Aspire 5 A515-43 (Marketed as a "Gaming Laptop" from Amazon) Plugged In Not Charging, 40% Windows 10

XTalongraspX
XTalongraspX Member Posts: 3 New User
There's a blinking orange light on my battery light. We tried resetting it two times: First time, Azure did it accidentally for 5 seconds by mistake when he said he counted to 10, taking out the pin (not sure why), and this happened. Next time, we did it for 30 seconds, and it did the same problem. He used an Android Key Pin, not a paper clip. Same thing happened as last time before a previous accident with the same system... Last time, it first started up with a blinking orange battery light, and stayed that way, even when turned off. This time, when resetting it, it stayed orange and charged for a bit, but then the battery icon on my screen's (you know, where the arrow on the taskbar is?) stopped showing it was charging, and showed the battery power in a fixed position. It's draining, and started draining from 100% after the accident started. When I unplug the charger, it immediately turns off. It will NOT hold a charge. The accident was me spilling a bowl of water with ramen noodles (soup pack not added yet), and splattered on the left side of the laptop. I had smaller spills before, but none got into the laptop, or at least didn't cause any accidents either. I can't remember the full details. I apologize if this is the wrong place to post it, but I suspect I might have gotten scammed as well, and this actually an old XP laptop running on Windows 10. I don't know if I saw a Windows XP sticker on this thing, some stickers on it are removed. I worry we might have borked my laptop while trying to fix it, and we don't know if this has something to do with the charger itself, or the laptop's internal battery. It has a pinhole on the back, and I'm not sure what to do. Please help, I don't want a drained, dead laptop on my hands. Also, IDK if it drains when plugged in, drains when not plugged in, the charger is draining it, IDK what's draining this thing!!! DX It was a water spill that did this, it went over the top corner left and bottom corner right, across the middle on the top of the laptop. I didn't see any water trickle down the charging cable, but I worry that may be the case if there was a very tiny droplet that went down it into the...capacitor on the charger, I think it's called? IDK if that's stopping it from charging, or if it's my laptop's problem that it won't charge. I also don't know if the connecters are corroded for the pinhole battery; the battery cannot be removed, but there are screws on the back of the laptop. IDK how to fix this, there's so much wrong with this picture. HELP!!!

Answers

  • Leostat
    Leostat ACE Posts: 3,043 Pathfinder
    Whats your full model number of the laptop? its highly unlikley that its an XP laptop

    The charging bits are on the left side of the laptop i think, so it could be the water damage, best bet is leave to to dry out before doing anything with it
  • XTalongraspX
    XTalongraspX Member Posts: 3 New User
    edited May 2021
    My full model-number is A515-43-R19L. You're right, the charging port is on the left side of the laptop. IDK if it's totally dried or not, I left it in a bag of rice to try and dry it out, but we only had 1 Gallon Plastic Bags, and I was unsure about to use a larger container if we had one. We could have used something like a wide gallon container to put the rice in, but I hadn't thought about that at the time. I only filled the bag halfway, and a little while after drying the laptop the first time, the mouse trackpad started working again. Yeah, apparently, I fixed a mouse issue by just letting it dry out. I didn't touch it while the mouse was still drying, since that was my first concern I wanted out of the way.

    It was about February this year that the accident happened, I believe if I'm correct.

    After that, I figured the next logical step would be to figure out how to fix the laptop's battery.

    But yeah, I think it was marketed and sold as a Windows 10 Laptop, if I remember correctly. Even said so on the large sticker near the trackpad it originally had on it before I removed it, it was full of features that it could do too. Although, just from it said from how it was Marketed on Amazon, on the sticker.

    I currently am unsure of whether the battery is dry or not, it has screws on the back, but that would void the warranty to replace or remove the battery, IDK. I've never had an experience like this before.

    Not my first rodeo, though. I had a few laptops that broke a while back, too... The only things that DIDN'T break on me were tower computers. They lasted for a long time. Some of them got viruses, but still worked OK. I just had to work around some of them, since I couldn't afford an anti-virus nor was I old enough to have a bank card yet. I was young, and wanted my own computer, back then. I was spoiled, and lucky enough to get some, let alone play on one. I was thankful to have one, really. Grateful to have multiple Windows Systems throughout my life with them too, they don't come easy nor cheap as well. On a different note, the only time I interacted with a Mac was at my High School, when I was little. So, yeah... I was a little bit of a dumb kid back then, but I learn as I grow older with help from other resources if necessary. But yeah, that's besides the problem.
  • Leostat
    Leostat ACE Posts: 3,043 Pathfinder
    Removing the back cover only voids the warranty if there are stickers over the screws which is region dependant 

    If there isn't , I would open it up to try and get a view of the insides to see if there is either any gunk, or if it's still a bit wet or if the water damage indicators have been tripped

    The problem with water damage isnt just the short term shirt circuiting which happens, but you have to consider the long term corrosion

    If it's still in warranty then your best bet would be to open a support case with Acer though
  • XTalongraspX
    XTalongraspX Member Posts: 3 New User
    Right, I know about long-term corrosion, and how it can possibly corrode things like the pins used for connecting the battery to the laptop, and whathaveyou. All the more reason to be careful! You have to consider which type of battery you have, and see if there's anything you can do for your battery. I've heard about cases where someone's metal pins have been corroded by water because they didn't react fast enough.
    Or worse, decided to dry it out over time, leaving the battery to corrode the pins from the water on the metal. Usually, it isn't the plastic part of the battery that starts something like that: It's the inside, or the electrical part that starts it. The cord sends a current down the cable into the capacitor, where it can heat up and indicate if something is wrong, storing power for later, in some rare cases. You just have to be careful not to overwork or overdo something in an accident, because otherwise, you may have a problem on your hands... There's been all sorts of cases I've heard about where, for example, one other person didn't have it charging his laptop because his capacitor wasn't sending the signal to send energy and electricity to the laptop: It was all stored in the capacitor, heating up from the electricity. Never got to the last part of that story, I never learned how you'd fix that, were that the case here, just in case.

    I'll check the back cover, and see if anything needs to be done in the meantime. If there's something else I need to do after doing so, I'll do it. I hope I'll be able to find the guidance I need in support, if that's the case of what needs to be done about trying to fix my laptop so I can get it charging and hopefully fixed again.

    If I find anything new or different, I'll report back here, though, when I get the chance to.