Aspire 5516 won't power off AC, battery not charging

rgrunwell
rgrunwell Member Posts: 4 New User

I have an Aspire 5516 that I thought had an issue with the battery being very old. Yet when I replaced the battery with a new one, the laptop came on normally, but was not charging the battery, and eventually it shut off from having drained the battery too low.

 

I removed the power plug and the battery, held the power key for 30 seconds, and then plugged the power plug into the laptop. Pressing the power button resulted in the blue power light on the front and the ON button coming on for about a second, then turning off. It seems like it is polling for a signal that is not present, and shutting down when it is not found.

 

Putting the battery back in and plugging the external power in gives me a very slow-blinking, inconsistant orange light. The machine will not turn on. "Charging" the battery for several days like this yields no different results.

 

I have checked the connections to the plug from the outside of the laptop, and have made sure there is good contact with both the center pin and the outer conductor.

 

Checking the voltage on the plug, I believe I had 15V. Checking the pins that contact the battery (the extreme end contacts) when the power is attached to the laptop showed 0V across them. The other pins showed 3.3V to ground.

 

Online searches mention a fuse that could be the battery's charging problem, but my understanding is that the machine should function on power cord alone with the battery removed. This is currently not the case.

 

Is the laptop designed to power on and function with no battery if connected to external power?

 

If it is designed to be powered externall only and it is not working, what could be the cause?

 

How can it be repaired?

 

What would cause the battery to not charge?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

Best Answer

  • rgrunwell
    rgrunwell Member Posts: 4 New User
    Answer ✓

    That was indeed the solution. I took the laptop and charger to MicroCenter, and they plugged the laptop into one of their chargers, and it powered up at last! $30 later, I have a new power supply, and the laptop is running fine. Thanks!

Answers

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    All of my portable devices will power on with the battery removed but have to ake sure I have the correct charger.

     

    My notes say the 5516 is supposed to have a 19v charger (most of my Acer devices use 19vdc), 15v may be too low to charge.

  • rgrunwell
    rgrunwell Member Posts: 4 New User

    You're right, my memory isn't that good. I re-measured the adapter output at 19.8V.

     

    With the adapter plugged in and no battery, the unit powers for less than one second (front blue and on/off button light) as the on/off is released.

  • rgrunwell
    rgrunwell Member Posts: 4 New User

    No response is discouraging. Since no solution is proposed, it looks like I'll have to wire a power supply to the battery terminals to get this laptop running again. And yes, I will unplug the external power connector if I do, and run the voltage no higher than the battery voltage.

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    If wire directly to the battery, make sure you use a well filtered power supply (laboratory grade is good). While the power supply input is designed to handle some ripple, the battery input is not. 

  • blake
    blake Member Posts: 16 Troubleshooter

    i would take the laptop and ac power to an electronics store. have them check to make sure the ac adapter is working correctly and then have them check out the power adapter plug that is in your laptop. I had to replace my power adapter plug and it is charging again. also have them check out another power adapter charger and see if that does the trick. then i would check out the manuals online for the model number that you have they might also have the solution to it. hope this helps.

  • rgrunwell
    rgrunwell Member Posts: 4 New User
    Answer ✓

    That was indeed the solution. I took the laptop and charger to MicroCenter, and they plugged the laptop into one of their chargers, and it powered up at last! $30 later, I have a new power supply, and the laptop is running fine. Thanks!