Battry

[dickewirtin]

My 3 year old laptop works if plugged but the second that I remove the power cable the battery dies instantly.  And when I restart (with power cable re-inserted) it does to a DOS looking screen to restart.   And once restarted all my Win10 settings been wiped clean.   In my techno speak the battery has been fried.. Is this correct and what can I do about it on a software or hardware level?

Thanks,

David

[Huffer]

Replace the battery. On modern laptops with internal batteries the "main" battery also serves as a CMOS/clock battery so if it dies, you will lose BIOS and time settings if you take away AC power. 3 years is about average for needing to replace the battery. It's not "fried" it has lived out is life and passed on.  If you want specific details including places to buy a battery and how to for replacement just post back. 

[dickewirtin]

Hello. That was very helpful and makes sense. I am in UK. So do you know where sells these batteries? Or am I better off going straight to HP? Also are they easy to change? Looking on the back and sides of my laptop the casing looks integral, There is no apparent "hatch" that looks like a battery compartment.

Any further advice welcomed.

Thank you David 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

If you have the model right it is an external clipin battery. Page 15 of the Manual shows where the release latches are to remove the battery.

Manual 

You need this replacement battery by HP Part Number:

4-cell, 41-Whr, 2.8-Ah Li-ion battery  919701-850

HP will have long ago stopped stocking this one. This one is on amazon uk. Its a 3rd party compatible battery but thousands sold on amazon with a 4.5 star average and over 1000 positive reviews so it will work fine for you:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NinjaBatt-919700-850-15-BS015DX-15-BS020WM-15-BW011DX/dp/B084HJNC3M/ref=sr_...

We can likely find you a genuine HP battery but no guarantee it will be any better. Many times genuine batteries are "new old stock" and have sat on a shelf for a few years where the compatible ones from high volume sellers are fresh. At 28 pounds you really cannot go wrong with the amazon product. 

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed. 

[dickewirtin]

Thankyou very much, you did all the legwork for me. I have ordered the battery and have the manual, so fingers crossed.  Thanks, David

[dickewirtin]

Hello Huffer. 

Amazon Prime delivered the battery promptly. I found it easy to install and I am now running solely off the new battery when writing this.

When I restarted the laptop it lost my desktop settings and went through the motions of setting me up again on MS Edge. I was used to this when I had the old battery, which as you say kept the BIOS going. But I am surprised that I am doing it now every time I restart the laptop.  So on a basic level, I'm reconfiguring Edge, re-pinning favourite apps to the taskbar and the desktop screen still has annoying shortcuts to Google Sheet/ Docs etc.  Have I done something wrong?

Thank you,

David

[Huffer]

I have never seen it happen where you need to reapply Windows as opposed to BIOS settings. Windows settings are stored in the hard drive not in the BIOS chip. They should be permanent. There may be some problem with the hard drive. Sometimes when the battery is dead a hard shutdown can corrupt stuff. Very likely you may need to reinstall Windows. Before you do that I suggest a diagnostic on the hard drive. Tap esc as you power up then F2. Run the long test. Some chance a chkdsk might fix hard drive data corruption.