On 6/1/2014 9:48 AM, N_Cook wrote:
On 01/06/2014 16:31, Gareth Magennis wrote:
Hi,

this looks a little strange:

My laptop battery today has stopped charging. If you connect the PSU,
it will charge for about 20 seconds, then stop, but the machine then
runs on the battery, not the PSU.
Every time you remove the PSU cable and re-insert it, it will again
charge for about 20 seconds before stopping and again running on the
battery.

It is not the PSU socket, as the same thing happens if you remove the
PSU's mains supply instead.
I have tried another PSU, exactly the same.

I have removed the battery, and the laptop is happily running on the PSU.


Why would the laptop run on the (faulty?) battery rather than just
switch to the PSU?
It was saying it was charged to 60%.

Any tests I can do to see if it is is the battery, or something in the
laptop?



Cheers,



Gareth.

Are there any pics in wwwland where someone has broken into the same
battery type and found exactly where the supervisor chip lurks?

Your question suggests that you have info on some chips.
Spill...
We know where the chip lurks. But WHAT chip might be relevant.

I've taken apart a bunch of laptop batteries.
Most older laptops that have been sitting in the closet for years
have problem batteries.
Many can be made to work if you take 'em apart and charge the cells
individually. Once the voltage is up, they often work, but may never
calibrate. I'd have to turn off the battery management. They'd run
for an hour or more after the gauge hit zero, then quit suddenly.
If you can tolerate that behavior, it's all good.

Some of the Dell's flash a code on the battery test leds when you push
the button and on the led on the laptop, but work fine.

Others won't come back at all. Rumor is that they started putting the
config info in RAM. Once power is lost, they ain't coming back without
a lot more knowledge and equipment than I have.

I've been able to fully recover ONE. It had a PIC controller
and I hit the reset pin. It worked.

There was a software suite that you could use if tapped into the
middle of the battery's controller on the second bus. It cost WAY
more than a new battery, so impractical for a typical user.

There are significant safety issues when doing this stuff.
I charge 'em on a surface that won't catch fire easily.

And I'd NEVER sell a laptop with a battery that I'd tampered.
A fire caused by any means would bankrupt me by the time the
lawyers got into the fray...even if it was unrelated to what I did.