Laptop battery problem

mogchops

Hi, am hoping someone can give some advice!!

I have a toshiba laptop, it was my dads, he passed it on to me at Christmas, and it has worked fine up until recently.


basically, it runs the battery down even when it is plugged in and running off the mains. So as I type, I am using mains power, and the battery indicator shows that it is on AC (full power) mode, and yet the battery percentage is going down down down, about 1% a minute. If it gets to zero & I havent noticed, the pc just shuts down instantly,blank screen, no warning.

If I shut down completely & reboot before this, it starts up fine & then the battery recharges itself for a while, then the same thing happens, it runs down again.

Would this be a problem with the battery, or the lead, or both, or something else?? I really have no idea, so any suggestions would be very welcome.

Many thanks in advance xx

mogchops

sorry to bump....:o

Can anyone help??

fwor

It's ~probably~ a battery failure. Does it get hot while running?

Have you tried running the laptop without the battery installed? Most will run Ok like that, though some will not.

If it works Ok without the battery, it's fairly conclusively battery failure.

If not, does the power status still show as "on AC power" while the battery charge decreases? It may be that the charger is working for a short while and then cutting out.

oliver84_2

Toshiba laptop always get hot than other laptops.

mogchops

fwor wrote: »

It's ~probably~ a battery failure. Does it get hot while running?

Have you tried running the laptop without the battery installed? Most will run Ok like that, though some will not.

If it works Ok without the battery, it's fairly conclusively battery failure.

If not, does the power status still show as "on AC power" while the battery charge decreases? It may be that the charger is working for a short while and then cutting out.

Thanks for your advice, I will try it without the battery and see what happens.

Yes it does get very hot underneath.

Yes the power status still shows as "on AC power" while the battery charge decreases, that is the thing that doesnt make sense to me!

Will report back when tried without battery!

Strider590

This is simple, it's either:

Battery fault
or
Laptop fault

Get a new battery, it's cheaper than a new laptop.

Aiadi

Windows 7 has been associated with loads of battery problems. Is this your OS?

mogchops

Right, have tried it without the battery - it does work, but not terribly well.

DH has cleaned the battery terminals etc, & checked the wiring on the charger. There is possibly a loose connection somewhere but we are not sure where! It is currently working normally again, ie battery charging while connected to and working off mains.

I think we will get someone to have a look at it, got a number for a chap who will do free callout, so may give that a go.

Thanks for all the advice x

its on windows xp by the way, not sure if thats better or worse than windows 7?!

Aiadi

I have had problems to no end with battery not charging and the meter reading wrongly with windows 7 but been always fine with XP. Have you tried updating your bios? as this might help resolve the problem. As others said and as laptop batteries appear less reliable nowadays, it could be that the battery has also become faulty.

closed

In what way does it work but not well without the battery in.

If you are on xp, and still on the first battery, odds are it's had it.