My Acer A515 51G wont charge the battery, I have a new battery and new charger

I installed a new battery which voided my warrantee Then Acer said its probably the charger so I bought a new charger just like everyone else in this forum just to find out its the motherboard. I guess to get an extra $100 from us. I dont know how much they cost but we would have all bought new motherboards and been happy Acer customers. Now we all have to buy new computers and I doubt that even a few would buy an Acer again. This thing wont even charge when its off, nor in idle. I can get it too charge up to 20 % if I keep unplugging and plugging back in when the light starts to blink and sometimes it will charge for a few minutes. I have to break out my old Hp laptop and use it although it has no graffix card and wont play games but at least i can get some work done on it. Is there a software update to make the Aspire run again?

Accepted answers

Puraw

Hi @richiecutr ,

Thanks for sharing your experience—frustrating as it is, you're not alone. Based on your symptoms:

No charging during shutdown or idle
Brief charging when replugged
LED blinking inconsistently
New battery and charger already tested

This points to instability in the DC-in power rail, possibly due to degraded MOSFETs near the battery connector or EC firmware misbehavior. These components regulate current flow to the battery, and when they fail, charging becomes erratic.

Before considering a full motherboard replacement, try these steps:

1. EC Reset (Embedded Controller)

Disconnect charger and battery
Hold power button for 60 seconds
Reconnect charger only, then power on

2. OS Compatibility Check

Acer officially supports Windows 10 for this model
If you’ve upgraded to Windows 11, that may cause firmware or driver conflicts
Consider reverting to Windows 10 to restore full compatibility

3. Battery Driver Reinstall

Open Device Manager > Batteries
Right-click Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Uninstall, then reboot

If none of these resolve the issue, then yes—hardware-level repair may be needed. But you deserve a clear diagnosis before spending more. Let us know how it goes!

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728088/my-acer-a515-51g-wont-charge-the-battery-i-have-a-new-battery-and-new-charger

The charging problem in your 2017 Aspire A515-51G is NOT only because of the battery or adapter/charger, it could be the main power rails and its BQ chip or voltage regulator, a mosfet, a capacitor or a resistor that are shorted and faulty and need pinpointing and replacing. Get your laptop analysing by an experienced Technion, but if you can't do that then change this laptops mainboard for either a used working one or a new one, as they not expensive and could be cheaper if you buy a working board and swap the board yourself.

As to fix a locked battery you also need a special tool called an NLBA1 Laptop Battery Analyser which aint cheap and not many techs have one of these to use or to unlock a battery that is locked due to the batteries mainboard soldered fuse shortening out, which is another thing that a tech needs to analyse and fix. As an experienced technician that can fix a power related faulty laptop will fix this mainboard and unlock its battery of your A515-51G also and make it work.

I don't know what is the exact specifications of your Aspire A515-51G laptop, but below are all mainboards that Acer fitted to this laptop and its top spec boards. I suggest that if you buy a new mainboard, you upgrade to the top spec A515-51G board Acer part#: NB.GPC11.004 which there is one for sale on eBay for US $242.28 + FREE shipping with the i7-7500U cpu and the NVidia MX150 2GB gpu, that I've highlighted below from the Aspire A515-51GT laptop. Good luck and hope this helpas you out.

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

All comments

Puraw

Hi @richiecutr ,

Thanks for sharing your experience—frustrating as it is, you're not alone. Based on your symptoms:

No charging during shutdown or idle
Brief charging when replugged
LED blinking inconsistently
New battery and charger already tested

This points to instability in the DC-in power rail, possibly due to degraded MOSFETs near the battery connector or EC firmware misbehavior. These components regulate current flow to the battery, and when they fail, charging becomes erratic.

Before considering a full motherboard replacement, try these steps:

1. EC Reset (Embedded Controller)

Disconnect charger and battery
Hold power button for 60 seconds
Reconnect charger only, then power on

2. OS Compatibility Check

Acer officially supports Windows 10 for this model
If you’ve upgraded to Windows 11, that may cause firmware or driver conflicts
Consider reverting to Windows 10 to restore full compatibility

3. Battery Driver Reinstall

Open Device Manager > Batteries
Right-click Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Uninstall, then reboot

If none of these resolve the issue, then yes—hardware-level repair may be needed. But you deserve a clear diagnosis before spending more. Let us know how it goes!

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728088/my-acer-a515-51g-wont-charge-the-battery-i-have-a-new-battery-and-new-charger

The charging problem in your 2017 Aspire A515-51G is NOT only because of the battery or adapter/charger, it could be the main power rails and its BQ chip or voltage regulator, a mosfet, a capacitor or a resistor that are shorted and faulty and need pinpointing and replacing. Get your laptop analysing by an experienced Technion, but if you can't do that then change this laptops mainboard for either a used working one or a new one, as they not expensive and could be cheaper if you buy a working board and swap the board yourself.

As to fix a locked battery you also need a special tool called an NLBA1 Laptop Battery Analyser which aint cheap and not many techs have one of these to use or to unlock a battery that is locked due to the batteries mainboard soldered fuse shortening out, which is another thing that a tech needs to analyse and fix. As an experienced technician that can fix a power related faulty laptop will fix this mainboard and unlock its battery of your A515-51G also and make it work.

I don't know what is the exact specifications of your Aspire A515-51G laptop, but below are all mainboards that Acer fitted to this laptop and its top spec boards. I suggest that if you buy a new mainboard, you upgrade to the top spec A515-51G board Acer part#: NB.GPC11.004 which there is one for sale on eBay for US $242.28 + FREE shipping with the i7-7500U cpu and the NVidia MX150 2GB gpu, that I've highlighted below from the Aspire A515-51GT laptop. Good luck and hope this helpas you out.

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

richiecutr

My board is an I5 with the Nvidia MX150. They seem to be hard to find. There are lots of search results that link to "out of stock" pages. Acer has an I7 that looks the right shape but doesnt say its a perfect fit. I guess I should call them. Is there a website to help you find a mainboard that i could be looking at? I guess these laptops are holding there value, I just seen one without a video card asking $400 so maybe this one is worth an upgrade. There are just a world of used desktops with modern video cards for $200

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