Predator Helios PH315-53 Issues with charging: laptop says it is plugged in, but it is not charging

Hello, I am having issues with my laptop (Acer Predator Helios 300, PH315-53). When I plug it in, the laptop recognizes it (it says "plugged in" when I hover over the battery icon), but it does not charge. The battery seems to be stable, while plugged in, it is not depleting. I tried the following to fix the issue: 1) I made sure that all the cables are connected correctly, tested several different sockets. 2) Reset battery. 3) Reinstalled all battery-related drivers. 4) Physically removed and returned the battery. None of those things helped. HWinfo reports battery wear of 28%. Any ideas what to try next? Thank you!

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

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William_mk2

@sad_battery

It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet. Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet. Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet. Try to use an alternative charger if possible. Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it ( as long as the battery is not drained out )

I am really sorry for the inconvenience.. Let us do the basic steps first..

Doing the power drain and bios defaults will really help. Kindly follow the steps given below:

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer.

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop. Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

Connect all the cables back and restart the computer.

While turning on the computer, tap f2. It will go to bios. Press f9 once. It will show load bios defaults with a yes or no popup. Press enter. Popup screen will disappear. Press f10 once. It will show save changes popup with yes or no. Press enter. Computer will restart and it will load into windows.

It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet. Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet. Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet. Try to use an alternative charger if possible. Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it ( as long as the battery is not drained out )

Try windows x
go to device manager
expand Battery
right click on all the items below battery – uninstall
Restart the computer

It should work fine..

William_mk2

@sad_battery

If it is still not working after trying the steps mentioned below you can try it with an alternative battery and check it to isolate the issue.

So it's likely the battery meter needs to be recalibrated. If your AcerCareCenter does not have the option to calibrate the battery meter, follow these directions

With the laptop turned off, connect the AC adapter and wait for the battery charge LED to turn from solid orange to solid blue.
Turn the machine back on.
Disconnect the AC adapter.
Use battery power until the battery-low warning appears.
Reconnect the AC adapter and fully charge the battery again.
Follow these steps again until the battery has been charged and discharged three times.

sad_battery

@William_mk2 Thank you for the answers! I tried most of the steps mentioned in the first answer, unfortunately without success. I do not have a second charger on hand and I am not sure how to connect the laptop without the surge protector. I am a bit concerned about attempting the recalibration- as of now, the laptot just doesn't charge at all, I am a bit worried that the battery will just die and I'll be left without my computer. Should I just try to get another charger and see how that works?

sad_battery

@William_mk2 not sure if this helps, but I also checked battery reports. When plugged in, the capacity does not decrease, but it does not rise either. The report shows a decrease when running the laptot while not plugged in

William_mk2

@sad_battery

There are 2 options.

Trying it with alternate adapter
Trying it with alternative battery to islolate the issue.

I understand you say " I do not have a second charger on hand and I am not sure how to connect the laptop without the surge protector "

Please connect the charger directly to power outlet. To be precise, one end of the cable on the laptop and the other end goes directly to power outlet. Some people use surge protector. They connect the cable from laptop to surge and then a cable from surge protector will be connected to power outlet. If the surge protector is gone faulty we can always try connecting it directly to power outlet.

It looks like a hardware issue. If it is a faulty battery we might have to replace it. Any way we have to diagnose to confirm it.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194663#Comment_1194663

Don't use Windows High Performance Power Plan but Balanced plan and if your are playing games the battery won't charge much. How old is your power adapter?

Windows Battery reports are more useful than HWINFO, check the Full Charge Capacity and is the Desgn Capacity 58 Wh similar to:

https://www.acerlaptopbattery.net/battery-acer-predator-helios-300-ph315-53-53pl.htm

Also check if the power adapter label has output of 19.5V, 11.8A, 230W?

If the adapter is not 230 W it won't be able to charge your battery.

https://www.amazon.com/PH315-53-72XD-PH315-53-781R-PH315-53-7426-PT515-52-71K5-CC715-91P/dp/B08R55M3LV

sad_battery

@Puraw I tried one more thing yestarday. I removed the battery completely and tried using the laptop while plugged in. It did work for a few minutes, but then the orange battery light started flashing and it turned off. The same happened when I turned it on again. The adapter says 19.5V, 11.8A, 230V. it is the original adapter I got with the laptop. The laptop runs while plugged in and battery is inserted, though it still won't charge and my battery is pretty drained at this point (15%). Both the laptop (and all its parts) and the adapter are about 3 years old. I checked the windows battery report as well. The capacity is decreased- it shows ~43k mWh at 100%.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194806#Comment_1194806

You are not showing (PDF) your Battery Report, you need to check the charge history over the last 3 days but if the last charge (today) is still 43 Wh that is pretty good for a 3 year old battery but then you write only 15% charge left on the battery and that is very confusing.

IMO the charger should be able to run your laptop without a battery. My advice is to get a new adapter from that link I sent you yeasterday but make sure that the tip of the adapter plug (color, ID and OD size of the pin) are the same as the original plug of your adapter. It is a good idea to have a spare power adapter anyway. If the new adapter still won't charge your battery get a new battery too. If all this fails bring/sent your laptop to Acer Services to check out the blinking orange light, at the most you will have spent $80 for an extra battery and charger which often needs to be replaced after 3-4 years😉

sad_battery

@Puraw thank you for the advice, I ended up ordering a new adapter. Sorry about the confusion with the 15%- what I mean is that currently, my battery is 15% charged (there's much less in it than 43k mWh), but when I looked further back in the report to the point when it was last fully charged (the day before yesterday), it showed 43k mWh.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1194878#Comment_1194878

Exactly, so something happenend to either your adapter, battery or laptop in these last days; battery cells die like that, in 1 minute and can stop the other 2 cells from charging, I would order a new battery as well😉

sad_battery

@Puraw So, I got a new battery and a new adapter, but sadly the issues persist. Have you got any other ideas?

sad_battery

@Puraw I was searching through my device manager and found one driver that "has a problem" (there's a little yellow warning sign next to its icon). It is the "Intel PCIe Controller (x16) - 1901)". When I open the properties of it, it says the following:

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)

An ACPI Power Object failed to transition state"

I don't know if that is related in any way, but it is the only other thing that appears out of the ordinary that I managed to find

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1195078#Comment_1195078

Check Windows' battery controller, open the device and see if it is working properly.

You never wrote if you upgraded to Windows11 or are you still on the original W10 version, Acer does not list any Windows11 drivers for your model laptop. If you are on W11 I suggest that you roll back to W10.

I don't have this Intel PCIe controller on my Aspire 5 laptop, did you already reset your BIOS to factory settings as suggested above by William? To see if there is a conflict with your GPU or other PCIe device start in Safe Mode (hold the Shift button while clicking on Restart in the Start/Power menu) and in Safe mode open Device Manager see if that yellow problem icon is still there after Intel's PCIe controller. If still there uninstall the Intel PCIe controller driver in Safe Mode and shut down. Windows10 will reinstall the driver again.

Is your battery charging now, or still showing 15% in Battery Report?

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