2017 HP Spectre X360 15" will not charge - completely dead

[jcatl]

We purchased a 15" HP Spectre X360 for my wife in November of 2017.  My wife has had issues with the charging cable and port for a while now and has to move the cable to  a certain position to get it to charge (like it's a poor connection with the port). Today it quit charging completely and the laptop battery is now completely dead.

I assume this is either:

- the charger

- the motherboard

- the battery

I know this issue is common on these laptops due to the poor design.  What is our remedy for a laptop that is out of warranty?

[jcatl]

Further information....

- Diagnostic test shows the battery passing

- Computer can't detect presence of an A/C adapter even when it's connected

- When the A/C adapter is connected the charging light goes amber (sometimes it blinks slowly, sometimes it's solid amber).

The A/C adapter does appear to slightly charge the battery over time (diagnostics shows it's close to 80% capacity but windows feels differently and shuts it down after just a couple of minutes).

HP support had me uninstall the battery driver in Device Manager (why does a battery have drivers anyway?) and reboot - this had no effect.

I also see there's an A/C adapter driver (again, why is Windows involved in the charging of the unit?) so I'll try uninstalling that too.

I'm going to buy a charger at Best Buy and see if that charges the laptop since it's a cheap thing to try.

Definitely will never purchase an HP laptop again.  This is HP's premium consumer offering and from perusing this message board it's clear the entire charging system is unreliable and failure-prone after just a couple of years.  Until we can get this resolved, my wife is using her 9 year old Macbook Air which still works and charges with no issues.

[jcatl]

I note that HP quietly changed the charging port in 2018 to a traditional, more robust round charging port. Why?  Because the original USB-C design was terrible and problematic.  But those of us who purchased a model prior to 2018 are left with bricks thanks to HP.  I guess no one from HP wants to respond to this?  I do have a support ticket so I will work it from that angle.  Given the prevalence of problems with these laptops I'm surprised there haven't been class action lawsuits.  An $1800 laptop should not need repairs to the tune of several hundred dollars after 2 years! Where is the recall for this defective product, HP? 

You've lost customers for life with this product.

[KrazyToad]

@jcatl

I have gone through your post and I understand your concerns and frustration

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

Thank you

[jcatl · Accepted solution]

I had a support case (via telephone) open.  The support rep wanted us to send the laptop in for unknown repair costs.  I purchased a new third party charger and the problem is solved.  So basically the provided HP A/C adapter died after two years.  Seems pretty early for such a simple thing to fail.  That said, the third party adapter I bought seems way more robust.