Acer Spin 713 won't charge

Cupdecha

I have the Spin 713, and the battery won't take a charge. The orange led turns on to indicate it is charging, but after many hours, it still won't power up. Tried various chargers, including the 65w one that came with it, plus slower mobile chargers etc.

Same thing happened while still under warranty, and Acer repaired it FOC with "a new battery", and now, 4 months later it has happened again. I asked them to repair it again, noting that the new battery fitted on the last repair should have a 12 month warranty itself, but they disagreed and said the warranty only runs for as long as the original. This makes no sense to me, because obviously Acer have bought the battery in from their supplier, who would naturally provide them with a 12 month warranty on it, so if the new battery has failed it is no skin off Acer's nose to claim a freebie back off their battery supplier again. 

As such, they want to charge £55 to collect it, and then whatever it costs to fix it. I checked with them and the new battery would be £77. But, will it keep happening?! I have never had a problem like this before in the 20 past years of using laptops, so I think there must be something fundamentally wrong with the design on this model. Which is a shame, because otherwise it is a great laptop.

The full model is CP713-2W-54PK. The battery is AP18C8K (3INP5/82/70)

JackE

You can't safely assume anything. However, it is generally not a good idea to continue to try to run the laptop without a functional battery due to potential AC mains voltage spikes that can't be moderated by the battery.

From your description, a battery replacement is strongly advised even if only to help protect the laptop from collateral damage. However, I still can't give you a 100% guarantee that it will fix the problem before you're willing to try a new battery. So it's your decision to try it or not try it.

JackE

Sorry, ACER only warrants the entire laptop assembly for a year. Individual components that fail within that period would be covered. But not beyond that one year period, even if the battery was replaced on day 364 in-warranty and failed again on day 367 out-of-warranty.

Beyond the standard laptop warranty period, you're better off buying a from a high volume laptop battery retailer anyway since the batteries probably have a more recent manufacturing date. New batteries typically lose between 10-20% capacity/yr even if not used and just sitting on a shelf.

Cupdecha

OK, understood. 
Can anyone advise why the laptop won't switch on when connected to a charger? I have had other laptops in the past that would still work if plugged in, even if the battery was completely useless. The only difference I see on this unit is the charger plugs into the usb c socket, not a dedicated power ac socket.
Could the fault be not with the battery but possibly the charging circuit?
I took the back off and see no loose wires or anything untoward. One thing I did notice is that the battery is not physically fixed. It just sits loosely in a bay - is that supposed to be like that?

JackE

Many newer laptops won't run on PSU alone or without a functional battery as a PSU power complement when CPU/GPU demands exceed the PSU output. During those times the battery actually discharges even though plugged in.

Cupdecha

After a few weeks of not charging this unit, I plugged it in again this week and now the orange LED does not come on either. Can I safely assume then from this that the battery is at fault or does anyone know that it could be something else. Will happily order a new battery as it looks a very straightforward swap, but don't want to do that if I can identify a different cause of the problem. 

JackE

You can't safely assume anything. However, it is generally not a good idea to continue to try to run the laptop without a functional battery due to potential AC mains voltage spikes that can't be moderated by the battery.

From your description, a battery replacement is strongly advised even if only to help protect the laptop from collateral damage. However, I still can't give you a 100% guarantee that it will fix the problem before you're willing to try a new battery. So it's your decision to try it or not try it.

billsey

I would do some serious investigation as to the charger itself. It might be providing enough voltage to turn the charging light on, but not enough amperage to actually do the charge. Do you have access to an alternate charger? Which Spin 713 model do you have? There have been a lot of different ones over the years...

Easwar

Hi @Cupdecha,

Did you check with the different charger. 

Cupdecha

Hi, 
Bit the bullet and ordered a new battery.
It arrived today, and worked. I used a low power charger to charge it and it only took about an hour.
Not sure if I use the high powered charger (65w) this time. I think it may be overcooking it. 
Hopefully this battery lasts longer than the few months the last 2 from Acer did. 

JackE

Congrats on your success. Thanks for reporting back on the fix.