Battery not recognized after replacement

[adriano_m]

My laptop's battery got swollen over time, so I replaced it with a compatible one. 
Almost immediately I started having issues: the battery charge level is not recognized, and I get errors at startup (reduced battery capacity and CMOS checksum).

However, the battery seems to do its job: the laptop can live off of it for a decent while, and I can boot it normally.

I tried to look on the internet, and I think I may need to do a calibration. I tried to remove the battery from the device management tab and reinstall the drivers, without success. I updated the BIOS and tried the UEFI diagnostics, but it gets stuck at 1% forever. I tried to use both HP support assistant and HP PC hardware diagnostics, but whenever I tried to run a battery test it gets canceled, except for one single time when it seemed to run ok, but then the battery capacity was still not detected properly. I also tried to run a powercfg /batteryreport which reports a capacity of -1mWh.

Any hint?

[Huffer]

The battery has got some subtle issue with the internal smart chip. Can you get the vendor to replace it?

[adriano_m]

unfortunately no. I have had it for a while, but after some initial disappointment I have kept surviving on the old one for a few months. I was going to buy another one, but before doing so I thought I'd give this one another shot. It actually lasts a decent amount of time, and the hardware support program recognises the device (the right name appears), so it seems to be sort of working and I really think it's some sort of calibration/driver issue. Is there anything I can do before replacing it? 

[Huffer]

Nothing more then you have already done. There is no separate battery driver you can download and install like a network card. It is built into the OS. All you can do is uninstall the battery as a device, reboot and let the driver automatically reload. If trying that once does no good it never will do any good. Seems the actual cells of the battery are fine and hold a charge and will charge and discharge but the Windows battery meter and the advanced battery diagnostics do not work. No reason you can't keep using it for quite some time until you have gotten your money's worth out of it. The only harm it can do is if you let it run all the way down and the system just suddenly dies because you have no warning. This can damage other hardware if it happens too often. 

[adriano_m]

Thanks for your reply. It's very disappointing, such a silly flaw. Any suggestions for a replacement part? (e.g. a specific brand to recommend? I had a quick look on Amazon but mostly found Chinese compatible replacements)

[Huffer]

All laptop batteries are made in China or the Far East. The companies that make generic batteries for their own sale likely also make "genuine" batteries for HP, Lenovo, etc. If you buy from amazon or eBay check their feedback and if there are lots of feedbacks and nearly all positive that is a good battery maker.