Hp USB-C Essential Powerbank not charging, lights 1, 3, 4 blinking

[smoovew]

I saw a post by a user from March with this same issue and there were no replies, post locked.

My company has purchased the HP USB-C Essential Powerbank as part of our DR strategy for essential IT personnel. I am one of those IT users. Out of the box, my powerbank does not charge. On a weak cellphone charger no lights come on at all. On the HP laptop USB-C charger, the bank blinks all 4 lights a few times then the 2nd light goes off and only lights 1, 3, and 4 blink for as long as the bank is plugged in. I contacted HP support and they actually sent me a new one. I received the new one a few days ago.

It does the same thing. SO, I suspect this is not necessarily a bad (or a couple bad) units but that there is something fundamentally wrong with this setup. These battery packs have a 3 conductor contact patch on the far end where perhaps they can be seated into a multi-unit charging cradle or be connected to some sort of magnetic charger. UNFORTUNATELY THERE IS ZERO USEFUL DOCUMENTATION ABOUT THIS PRODUCT. It comes with a "quick start guide" which says the obvious things like "Plug it in here" and "push the button to see battery level" and that's it.

Yes, I'm frustrated that I have 2 possibly malfunctioning power banks but more frustrated with what a terrible job is being done with this product.  If a device can give a blink code, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO LOOK IT UP SOMEWHERE. If there's some special specification charger you need, it should say that somewhere.

Does anyone know anything about these things? I found 1 post for like 2018 that listed a convoluted series of steps to take to "reset" the battery pack. HP support actually ran me through a somewhat abbreviated set as well before sending me a replacement that has the exact same issue.

[banhien]

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@smoovew wrote:

.. Out of the box, my powerbank does not charge.

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@smoovew 

What is your machine ? You can't use USB-C chargers (or power banks) to charge on many machines. Sounds like it only supports up to 60W.

Regards.

[smoovew]

Your comment is pretty unhelpful. First of all, this is a product specifically marketed as a backup power supply for laptops.

Secondly, if you read my post you will see that the issue with this power banks I have received has to do with charging the power bank itself, not with it just being wrong for my laptop.

But to answer you question, I have tested this on several different HP business models and consumer laptops because I m a desktop engineer and  have a lab full of hardware. Dragon Fly Max, HP EliteBook 850 G7, G7, HP Spectre 360, etc. But that testing has been moot because, as stated before, the power banks will not take a charge no matter the power source.