Laptop won't charge

[kel1987]

I have an Acer Aspire 3680 laptop.

Problem is, it won't charge. This just started a bit ago but I want to possibly nip the problem now before it gets worse. I have it running off of the power cord now but as soon as I unplug that it says you have 4% remaining.

I've restarted the computer and all that trying to get it to charge but it just won't.

Any suggestions? I've looked into updating the driver but I am kind of leery about that and don't know where I would find the proper driver.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Question(s):

1. How old is this laptop (approximately)?
2. How often do (did) you run it with both battery attached and power-cord plugged into the computer?
3. Which OS are you running on the laptop?

Explaination:
You see, a very common problem with laptops is that people leave the cord attached most of the time, putting unnecessary charge on the battery. Eventually, the battery gets too exhausted to recover itself (the electrons are frozen in place) - which eventually results in symptoms very similar to yours.

As for the OS-question, charging is mainly done by the ACPI-codec IF driver-related at all. There are (many) laptops which rely fully on mechanical solutions for charging the battery. Although some, especially those from Toshiba and HP, rely on ACPI for charging, shutting off, restarting and so on - properly. If you're running Linux, then this might be driver-related. If your running Windows, then this is presumably not driver-related.

Are there any more details beside the questions above?
The TechSpot forum is here to serve, so to speak

 

[pjamme]

good info Lokalaskurar,
I recently replaced a motherboard on a Compag nc6230 for one of our users. It wouldn't charge or start up. I know you didn't want to hear that.

 

[robin_bga]

Hi,
How old is the laptop?
Is that the battery that came with it?
May be the battery is running out, like what Lokalaskurar told you.
But personally i think its a battery problem, and to prove that you need to find out what your system is reporting in power options.
If for some reasons it says that its charging, then that means that the batt is dead, and needs to be replaced.
But it says not charging, then there two possibilities, the adapter could bad or the laptop's motherboard is damaged and needs to be repaired, and for that there are 4legged chips that are designed to charge and also power the laptop, could be that one is dead...
So find out and let us know...

 

[Lokalaskurar]

I should have clarified a bit though:

Leaving the power-cord attached too often, or not often enough, will kill off your battery's lifetime drastically. One should charge the computer 50% of the time, and use it without a cord 50% of the time. This will insure maximum battery-lifetime.

Btw: @kel1987: can you please check your battery? Are all of the pins there? (there should be one missing close to the centre, unless I'm mistaken).