery 0% and charging

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bert021
bert021 Member Posts: 1 New User
edited August 2023 in Tablets

So i found a heap of threads about the keyboard dock battery showing 0%, not charging and the charging light flashing red but no solution

 


i googled the problem relating to batterys indepent of the tablet and found a few solutions. after about 3  i eventually got one that worked.


what you need

very small phillips head screwdriver (jewlers type)

torx size 6 screwdriver

an old 5v phone charger you can cut the end off.

some tape

 

DISCLAIMER:

as there is a small posibility that something may go wrong what you do is at your own risk. use common sense and be careful.

 

first you will have to pull the keyboard apart so disconnect it from the tablet and flip it over.

 

there is

-6 torx (size 6) screws 3 down each side noting that the 2 longer ones go at the dock swivel end. (you can buy a set of these from ebay for like $1) or a very small flat head screwdriver can fit in them if you have one laying around

and

-2 very small phillips 2 hidden under the rubber strip at the touchpad end. i lifetd the rubber stip out with a stanley knife blade but you could use a small flat head to leaver it off the glue at one end.

 

now you can seperate the back off the keyboard. i used a stanley knife blade and my fingernail to unclip it.

11

with that off the big black thing you see is the battery.

so unplug it and gently remove it. it has double sided tape running down both sides.

 

2244

i am going to refer to the battery in landscape mode (wider rather than taller)

the writing on the battery will be the front so the plug is on the left.

the side the plug is closest to is going to be the bottom (hopefully your label is stuck on the same way and it will make sense.)

 

turn the battery over to display the writing. Along the bottom of the battery case it can be seperated so use your stanly knife to seperate the plastic case over the battery there are 3 clips circled. i only lifed it about an inch and taped it out of the way. you only need to do along the bottom. you should now see 2 big battery terminals for each cell. 

 

i used a multi meter to test polarity and found the first battery terminal was positive and the second negative. it was the same for the second cell. i checked the voltage for the battery cells and they both read 1.9v im guessing they are coonected in parallel

33

i then cut the end off an old samsung phone charger that output 4.9v at 500ma it had 2 wires red and black. (anything similar would work just do it for less if it has a higher ma rating). 

i seperated the wires down about 50mm by removing the outer insulation and stripped about 10mm off each wire to reveal the copper.

 

i pluged this in and tested the wires to check polarity. red was positive black negative.

i then unplugged it.

 

i taped the positive of the charger to the positive of the battery cell and same for the negative.

i then for saftey reasosn placed the battery outside where it couldnt damage anything if it exploded. and i was shielded from it when plugging the charger in.

nothing went bang. i set a timer for 30 minutes. 

55

after thirty minutes i unplugged the charger and took it off.  i then tested the voltage of the batterys and it was at 4v.

i plugged the dock into the tablet and then plugged the tablet charger in. and checked the battery and was showing 0% and charging. i left it for 5 minutes and it was at 2% and charging.

 

i then removed the tablet from the dock and the keyboard dock charging light was constant red rather than flashing.

 

left it for a few hours and is now at 100%

 

i think this happens as the tablet drains its battery too fast even when off so if left for too long without charing it totally drains the dock ruining the battery and it requires a boost to kick start it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers

  • paddiwack
    paddiwack Member Posts: 3 New User
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    Just wanted to second this post. I've got three w510s that came free/cheap, and not one of the docks will charge. Opened one up and followed the instructions in this post, with one minor exception; the charger I used put out 4.5V at 300mA, but otherwise followed them to the letter. Got the exact same results too; battery was recognized when I plugged in the tablet, and since the tablet was at 100% and the dock at 0%, it gave me an overall power level of 55%. Okay, I know the math doesn't exactly work, but this is Microsoft after all. Anyway, after 10 minutes or so it was up to 5% and charging. 20 minutes in it's at 11%, so Ima leave it alone now to charge fully overnight.

    Gotta give bert021 props for this one; nothing else I tried did anything whatsoever, and his solution actually worked! Awesome!
  • paddiwack
    paddiwack Member Posts: 3 New User
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    As a followup to my previous comment, I have more data for you guys.

    Following the success of the first battery revive, I did the second one as well, with the same results! The third battery foiled me, however, as I could see immediately after opening the cover that it was swollen and needed to be discarded.

    Did a lot of research and actually located new replacement batteries (which are the same for both the tablet and the keyboard) for as low as $25 USD. However, my last keyboard actually had a busted base where some gorilla had tried to open it without removing the two screws under the rubber strip and broke it up. Between needing a new base, a new battery and the fact that it's the Canadian French version of the keyboard, I decided to buy a replacement off eBay; with shipping I paid about $25.

    Just got the replacement keyboard today; it's not in pristine shape, but cleaned up okay. Not surprisingly, it registered as not present on the one Windows 8 tablet, and showed as 0% and not charging on a Windows 10 tablet, with the charge LED blinking in both cases. So out come the screwdrivers, charger and electrical tape for my third run at this procedure.

    After the half hour on the charger, I plugged it in, and like before, the red charge light stayed on steady and Windows now shows the battery as present and charging. So not counting the bad battery, bert021's procedure is 3 for 3 on reviving dead keyboard batteries!

    TL;DR: 3 out of 4 non-charging keyboard batteries started working after putting them on a wall charger for a half hour. The last one only failed because the battery itself was swollen and dead and needed to be replaced.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 31,740 Trailblazer
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    That caveat here is that using this method to recover a bad battery can be dangerous. There's a reason the battery manufacturers went to the trouble to put enough smarts on the battery to stop recharge attempts if they got too low. I remember back when Lithium-Ion batteries were the newest thing, and there we lots of stories on the news about batteries exploding and burning up spontaneously. They found that when a battery sits too long in a discharged state the lithium recrystallizes into metallic lithium, forming whiskers that grow over time. If enough of the whiskers grow big enough to push through the membranes between cells they can short, leading to the fires and explosions.
    So, be safe out there!
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • paddiwack
    paddiwack Member Posts: 3 New User
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    billsey: I agree 100% with your comments, which is why I followed the OP suggestions to the letter - up to and including taking the battery outside and placing it on the other side of a concrete retaining wall when I plugged it in. So yes, safety counts! Thanks for your input.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 31,740 Trailblazer
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    Heck, if it had blown you might have gotten an image of a Klingon splashed on the wall! :)
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Bert02
    Bert02 Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
    edited February 2021
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    Just an update since this got some recent activity.
    I decided to pull down the dock and check my battery.
    Battery isnt swollen and still holding good voltage.
    So in 4 years its still going good and still in good condition.

    Its also good to hear that the solution has worked for quite a few people and havent heard of anyones exploding.

    I guess I should have said not to charge a swollen battery and not if its showing 0 volts.

    Cheers,
    Bert021



  • Bert02
    Bert02 Member Posts: 7

    Tinkerer
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    for those who want photos with this as they appear to be corrupt I found an old screen save of this webpage while transfering my dropbox to onedrive. 
    Heres a onedrive link... hope it works
    https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsAtVirak1tfhC1qK_pGNq5MvU3n?e=zwhT8d

  • kikkegek
    kikkegek Member Posts: 2 New User
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    Bert02Bert02 said:
    for those who want photos with this as they appear to be corrupt I found an old screen save of this webpage while transfering my dropbox to onedrive. 
    Heres a onedrive link... hope it works
    https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsAtVirak1tfhC1qK_pGNq5MvU3n?e=zwhT8d

    thank you so much for this message and your link to your ne drive. I think I have also re-activated my battery through this procedure
  • Kelbern
    Kelbern Member Posts: 1 New User
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    Bert, you are amazing !

  • ThatMattGuy
    ThatMattGuy Member Posts: 1 New User
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    I also had the same problem and did a full reinstall of windows and suddenly the battery can now hold a charge and the icon has returned to normal. I have no idea if it has anything to do with a newer version of windows but this worked for me.

    Currently running Windows 10 Home (Build 10240)

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