Swift 3 battery problems/replacement - looking for advice

ig2333

Hi there,

It looks like the battery on my swift 3 has had it. It charges to maximum 44% when plugged in to the the charger. When unplugged, it seems to last for about 40 minutes before turning off. I get a 'low battery' warning message (which I've set to come on at 15% battery life), but what happens is that the low battery warning message pops up and then the laptop hibernates about 1-1.5 seconds later. 

So I'm thinking its time for a new battery? I've had the laptop about 4 years and I've used it a lot. 

Before I go ahead and get a replacement, are there any other potential solutions/tests I can try?

As far as batteries go.. 

I had another post on this forum with suitable batteries which I've just misplaced, but I'm just wondering A) How can I know which part no. to use to replace my battery? (I have a thai model of the laptop - does this make any difference?). and what steps do I need to do to replace the battery? (e.g: calibrating/set up etc.), after literally putting it in.

On another note, I don't suppose anyone knows where to find replacement screws for the back of the laptop? As I'm missing a couple.

Thanks in advance!

billsey

Of course, have you tried a Windows battery recalibration or two? Most often it's not really an issue with the battery, it's just that Windows doesn't have good information on the actual battery status. Depending on which Swift 3 model you have you might also have a battery reset that can help to get everything even more accurate.

To do a battery recalibration in Windows: With the laptop on, disconnect power and run until Windows shuts the system down due to low battery. With the system off plug the power back in and wait for the charge indicator to show a full charge. Turn the laptop back on and repeat. To a certain extent the more cycles you go through the more accurate the numbers will be, but in real world terms it shouldn't take more than two or three times through for the numbers to get back to something much closer to real.

To do a battery reset: locate the battery reset pinhole, it's usually on the bottom of the laptop. Shut down and disconnect power then using something like a bent paperclip press and hold the reset button for 15-30 seconds. Release the button and wait 15-30 minutes then plug the power back in. Wait until the system reports a full battery and turn the system back on. You typically only have to do this once and it clears any bogus numbers the battery has stored.

Let us know what numbers you are seeing once you've gone through the process. I'm betting the numbers will more accurately reflect the actual status of the battery.

billsey

Of course, have you tried a Windows battery recalibration or two? Most often it's not really an issue with the battery, it's just that Windows doesn't have good information on the actual battery status. Depending on which Swift 3 model you have you might also have a battery reset that can help to get everything even more accurate.

To do a battery recalibration in Windows: With the laptop on, disconnect power and run until Windows shuts the system down due to low battery. With the system off plug the power back in and wait for the charge indicator to show a full charge. Turn the laptop back on and repeat. To a certain extent the more cycles you go through the more accurate the numbers will be, but in real world terms it shouldn't take more than two or three times through for the numbers to get back to something much closer to real.

To do a battery reset: locate the battery reset pinhole, it's usually on the bottom of the laptop. Shut down and disconnect power then using something like a bent paperclip press and hold the reset button for 15-30 seconds. Release the button and wait 15-30 minutes then plug the power back in. Wait until the system reports a full battery and turn the system back on. You typically only have to do this once and it clears any bogus numbers the battery has stored.

Let us know what numbers you are seeing once you've gone through the process. I'm betting the numbers will more accurately reflect the actual status of the battery.

ig2333

Thanks billsey. This is super helpful.

I've tried calibrating the battery several times and it hasn't helped.

I also just tried the reset and it didn't work.

Since my initial post, my battery problems have developed and the laptop now currently shows 0% charge at all times and powers down within a few minutes of being unplugged. It seems like the battery is capable of holding a little bit of charge, but when I tried to power up after the reset, it didn't have enough juice to start up, despite being plugged on charge for over an hour. 

I might try the reset again as I'm not entirely sure if I was pressing the button correctly (it's a very small hole and I had to improvise with my poking in device), but since the battery is hardly holding any charge at all, I'm thinking it looks like it's had it.

What do you reckon?

Thanks a bunch for your help.

billsey

Yeah, if you go through the process and it doesn't get dramatically better then the next step is to replace the battery... The Acer part number for the battery will depend on just which Swift 3 model you have. Should be something like SF3xx-xxx-xxxx.