Laptop won't charge. While plugged in, it fluctuates between charging plugged in, and not plugged in

[cjslaptop]

I have a Spectre x360 laptop, exact model referenced in the post. It recently started a weird charging behavior that results in it not charging. When I plug the laptop into a charger, it fluctuates about every 3 seconds between plugged in charging, and not plugged in. The amber charging light also follows this behavior. If I leave it plugged in, it does this continuously, and the net effect is the battery drains.

The fixes I have already tried, that do NOT work are:

- Installing the latest BIOS ( does install, doesn't fix the issue)

- switching chargers and wall outlets - I have 3 different chargers including the hp one that came with it, all result in the same behavior

- uninstalling and reinstalling the Microsoft acpi-compliant battery charging driver

- disabling the same driver (does stop reporting battery info to windows, but doesn't change the charging behavior)

- fully discharging the battery, holding down power for 15-30 seconds, and rebooting (I don't see this doing anything at all, no lights flash)

- removing and reinserting the physcial battery after opening the laptop up, trying the 15s power button suggestion while the battery is out

The only way I can currently charge the laptop is to completely shut it down (not sleep or hibernate) and plug it in. This will fully charge the battery. I've run the ho support assistant bemattery check while the battery is semi-full, and it passes that fine.

So basically my laptop is useless to me unless I can fix this, since I use it for work and not constantly plugged in at a desk. I can't interrupt a meeting to shut down and charge my laptop for an hour.

Does anyone have any suggestions other than the ones I've already tried and listed out above?

Thanks!

[erico]

How long have you had the notebook?

Just so you know, main batteries in notebooks are warrantied for one year. If you have had the notebook for more than a year, it may be time to replace the main battery.  Most people get two years and more out of a notebook battery.

Try the following

In the command prompt window, type in powercfg /batteryreport and press enter. 

Now type in battery-report.html  at the command prompt and press the enter key.

That will open a browser and invoke the detailed. battery report.

How does the full charge capacity compare to the design capacity? The answer to that question will let you know if the battery is at or near the end of its service life. 

Kindly share the percentages you see for design capacity and full charge capacity. Full charge capacity is the current state of the battery.

You may need to consider an enterprise-class notebook instead of a consumer- grade unit when you replace the one you have.

[cjslaptop]

Hi Erico, thanks for the reply. I have run the report you suggested. It reports the full charge capacity is 52,483 mWh, and the design capacity is the same, 52,483 mWh. I inserted a screenshot here.

 

In the last week or so since I have posted this, I've been trying a million different things just to keep myself running and able to work. It seems at the moment, that as long as I keep the battery at 95-100% charge, and stay plugged in, it will continue to charge and work. If I remove the charger and try to work on battery instead, then plug the laptop in later, it again won't charge and follows the same issues I have posted previously.

I don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole on the enterprise vs consumer-grade machine conversation and take focus away from the support issue.

But bottom line, I fly every other week for work. I can't realistically lug a traditional (heavy, large) enterprise-class machine all over the world. While they have finally made some enterprise class ultrabooks now  - say, HP Elitebook x360 1040 G5 - those still sacrifice all the part-swap convenience the enterprise level machines are known for, since they still have soldered on ram, cpu's, and other high-wear components. Which means they are really no more "repairable" than my half-that-price spectre x360.

[erico]

Hi @cjslaptop ,

Unfortunately, you have not shown me any part of the Batery-report that is useful for me to help you. It contained a wealth of information about the state of the battery  compared to its new state and the charge/discharge history. I wote an article on the subject of your issue a few months back. There is a link to it in the line below. It would help if you saved the report as text from the browser and the  pasted it into your next reply in this thread.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Is-your-notebook-plugged-in-and-not-charging/...

[cjslaptop]

Sorry Erico, all you asked for was the design vs charge capacity so that's what I shared.

I pdf'd the full report but can't find any way to attach a file, only a picture. I tried to paste as text as you suggested, but it exceeds a character limit, and is difficult to read. So I've put in screenshots of the rest of the report instead, let me know if this helps.