Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52/9th Gen/2019: Battery plugged in, not charging - RAM issue?

hdflat
hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
Hi, I've seen this question asked numerous times here, but haven't found a fix yet. 

I got my Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52 back in 2019 and a few months later, my battery stopped charging. My laptop powers on and everything, it's working fine, but i need to keep it plugged in.

Also i can't overclock it while playing games now bc it needs to have battery at 40% but apparently my battery isn't recognized anymore. 

I've tried driver updates, i've tried resetting it with the power button. 

Earlier when i looked for solutions to the problem, i came across this video that talked about a possible problem with a loose RAM connector or something.
I didn't have the guts to open my laptop up and do something about it, but now that I have a loose wire in my webcam and want to install an additional hard drive, i'm considering it.
Problem is, I cant find that video anymore and it looks like the acer forums have been scrubbed of info about this RAM issue. 

All the advice about laptop plugged in but battery not charging issue is so repetitive and centered around the drivers, it's not helpful at all. 

Can someone please help???

Best Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    My best guess is that the battery's own internal charge controller has detected a bad cell and will no longer allow charging or monitoring battery condition to help avoid fire or explosion hazard. The best way to rule in or rule out this guess is a factory OEM system reset or simply replace the battery. If it  was mine, I'd probably bite the bullet, spend $50 on a new battery because a full system reset is pretty drastic and time-consuming

    Jack E/NJ

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Congratulations. Thanks for reporting back. :)

    Jack E/NJ

«1

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    (1) Search 'cmd' in Windows start menu.
    (2) Right click command prompt near top of menu.
    (3) Click run as administrator.
    (4) Enter 'powercfg /batteryreport' at command prompt.
    (5) Then return to the desktop. Open file explorer.
    (6) Then search for' battery-report.html' in the c:\windows\system32\ sub-folder. Double-click to open it in the browser.
    (7) Post screenshot of the first part of the report if possible that compares design full charge capacity with its remaining full charge capacity.

    Jack E/NJ

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,701 Trailblazer
    edited May 2022
    hdflat said:
    Hi, I've seen this question asked numerous times here, but haven't found a fix yet. 

    I got my Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52 back in 2019 and a few months later, my battery stopped charging. My laptop powers on and everything, it's working fine, but i need to keep it plugged in.

    Also i can't overclock it while playing games now bc it needs to have battery at 40% but apparently my battery isn't recognized anymore. 

    I've tried driver updates, i've tried resetting it with the power button. 

    Earlier when i looked for solutions to the problem, i came across this video that talked about a possible problem with a loose RAM connector or something.
    I didn't have the guts to open my laptop up and do something about it, but now that I have a loose wire in my webcam and want to install an additional hard drive, i'm considering it.
    Problem is, I cant find that video anymore and it looks like the acer forums have been scrubbed of info about this RAM issue. 

    All the advice about laptop plugged in but battery not charging issue is so repetitive and centered around the drivers, it's not helpful at all. 

    Can someone please help???

    hdflat this is what I would suggest that you do first:

    1. Check your charger if its working 100% first and it doesn’t activate its safety fuse as all chargers have a safety fuse if there is a power mains short or a laptop contributing short at the AC port or within the laptops circuitries?

    2. Check your side laptops AC port if that is working and your charger is connecting and allowing the charger to charge the laptop?

    3. Check your battery state and do a report (like JackE suggested) and see if the battery is in good order?

    As there are allot of issues that can go wrong with power/charging in a laptop and it needs to be diagnosed properly and by an expert tech who has experience in these issues. if what I’ve suggested above is all ok then there is nothing that an inexperienced consumer can do or fix, so take to an expert.

     


  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    JackE said:
    (1) Search 'cmd' in Windows start menu.
    (2) Right click command prompt near top of menu.
    (3) Click run as administrator.
    (4) Enter 'powercfg /batteryreport' at command prompt.
    (5) Then return to the desktop. Open file explorer.
    (6) Then search for' battery-report.html' in the c:\windows\system32\ sub-folder. Double-click to open it in the browser.
    (7) Post screenshot of the first part of the report if possible that compares design full charge capacity with its remaining full charge capacity.

    Hi, thanks for your response. 

    I tried this and got the following error message: 

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg/batteryreport
    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.
  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    StevenGen said:

    hdflat this is what I would suggest that you do first:

    1. Check your charger if its working 100% first and it doesn’t activate its safety fuse as all chargers have a safety fuse if there is a power mains short or a laptop contributing short at the AC port or within the laptops circuitries?

    2. Check your side laptops AC port if that is working and your charger is connecting and allowing the charger to charge the laptop?

    3. Check your battery state and do a report (like JackE suggested) and see if the battery is in good order?

    As there are allot of issues that can go wrong with power/charging in a laptop and it needs to be diagnosed properly and by an expert tech who has experience in these issues. if what I’ve suggested above is all ok then there is nothing that an inexperienced consumer can do or fix, so take to an expert.

     


    Hi, thanks for your response. 

    1. How do i check this? 

    2. My charger is connected. Blue light is on. When it used to charge properly, the orange light would indicate charging. 

    3. I tried the battery state report. Here's the error message i got: 
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /batteryreport
    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

    I don't want to take my laptop to an expert to fix. I have sensitive data on my device. Even if i back it up and delete it, i know there are ways to recover it. So that's not an option for me. I was searching for the YT tutorial on how to check the RAM issue because it was a pretty simple step by step walk through.


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    >>>C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg/batteryreport>>>
    This is the wrong syntax

    >>>C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /batteryreport>>>
    This is the correct syntax with a space between powercfg  and /batteryreport

    The error message suggests that the file battery-report.html has already been created in the c:\windows\system32\ sub-folder. Search for it.






    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Thanks JackE, I tried it again. Here's what i got: 

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /batteryreport
    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

    Also tried searching for batteryreport.html in the system32 folder but got nothing.


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    >>>Also tried searching for batteryreport.html in the system32 folder but got nothing.>>>

    Sorry, that' probably because you're looking for

     battery-report.html not batteryreport.html


    Also make sure that you're using the elevated or adminstrative command prompt when running this command.

    powercfg  /batteryreport


    As you can see, syntax is a big issue with the command prompt. Even though the command switch batteryreport without hyphen generates a file battery-report with hyphen



    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Thanks for the corrections. 

    I used powercfg with a space before /batteryreport 

    as in: C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /batteryreport

    and got the following error message:
    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

    I actually used three different variations of this command (without space, with one space, with 2 spaces) and they all turned up the same error message. I don't get it.

    Yes, I used command prompt as administrator. 

    I also ran a search for battery-report.html and it turned up nothing.  :-/ 

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Try this command instead. it should output the html file on your desktop. Just copy this command to avoid syntax issues. Then open the elevated command prompt, and paste it with Ctrl+V. Then hit the enter key. BatteryReport.html should appear somewhere on the desktop.
    .
    powercfg /batteryreport /output "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BatteryReport.html"

    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Okay, i just copy pasted that into the elevated command prompt. Got the same error message back. :-/

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /batteryreport /output "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BatteryReport.html
    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Possible Windows file corruption. Try this using the system file check or sfc command.

    (1) Search 'cmd' in Windows start menu.
    (2) Right click command prompt near top of menu.
    (3) Click run as administrator.
    (4) Enter 'sfc  /scannow'

    Then try the battery report again.
     

    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Alright, thanks. 

    After running the sfc command and scan, I received the following message:

    'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.'

    Tried both battery report commands again
    powercfg /batteryreport /output "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BatteryReport.html
    powercfg /batteryreport

    Received this message: 

    Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.

     :'( 


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Try this. Search Windows start menu 'power shell'. Right click 'Windows Power Shell"  to run as administrator. Try it both ways again.
    powercfg /batteryreport /output "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BatteryReport.html
    powercfg /batteryreport

    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Alright, giving these a go: 

    Output 1: The Power Efficiency Diagnostic library (energy.dll) could not be loaded.

    Output 2: Unable to perform operation.  An unexpected error (0x10d2) has occurred:  The library, drive, or media pool is empty.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    My best guess is that the battery's own internal charge controller has detected a bad cell and will no longer allow charging or monitoring battery condition to help avoid fire or explosion hazard. The best way to rule in or rule out this guess is a factory OEM system reset or simply replace the battery. If it  was mine, I'd probably bite the bullet, spend $50 on a new battery because a full system reset is pretty drastic and time-consuming

    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Alright, thanks for all your help JackE! Appreciate it. 

    🙏

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Hey @JackE, just an update: I did a factory reset on my laptop but the issue is persisting. 

    I guess i'll have to get that battery after all. :-/
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,178 Trailblazer
    Thanks for reporting back. Also let us know what happens one way or another after getting a new battery. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. :)

    Jack E/NJ

  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Thanks bud, will do!
  • hdflat
    hdflat Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    Hey @JackE! Just got a new battery and it's charging just fine. 

    Your guess was pretty spot on. 

    I can finally overclock (if i want, though i probably won't bc i'm struggling with high temps rn).

    Though most importantly, I can finally update my bios which my laptop wasn't letting me do before bc it kept saying I don't have enough battery life to do that. 

    Thanks for all your help! 

    Next step - thermal repasting (bc undervolting isn't cutting it with the GPU) :)