Spectre x360 battery not working

[RubenSpectre]

Hello everyone,

I have an issue with my Spectre x360 where it will not work anymore using the battery all of a sudden. (details below).

Last year, I had to replace the original battery after it swell and pried the frame open.

Now, the replacement battery seems to be completely dead (no swelling) after just one year.

I am a bit hesitant to get a new one, because I fear it might be something else that is destroying my batteries (maybe the charging circuit).

Did anybody already experience this issue or know a way to diagnose it further?

Cheers

Ruben

Device: HP Spectre x360 - 13-4105ng

OS: GNU/Linux (Fedora Workstation 38) 6.4.10-200.fc38.x86_64

Replacement battery: 11.4V 56Wh 3 Zellen HP Spectre X360 13-4105ND Ersatzakku (bought from http://hplaptopakku.de)

Issue: Device does work using battery power (does not turn on / immediately dies when disconnecting from wall)

Diagnosis using upower:

upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          BAT0
  vendor:               Hewlett-Packard
  model:                Primary
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Wed 16 Aug 2023 05:31:22 PM CEST (20 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               charging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              51.072 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         51.072 Wh
    energy-full-design:  51.072 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             11.614 V
    charge-cycles:       N/A
    percentage:          100%
    capacity:            100%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-full-charging-symbolic'

[erico]

"Did anybody already experience this issue or know a way to diagnose it further?"  

I am not familiar with diagnosing it within GNU Linux. Windows Battery-Report does a far more granular job.

If the battery does not charge when the laptop is off, either that is a failure in the charging circuit or the battery is actually dead.

I tend to open laptops and inspect the related circuitry, but I have no idea as to your level of understanding of electronics at the component level. You could pay a Laptop shop to do that if you know a good one.

New batteries are relatively inexpensive.

[RubenSpectre · Accepted solution]

After taking out the battery and bridging the protection circuit (DON'T DO THIS… EVER!) I was able to run the laptop from the battery and even recharge it, so that was probably what was broken (or a fuse tripped).

The cells themselves still seemed good, and I couldn't find any issues with the laptop itself.

Unfortunately, this replacement battery (AolsteCell PK03XL) died just shy of one year after I bought it.

Even though the laptop is only 7 years old, HP seems to sadly no longer sell replacement parts, so I have to try a different third party manufacturer this time.