Swift 5 SF514-54GT Battery does not hold charge and Acer care center shows alert

folkieboater

My battery has started going flat when my laptop is sleeping or hibernating for a couple of hours unplugged e.g. when travelling to work. After about 15 mins plugged in again it shows full. The Acer Care center app shows it as needs attention. a Command prompt test shows:

Is it FUBAR or can I do anything to recover it?

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

wascas

The wear level of your battery is nearly 94%! So the best thing to do is to renew the battery.

folkieboater

That was what I thought.

Need to send it away when I can be without it for a fortnight...difficult when it is vital for your job.

folkieboater

I'm reading the paperwork and it looks like the battery isn't covered in the extended warranty?

Is it user replaceable on this model does anyone know?

wascas

Battery is user replaceable, model number AP18C7M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd0ZpRlXtu8

folkieboater

I've done sone trials in the last week.

Plugged into the mains, the battery charges to 100%. If it is then unplugged and used on the battery it will last 6 -7 hours. It can then be charged up and the cycle repeated again.

If the laptop is shut down at any point - say overnight - it does not matter what charge it had at the time of shutdown, it will always "die" and say 0% on startup.

To my mind, if the battery lasts 6 hours, there's not a lot wrong? It's more like the info isn't getting through properly somewhere? Almost like it isn't shutting down fully?

It's latest check on Acer Care Centre said good. The latest command prompt report said

I've reset vis the pinhole on the back, refreshed (?) the BIOS and deleted the sub entries in device manager (all suggestions I found on here for various models)..

Anyone have any other things to try?

Thanks in advance.

billsey

The batteries used in laptops these days keep some stats internally and those can get corrupted. You want to do the full reset procedure, not just pushing in the reset button, in order to get it reporting the right info again. Turn off the laptop and disconnect everything, including the charger. Press and hold the reset for 15-30 seconds, then release and wait 15 minutes or longer. Plug only the charger back in and wait until you get the blue light indicating a full charge. Then, and only then, you can turn it back on. You might need to do a Windows calibration or several to get good numbers again (run on battery until it shuts down due to low battery, then fully charge before turning back on).

folkieboater

Thanks @billsey

I've done that and had some success.

Now it seems that if I properly shut down from the start menu the battery will be stable on startup - i.e.the same charge as when it was shut down.

However, if I just close the lid - which is set to hibernate, the battery comes straight up as 0% on restart. If this is set to shut down it seems OK? Is there a trick to reset the "close lid" parameters to get hibernate and sleep to work properly, or should I just live with shutting down?

billsey

That could be caused by an app that doesn't handle hibernate well. If it doesn't allow the hibernation to complete, the system will stay up, using battery, while it's closed. Are there any apps that take a while to shut down during the normal process?