Battery charges but constantly switches from Battery to AC and vice-vers. Acer Aspire 7 715-71G-53BE

TLDR: It randomly stops charging, Goes to battery-mode, and then after some random time, starts charging again(switches to AC).

It gets plugged in, It charges to 100% but then it stopped being indicated as 'plugged-in' and shows as if the cable is unplugged. Drops to 99% and starts charging again, indicating 'plugged-in'. And so on...
When fully charged, this switch happens every 6,7 seconds. Never switching to actually being fully charged and AC in.
Note that when the battery hits 100%, it doesn't indicate as 'plugged-in' anymore. Doesn't matter if I replug too... It has to hit 99% to start charging again
However... It stops even before hitting 100% and starts charging again.
The full charge cap is 38,213, where the design cap is 48,944.
Battery report shows battery usages of 7seconds throughout the day and constant switching between AC and battery.
Battery health is 'Good' according to Acer care.

I have reset the battery using the battery pin-hole, done the battery-software reset using the power button, updated windows and drivers, uninstalled the battery drivers twice, and switched power plans.

The charging adapter doesn't get hot or even warm if that matters. Every component was physically taken care of and there shouldn't be any physical wear or damage on any part. The laptop was rarely moved from one spot.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/qo/lmu0td4w0vax.png

Charging, Battery cycles. every 7seconds.

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The battery stops charging even though it's plugged in.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/94/l609se0cfz1e.png

And starts charging after a few seconds.
And then it stops... Replugging the cord doesn't start charging sooner. The 5-8seconds has to pass!

The laptop temps seem normal as they always have been. Cpu is around 51c on desktop and 70c in heavy gaming.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/fa/9ushdsh4gloc.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/nx/4zpk3o9n2kwa.png

This issue started happening on its own without any major software installation or updates.
The laptop started having blinking orange light even at 100% which the software-power button reset fixed the blinking.

Accepted answers

billsey

Is the power in connector a bit loose? Although I wouldn't expect that to give nice, consistent changes like that. Perhaps there's a mismatch between the battery's internal stats and Windows, causing one side to say 'fully charged' and the other 'almost charged'. There's a battery reset button under a pinhole on the bottom of the laptop. Using something like a bent paperclip with power disconnected press the button and hold it for 15-30 seconds. Then release the button and wait 15-30 minutes. Next plug the power back in and wait for the full battery indication and finally turn it back on. That process resets the battery's internal configuration. If that doesn't clear it up do a few battery recalibrations in Windows. Turn the laptop on and run it on battery until is shuts down to to low battery level (typically at 3-5%). Plug the power back in but don't turn the system back on until it shows a full battery. Rinse and repeat a few times, each time Windows will get better at knowing the actual battery status. Let us know how it works out and if it's doesn't clear up we'll try more diagnostics...

All comments

billsey

Is the power in connector a bit loose? Although I wouldn't expect that to give nice, consistent changes like that. Perhaps there's a mismatch between the battery's internal stats and Windows, causing one side to say 'fully charged' and the other 'almost charged'. There's a battery reset button under a pinhole on the bottom of the laptop. Using something like a bent paperclip with power disconnected press the button and hold it for 15-30 seconds. Then release the button and wait 15-30 minutes. Next plug the power back in and wait for the full battery indication and finally turn it back on. That process resets the battery's internal configuration. If that doesn't clear it up do a few battery recalibrations in Windows. Turn the laptop on and run it on battery until is shuts down to to low battery level (typically at 3-5%). Plug the power back in but don't turn the system back on until it shows a full battery. Rinse and repeat a few times, each time Windows will get better at knowing the actual battery status. Let us know how it works out and if it's doesn't clear up we'll try more diagnostics...

Jacy

Thank you for your great response
I did the exact same steps you've mentioned. However, I have had already did the battery reset button using the paperclip.
But after that, emptying the battery and recharging from the drained battery twice, software reset thrice, and then letting the windows recalibrate worked!
de-charging/Unplugged sessions started happening decreasingly less and less(from 6 seconds to 7,8,...) and now after 6hours of the laptop being plugged-in, it's staying at 100% and plugged-in. (for 1hour now)
I do believe it was a mismatch just like you said since I was getting small glances of 30% battery the moment it would indicate as plugged-in/charging right before it went up to 99%.
Worth noting, I did put the maximum power state of the battery and plugged-in to 100% too(In windows power settings) in case that helps someone in the future and started gaming even! But I basically did the same things you said and overtime it started fixing itself more and more until now that it seems fully calibrated.
Thank you again! You were 100% correct!
I'll come back if it starts happening again and the same solution doesn't work anymore.

Sid007

Hi,

I started having this exact same problem about 10 days ago (mid-Jan 2021) - Battery charges but constantly switches from Battery to AC and vice-versa. It switches every 7 seconds or so, and makes an annoying "beep" sound with every switch making it unbearable to use... Equally i'm a DJ and use this laptop for events, hence this makes it impossible for me to use this laptop for my work at the moment! (Albeit Covid has killed all my work at the mo...!)

In addition, it doesn't seem to charge to 100% anymore. It was originally getting stuck around 74%. So i followed "billsey's" post / procedure above (Oct 2020) and with each new charge and then subsequent running on battery until it switches itself off, it seems to be charging fuller each time, but still never getting to 100%. It seems to have flattened out at around 93% maximum charge, and won't get above that? But i will keep trying...

But the main issue here is the constant switching back & forth between Charging (AC) mode and Battery mode every 5 seconds or so, and the annoying "Beep" that goes along with it.

NOTE : It doesn't do this when i "start" re-charging the battery from completely empty... it only seems to start doing this after the battery has reached around 75% and above. And in fact, just now whilst i'm writing this, the charge has reached 93%, (doesn't seem to want to go any higher), and the constant switching has just suddenly stopped, all on it's own?!? ..... All very concerning really...

In case it helps I just did a battery report:

SYSTEM PRODUCT NAME	Acer Aspire A715-71G
BIOS	V1.10 08/22/2017
OS BUILD	19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
PLATFORM ROLE	Mobile
CONNECTED STANDBY	Not supported
REPORT TIME	2021-01-29 13:11:48

And here's an extract of the battery usage :

2021-01-26 13:40:11    Active     0:00:07    -    16 mWh
13:41:28    Active     0:00:07    -    15 mWh
13:42:32    Active     0:00:09    -    15 mWh
13:43:28    Active     0:00:08    -    -
13:44:13    Active     0:00:08    -    16 mWh
13:44:56    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:45:36    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:46:17    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:46:53    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:47:26    Active     0:00:07    -    -
13:47:57    Active     0:00:08    -    31 mWh
13:48:29    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:49:00    Active     0:00:09    -    16 mWh
13:49:32    Active     0:00:08    -    -
13:49:58    Active     0:00:08    -    -
13:50:26    Active     0:00:08    -    16 mWh
13:50:52    Active     0:00:08    -    -
13:51:18    Active     0:00:08    -    -
13:51:41    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:52:07    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:52:33    Active     0:00:08    -    30 mWh
13:52:56    Active     0:00:08    -    16 mWh
13:53:22    Active     0:00:08    -    16 mWh
13:53:48    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:54:11    Active     0:00:08    -    31 mWh
13:54:37    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:55:00    Active     0:00:08    -    30 mWh
13:55:23    Active     0:00:08    -    15 mWh
13:55:46    Active     0:00:08    -    -

If anyone can help solve this issue for me i would be very grateful!!

Thanks.

billsey

It sounds like you are mixing the battery reset and the Windows battery recalibration, though that might not be the problem. The Windows recalibration is run it on battery until it shuts down due to low battery, then charge it fully before turning it back on. Each time you do that it gets a bit better with the estimates for battery life. The battery reset is disconnect from power and shut down, then press and hold the reset button for 15-30 seconds. Wait for 15-30 minutes then plug the charge back in. Wait for it to indicate full battery and turn it back on. The issue is that there are two places where battery stats are saved, in the battery itself and in the computer. They both tend to get mucked up over time...

Stan1984

Hello, I have a similar problem, I followed all the recommendations I read from you (several times), but the problem remains. I even removed the battery on the motherboard to reset the BIOS, but that didn't help either. Interestingly, while setting up the BIOS, the laptop kept turning the charging on and off. This means that my problem is not at the Windows level. Please give me some advice. Thanks in advance

billsey

@Stan1984 since this thread has already been marked as solved (and it's more than a year old) you would be better off to start a new one with your question (use the Ask a Question button). Make sure to include your full model number (such as Aspire 715-71G-53BE in this thread), what you are having issues with and what you have tried so far. We can then dig into your problem and you can mark a solution when appropriate.