'Set the Charge Bit' after laptop battery replacement - (Not Kill Bit - OP error)

[Illuminuty]

About a week ago, I replaced an embedded 45 watt prismatic battery with a new one in a friend’s notebook PC: HP ENVY x360 - 15-u110dx  

Specs and Issues are listed below the initial repair info

Repair Information:

After installing the new battery and powering back on, the taskbar icon showed the battery to be plugged in but not charging. After reading HP Support website info, I performed a Hard Reset (I first removed the battery and any external port plug-ins - charging cord, USB receiver, flash drives, etc.) The system was then able to charge the battery. I attempted to calibrate the battery with a deep discharge to 5% followed by a full charge. I gave it back to him after setting the Power Plan to Hibernate at Critical Battery Action and 5% at Critical Battery Level. I educated him about how to prolong battery life in general, and at least once a month, to unplug the charging cord and let the battery discharge to at least 20% and then fully charge it to 100%. At 30 discharge cycles, I will recalibrate it for him. The next day, I checked in with him, and the battery was plugged in but not charging. Power cord was already plugged into a working wall plug and seated into its connection port with a blinking white light. I did a hard reset without removing the battery, and the system started charging the battery at desktop after reboot. I reset the power plan to not hibernate or sleep. He is using it this weekend and I am researching calibration methods and will do HW tests from UEFI next week.

Perhaps I need different calibration techniques. I did see some instructions about multi-step calibration methods. I also read instructions on how to perform a manual calibration involving 3 deep discharges/recharges where the battery completely discharges and the system powers off. Maybe there is a HW driver conflict with Hibernation/Sleep settings, or a damaged system board.

I read about, ‘Set the Charge Bit.’ Perhaps my friend powered off his system before it was able to return to 94%. Do I need to calibrate again with a deep discharge to 5% with an uninterrupted full charge? If I do, will the system automatically let the battery return to 94% before it charges the battery? Or do I unplug the charging cord until the battery state of charge reaches 94%?

 

Specs and Issues prior to battery replacement

HP ENVY x360 - 15-u110dx (ENERGY STAR); J9H89UA; Windows 10 Home - factory installation

HW components: 1TB HDD, (no SSD), HD 5500 on-board graphics, 2.2GHz 5th generation Intel Core i5-5200U, BeatsAudio, and 8GB SDRAM.  Connects wirelessly with Bluetooth 2x2 802.11ac WLAN

He purchased this PC in 2015 with no extended warranty. Sure enough, the battery stopped working in March of this year, 2017, he said.

His PC could power on and continue running as long as the AC cord/adapter stayed plugged in. I did several system checks, which showed his battery as either: 1) no battery present (taskbar icon) or 2) Primary Battery SN as 0000 with the date as 00/00/1980 (in BIOS system information). When I ran the HPSA battery from the desktop, I got a blue screen error message and then an automatic reboot; it didn’t stay on long enough to take a picture from my CP or write down the exact message, but I recall that the general message stated: ‘The system has encountered an unexpected problem and will restart.’ I hit F2 and went to the UEFI utility. The Battery Test showed ‘no battery installed,’ but I ran all the other HW tests with PASSED as results. The BIOS showed the System Time and Date to be the same as the Born on Date of 05/12/2015.

History: He never unplugged it while using it and knew nothing about calibration and battery cycle counts, (a common issue with the average laptop/notebook user.) He doesn't recall any particular issues, such as dropping it, lightening storms, or attempts at updating the BIOS. He has been running the notebook with the AC charging cord only since then, but wanted to get the battery repaired or replaced so he could use it like intended - without the AC charging cord. I had to wonder if system updates created problems with the charge bit not being reset or something similar.

I ran the battery safety recall tool on the HP support site, but his battery and AC cord were not approved for replacement.

The battery was not available on the HP product support parts catalogue ('Item not available yet') - so he ordered it from a third party site on Amazon Prime with my guidance.

While waiting for its arrival, I powered on the system. After noting several errors, I did several system checks from the desktop HPSA app and UEFI, looked for malware, and performed software maintenance tasks and updates.

Boot Error Message – At power up, black screen showed CMOS Checksum Error; the system then auto-started a quick disk check of about 7 seconds with no result displayed, and then loaded the Windows desktop environment

Desktop Error Message – I disabled startup of the following two items and then uninstalled Dragon at his request; I will reinstall Accelerometer later.

As the desktop loaded, it showed an error message about the accelerometer not loading (the app that helps prevent HDD damage) and another error message showed that the Dragon Assistant could not load.

Other than not having an active third party AV/AM and overly full cache files, his software apps run fast and seem clean from malware or poorly written third party apps. All Windows OS system files were current.

[DavidSMP · Accepted solution]

Hi @Illuminuty,

Good Day. A warm welcome to the HP community. I reviewed the case the regarding battery charging issues with an error plugged in but not charging. I will be delighted to assist you here.

Superb description, brilliant troubleshooting and terrific observations made before posting. Kudos to you for that. 🙂

To assist you with accurate information I would require more information regarding this.

• Did you try to uninstall the battery drivers and reinstall them back on?
• Did you try to update the bios, chipset and graphics drivers?
• Did you run diagnostics on the battery?

For now please try these steps:

First, uninstall the battery ACPI drivers from device manager by following these steps:

• Right-Click on start button> click device manager> expand Batteries>then select all the drivers including the ACPI drivers and uninstall it one at a time. Then restart the computer.
• Later please delete the existing power plan and select the balanced power plan mode from this link: http://hp.care/2syi9um

Some tips to enhance battery life:

• Please always charge the battery to 100% and use it on battery standby.
• Then when the charger is plugged in, there is no issue here. However, when you continue to sue the computer on battery standby, make sure to drain down the battery to lower than 15% before recharging the battery again.
• One in a while, for example, once in 15 days, save up all your work when the battery shows a notification that it is low on charge and allow it to drain down completely before charging again, which enhances the battery’s life and performance.
• This across devices like camera, cell phone or notebook.
• This is because, with each charge and discharge, the battery completes 1 charging cycle and the life cycle of the battery diminishes.
• The battery has a life cycle of a standard amount of charges and discharges only. (depends on the size of the battery)
• It is never a good idea to charge the battery to 100% and deplete 30% of its charge and connect the charger to it again.
• Because you lose out on 70% of its remaining charge and complete only battery charging cycle if you plug the charger back to charge the battery.
• As it goes from 70% to 100% charge and completes 1 charging cycle.

Please check this link out to improve battery performance. There is an associated video included as well. Link HP Notebook PCs - Improving Battery Performance (Windows 10, 8, 7): http://hp.care/2syuGOs

Also please follow these steps:

• Right-Click on start button> click device manager> expand display adapters>then select the display drivers that are listed and right-click on it and uninstall the drivers.
• Check the box that states delete the software for this device.
• Then restart the computer and update the bios chipset and graphic drivers from this link: http://hp.care/2unSUMQ

Make sure to use HP support assistant and windows to keep HP drivers and Windows updates always updated.

• For further assistance, please follow all the relevant steps that match your current issue from this link: http://hp.care/2syheXK
• Also, make a note of any failure code for a failed component like the battery or adapter (charger)
• Please re-calibrate the battery as well from this link: http://hp.care/2symZV5
• This should do the trick for you.

Please perform all these steps patiently as it is critical to resolving the issue. The trick is to remain patient, Going by your technical expertise and competence I am sure you will be able to perform these steps without breaking a sweat. 🙂

Hope this helps. Let me know how this goes. I genuinely hope the issue gets resolved without hassles and the unit works great. 🙂 Please reach out for any issues and I'll be there to assist you. 🙂

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

Take care now and have a splendid week ahead. 🙂

[DavidSMP]

Hi @Illuminuty,

I. I reviewed the post completely. thanks for the quick response. You've displayed amazing technical skills, profound technical expertise and commendable research to try and find answers for the issue. Kudos to you for a job well done. It is greatly appreciated. 🙂

Some times there is more to it than meets the eye. The battery could have issues and behave this way. Try with a different battery if that is possible. That goes for the charger also. But please try the other steps in the links from my previous post. It might fix the issue.

Trust me I've done all I can to assist you by keeping your best interest in mind. You've been commendable and it has been an absolute privilege to share this platform with you. :)I genuinely hope the computer works great and stays healthy for a long time.

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

You take care, stay healthy, keep smiling big and do have a blessed year ahead. 🙂

[Illuminuty]

Hi David,
Major KUDOS to you!! Following your procedural outline, I have acheived my primary objective: getting the system board to detect the accurate state of charge, calibrate, and then charge the battery to FCC while plugged in, (the 'Charge bit' was indeed reset after unplugging the AC cord at 100% charge after reboot.) The delimma: because the main battery died, the state of charge was misread by the system and the new battery was plugged in but not charging. (My untrained assessment. (I just realized that I have used the term "Kill bit" instead of 'Charge bit.'I suppose it felt like I killed it until now. :smileyvery-happy:)
The missing piece - allow the system board to accurately read the state of charge with the correct drivers and the new battery. Without a hard reset and temporary removal of chipset and graphic drivers, the system board thinks the old battery is still there, n'cest pa?. And, to acheive accurate calibration and state of charge, I had to prevent the system from preserving the stored RTC settings with 'Sleep' mode. Do some MBs run the RTC with only a main battery and no longer have a CMOS battery? Or if they do, are they soldered on, making them non-removable? The main battery died, so the BIOS can't be reset by removing/replacing the CMOS battery. Complicated. I bet many boards are ruined by incorrect procedures and/or ESD (the fate of my first build; free radicals looking for a home.)
Anyway, I had to create a High Performance power plan with settings in 'Never' and 'Hibernate' instead of, 'Sleep,' so that the battery could fully discharge and clear the memory and MB capacitors. After manual battery calibration, I set the power plan back to 'Balanced.' Is that the 'Standby' mode you referred to?  Or does it include Hibernate? The term, "Standby," is not used much in the literature I read. I will use the  high performance power plan for future calibration. Or just create a new one altogether. I also perceive that 'Deleting' a power plan means actually hitting a delete link or creating new settings in control panel. I see why notebooks need higher rated components to run today's notebooks, tablets, and phones. Sure is asking a o lot for a system to run on a three or four cell battery with limited discharge times and still deliver some performance. I can hear the sounds of tormented LPT gamers now. No wonder you corrected my erroneous approach to recalibration. Thanks! That was good info. Makes sense. Of course, when I told my boss about why his battery went out and why he should do a calibration twice a month, he rolled his eyes and said, "I'll just bring it to you."  Embedded batteries might serve some utilitarian function (or corporte profit line,) however, the average user's budget sure takes a hit if they don't understand the need to 'exercise' the battery. How many users keep their laptops plugged in all the time? Most? I have heard several people say they keep the AC charging cord plugged in, "So that the battery will last longer." Wow. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Thanks again!! :cathappy:

[DavidSMP]

Hi @Illuminuty,

I read the quick response. thanks for the quick response. I am also glad that my steps helped you a great deal. You've displayed remarkable troubleshooting skills, fantastic efforts and infinite patience to get this done. Kudos to you for a job well done.

 It has been a fabulous experience working with you. 🙂 🙂 You've been simply amazing with your technical expertise and thanks again for giving me the privilege to share this platform with you. 🙂

I hope the unit works great and stays healthy for a long time. 🙂

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

You take care, stay healthy, keep smiling big and do have a blessed year ahead. 🙂