HP Omen 17 laptop... batteries from HP's own referred parts supplier, ITPAS, fail to charge in unit!

[EitherAsparagus]

Greetings,

We have been attempting to replace a worn, older battery of a teacher's Omen 17 gaming laptop. It has been ridiculous; for every new battery we receive and insert that has the correct pinout, shape, and capacity (model PF06XL), the unit refuses to charge the battery. They are all brand new... first one we ordered from an eBay vendor of strong repute and high throughput, silicon_electronics_parts, for $47.60. They assured me it would report as 'genuine' and thus charge, but no dice.

Next, I got in touch with HP themselves (HP Parts Sales AMS <hpparts.sales.ams@hp.com>), who after confirming for me that they had none of these PF06XL designs in stock then referred me to an official 'Authorized reseller' called CPW (http://www.itpas.com/hp.html). After working with a kind rep there, we settled on a $95 battery that was supposed to do the trick. Battery arrived not in factory-wrap with scuff marks but BIOS reported it as being about a year old but having zero charge cycles accrued (ie, new). When installed, that battery reported 69% charge but FAILED the HP BIOS battery check with a 'FAILURE ID' of 94MV4J-AA1B0A-MFPUQK-C0FF03. Also within Windows 10, the charge-progressing AC+battery icon at the bottom-right on the toolbar would only animate for like the first minute, then stop -- and the charge would stay reported stuck at 69%.

Explaining the seemingly 'unwrapped' nature of the battery (although it was at least in a sealed antistatic bag), ITPAS then agreed that there should have been wrap on the case of the battery, showing us a picture of a properly plastic-sealed one and promptly sending it on its way to us. Attempted replacement battery #3 came with wrap on and pristine plastic case, but when installed reads similarly at-odds in BIOS. Over 400 days old but no charge cycles yet, 49% charge, but AGAIN FAILING the BIOS battery test with the exact same error code (was the same with the original, slightly cheaper battery from eBay vendor as well) and having the BIOS ask me to 'Replace.'

I find it mind-spinning that it is this difficult to replace a battery, in a high-end HP laptop that is just getting on four years old... as I've replaced batteries and every other kind of part under the sun in Dell and Lenovo laptops ten and even up to fifteen years old, without ever running into an issue like this. I'm guessing some other poor unsuspecting owner of an HP laptop, hoping to keep their computer from the dustbin, bought that scuffed one and tried it out, and also couldn't get the darned laptop to charge it? =/

In any case, any new advice here would be helpful (magic battery registration/calibration trick, not described in manual or anywhere else?)... but I'm doubtful as I've read other posts and no one seems to have exposed this apparent dead-end with HP's Omen 17 line yet. And, why does the parts reseller not even know about this circus?

[Huffer]

Please favor us with the exact model number of the laptop. 

[EitherAsparagus]

Thanks for offering some of your expertise, and hopefully a new road to walk down. The model is a CTO, labelled  17t-w200. The battery is definitively one of the PF06XL shape and capacity. AC adapter (11.8A genuine HP one) passes its power test in BIOS just fine, but all three replacement batteries have failed with the same code. I find it strange that there is a typo in the latest BIOS update, where there is a 'Battert function' (T instead of Y) option that I think relates to trickle charging at either 50, 80 or 100% of max, to theoretically extend the life of high-demand batteries such as a gaming laptop surely has... but the BIOS update was pulled from HP's official website, so that must be been one hasty programming operation and that's all.

Other than that, no leads on why this has been about two months (going on three) of cyclical madness on my (repairperson's) side of things...

[Huffer]

The PF06XL is a manufacturer designation we buy replacement batteries based on the HP Part number but I assume you are getting batteries either with an HP Part number or compatible. Have you run a full UEFI diagnostic on the battery and the charger? Which video card does your laptop have? 1050, 1060, 1070?

3 possibilities: bad batteries, bad charger, bad motherboard. Very unlikely you have received multiple bad batteries. 

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_2268927-1713329-16

[EitherAsparagus]

Yes, they have been genuine HP parts from ITPAS. From the eBay vendor, I'm not sure. It has the 1070 graphics chip. I'm not sure what you mean by 'full UEFI diagnostic'... within the preboot diagnostics screen (pressing F2) there is one option, under 'Components' and then 'Power,' for testing 'Battery.' This is the test that I run, which says initially it should take about two minutes, but which stops about ten seconds in and then reports the FAILURE ID that I put in my original post. Do you know if there is any resource that HP provides, whereby I could look up part or all of that FAILURE ID, and get a better understanding of what is failing, exactly? Again, the only cue I get from the summary page besides the failure-code-that-reads-like-a-Windows-license-key is 'Replace battery.'

We are going to replace the charger next, with another genuine one. When you say 'bad motherboard,' Huffer, I would clarify that if that is the case then the 'battery recognition circuit' would be the only thing apparently faulty -- as there are no device issues apparent in Device Manager, and all other components pass their tests in that preboot / diagnostic environment. What could cause such a very specific development? I mean, I've seen newer, uber-cheap Dell chromebooks with a USB-C power stage that suddenly fail to charge out of the blue, but I think a specific series of batches of ICs responsible for the charging are at fault with those. Why would this happen to a well-engineered HP gaming laptop that doesn't have the USB-C central power rail?

Pretty dumb, this whole 'authentic battery checking' circuitry... as this would be the likely thing that has failed, AFAICT. The battery that we replaced due to the user stating that it would suddenly not charge any more, was the original HP battery, three years old and only barely beginning to swell.

[Huffer]

Yes I have access to a translator for the error code, but it will usually just confirm bad battery; it may also state bad charging circuit. The characters in the Code mostly ID your machine, the time and date of the test, etc. for warranty purposes. So give me the Code and I will give you the translation. 

You are really asking me whether the charging circuit on a laptop motherboard, even an expensive one, can fail? Yes they can and do unfortunately. So in addition to the Code how about a screenshot of the advanced results of the UEFI test? What tests are available to you in the UEFI diagnostics? You can download a full suite of diagnostics onto a bootable thumb drive and run them that way if your UEFI installation is missing any.  

Right now tentatively I would say the over/under is on a bad motherboard but not enough info to be sure yet. 

[EitherAsparagus]

Again I appreciate your help chasing this. I typed the FAILURE ID alphanumerics in my original post, but you requested the full output... so here is the complete 'results' screen that pops up, after the battery test fails:

Are you saying that there is another suite of testing/diagnostics software, that is more comprehensive than what I get by pressing the F2 key? Because that one is fairly comprehensive (tests like at least a dozen different components)...

[Huffer]

Failure Information

Failure ID Tag Checksum HP Serial Number Test Date Failure Code Device Includes Error Message

94MV4J-AA1B0A-MFPUQK-C0FF03

OK

5CD7411311

1/10/22

601

Power

AC Adaptor, Battery, Cache Battery Pack, Charger, Power Cord, Power Supply

Battery 1

So the test includes the battery and the AC adapter and only the battery shows as bad. It has sat on the shelf a while but not that long. If your F2 diagnostic includes a dozen components then you have the full UEFI diagnostic suite installed on the hard drive. There is a minimal one in the BIOS but it seems you have the full one so no further tests are possible. The mainstream logical diagnosis here is that you have a bad battery. I find it hard to believe you could have gotten multiple bad ones but I guess its not impossible. Since the adapter tests good its either the battery or the motherboard and if the laptop boots up and runs OK on AC power it seems the motherboard is not very likely bad (although also not impossible). If it were mine I would try a known good battery as a last ditch effort. I can help you find one if you wish. 

[EitherAsparagus]

Thank you for your continued help here, and for all the specific and meaningful information. Wow, also... thanks for the 'known good battery' offer! I would be willing to assist with shipping, and can ship it back to you as well. Or maybe rather, I will ask my teaching colleague, if she would be willing to sink a little more in along these lines to get a definitive diagnosis. She's already gotten quite the deal, as I do an afterschool electronics repair club with a few students... and we've only asked for a small donation so far (even though this 'repair' has dragged on for months / several additional shipments of batteries! 😃

Let's wait first until the alternative OEM 230W charger comes in and I test with that (since it is still REMOTELY possible that the current one just isn't delivering enough... well, current LOL). In the meantime, maybe let me know how we could coordinate the whole test battery thing? We are the Franklin School of Innovation, zip code 28806 (Western NC)...

[EitherAsparagus]

And just to be certain... there's not possibly something 'bad' about the most recent BIOS revision for this device, available on HP's website? One of the first things I did when the first battery didn't charge, was download and apply that BIOS update. Only suspicion I have is the 'Battert' typo in the trickle charge level option in the BIOS currently...