Laptop Battery Works Only Sometimes

[bluemicrobyte]

So I have a Toshiba laptop -- The model is a Satellite A75 S206

About a year ago the battery seemingly died. Since then I've simply used the laptop with the AC cord plugged in. Recently (about a week ago) I noticed the battery charging light was on and the next day when I tried to turn it on I discovered by accident (I thought the AC was plugged in when in fact is wasn't) that the battery has magically come back to life.

However, there seems to be some kind of connection problem between the battery and the laptop since, while on battery power, the machine will randomly power off (instantly) but work just fine seconds later when I turn it back on. This seems to happen when I move the laptop around or turn it on its side or upside down.

What could the problem be? Is it time to buy a new batter? Or is it an internal connection issue?

[Toucan]

You can carefully inspect the contacts of the battery, make sure there clean, also check the contacts inside the battery bay, make sure there still springy and clean.

If you suspect the battery is damaged/faulty you should not use it, a faulty battery can damage your laptop.

[bluemicrobyte]

What should cause me to suspect the battery could be damaged? (It's the original battery and it *used* to work just fine =P)

[FrankZ]

Just as Toucan27 suggested, your battery's connection to the laptop motherboard may be loose or faulty. You might want to take it on the Toshiba laptop service center and let them inspect it, and fix it if the warranty is still valid. If the warranty has already expired, it's then the time for you to fry open your laptop and see the inside for yourself. Note that you should NOT do this if warranty is still valid for it will be void.

[Toucan]

What should cause me to suspect the battery could be damaged? (It's the original battery and it *used* to work just fine =P)
If everything looks fine, but still it works only intermittently, I think it's safe to count it as faulty.

[Neo]

Remember also that (I may be compeltely out of my mind but hey...) I seem to remember that if you charge a battery and then drain it completely, it might help to kickstart old or seemingly trashed batteries.

However things like charging it halfway then use the battery until it's like at 10% then switching back can mess up it's mojo. Or something like that, I'm probably off my rocker.

Anyways I'm pretty sure that popping the battery compartment isn't going to voide your warranty, but anything deeper (Say checking the physical connections at the battery end to the motherboard end) probably would.

-Neo

[Toucan]

Remember also that (I may be completely out of my mind but hey...) I seem to remember that if you charge a battery and then drain it completely, it might help to kickstart old or seemingly trashed batteries.

Yup, you should do that every 6 months.

Run the battery completely out, then charge it up completely, then run it out completely in one sitting, just let it sit there with the screen turned on with a screensaver or something till it goes dead. Turn it on a couple more times, you will find it will probably run for a couple more 5 min periods. then charge it up completely again.

That should do it.

[bluemicrobyte]

Does that work with every battery? I read somewhere that Li-ion batteries are not affected by "usage patterns" like draining them fully then charging them again. The laptop battery I have is a Li-ion battery.

[Darkslayer633]

Most laptop batteries as far as I know don't have a memory, being that since they're laptops and that they will rarely be used 100% they don't remember the charge like say a drill battery does.

[FrankZ]

Most laptop batteries as far as I know don't have a memory, being that since they're laptops and that they will rarely be used 100% they don't remember charged like say a drill battery does.

No, I think your getting Neo's pattern wrong. You see, what he means is not in any way connected to a battery's virtual or non-existent memory (as you have mentioned earlier). What the pattern basically does is drain out the energy so that the Liquid Ion Cells (Li-ion) drop dead and lose all traces of electro-activity, and then charge it back up again so that you'll start out completely clean, with no excess charges within the other sectors of the Ion Cells, this way allowing full energy to pass through the Ion Conductors.

[Darkslayer633]

No, I think your getting Neo's pattern wrong. You see, what he means is not in any way connected to a battery's virtual or non-existent memory (as you have mentioned earlier). What the pattern basically does is drain out the energy so that the Liquid Ion Cells (Li-ion) drop dead and lose all traces of electro-activity, and then charge it back up again so that you'll start out completely clean, with no excess charges within the other sectors of the Ion Cells, this way allowing full energy to pass through the Ion Conductors.


Memory, as in it remembers the charge, not purposefully, think human muscle memory. Like if you consistently charged your battery wen it had 10% left then eventually your battery would consider the 90% you are using as 100% again it has no ACTUAL memory its just a word I used in a different context. If you read the second part of his post then you'll see what I am talking about of course you could always read the post I posted AFTER which is exactly what I am talking about. If I recall correctly NiCAD based rechargable batteries were prone to this sort of thing which could become an annoyance rather quickly.

This article shows what I mean (http://www.zbattery.com/memoryeffect.html)


Moral of the story, before "thinking" I got something wrong, do a little homework, most of us don't appreciate being talked to like morons who can't read, since it was pretty obvious what Neo was talking about to not understand that he meant discharge the battery to empty would be rather moronic.

[Neo]

Darkslayer333 calm down, not many of us understood what you meant by "battery memory" -- I know I didn't.

Though that's still no reason to jump on someone for misunderstanding you.

-Neo