"plugged in, not charging" problem

[RCPropst]

I fixed my problem by replacing the battery and the power cord.  My computer is working just like new. 

[Sparkles1]

Hi @RCPropst,

Thank you for your update and I am pleased to hear that you have the issue resolved.

[ndiamond]

For my computer it's not worth the expense of a new battery, but I hope my next attempt to buy a replacement used power supply might win.  Someone outbid me by 10 yen at the last moment in an auction a few days ago.

If it turns out to be the jack or the motherboard, this computer won't be worth replacing.

I still wish the battery could be fixed to reveal its real capacity, which I think is around 600 mAh not 1 mAh, around 8 years after it was manufactured.  Then if the AC power drops out for a minute, Windows will be able to wait a minute before hibernating, to see if the AC connects again.

[deetrumpet]

A new battery might not be expensive. Three months ago I paid $18 on amazon.com for a new high-capacity 8800 mAh battery for my HP laptop. It's always a risk buying electronics parts online, but this one works fine.

[ndiamond]

Luckily a replacement AC adapter isn't cutting out.

It still would be nice if the battery could be persuaded to report its actual maximum capacity (which I estimate to have deteriorated to around 600 mAh) instead of 1 mAh (which is clearly wrong, but Windows drivers don't know that it's wrong).

[Sparkles1]

Hi @ndiamond,

Thank you for your reply.

I understand that after replacing the AC adapter it is no longer cutting out but the battery capacity is still not showing correctly.

If  the battery passed the hardware check there are a couple of other things to try. The Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery is basically the driver that communicates between the computer and the battery. There is a chance that it is corrupted and  is reading the battery level wrong.

Step 1. Go to Device Manager
Step 2. Select Batteries
Step 3. Right click the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" that is listed there
Step 4. Click Uninstall
Step 5. At the prompt put a check in the box to remove the current driver
Step 6. Shutdown the computer

Step 7: Remove the battery for minute and then put it back in

When the computer comes back up it should automatically find the driver.

Step 8. Go to Device Manager
Step 9. Select Batteries
Step 10. Right click the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" that is listed there
Step 11. Click "Search automatically for updated driver software"

Do the same thing with Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller.

Good Luck!

[ndiamond]

An "Unknown device" has IDs ACPI\PNP0C0A and *PNP0C0A.  It uses drivers battc.sys and CmBatt.sys, both provided by Microsoft and built in to Windows 7.  It uninstalled successfully.

"Microsoft AC Adapter" has IDs ACPI\ACPI0003 and *ACPI0003.  It uninstalled successfully.  Oh, that was a dumb experiment.  Windows hibernated immediately because it decided it was running on the battery which doesn't supply enough power.  But hibernation completed successfully.

On awakening, Windows reinstalled the "Microsoft AC Adapter" and two "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery"s.  Only one battery is attached but I understand the second slot.  The "Unknown device" didn't come back.

One battery has IDs ACPI\PNP0C0A and *PNP0C0A.  That looks familiar.  And yes, I guessed right what drivers it uses.  The other battery has the same IDs and drivers.  They both uninstalled successfully.

I'm not uninstalling the "Microsoft AC Adapter" this time.

"Microsoft Composite Battery" has ID COMPOSITE_BATTERY.  It uses drivers battc.sys and compbatt.sys, both provided by Microsoft and built in to Windows 7.  It cannot be uninstalled.

Your instruction "At the prompt put a check in the box to remove the current driver" cannot be obeyed.  There is no such checkbox.  This is Windows 7.  However, the batteries uninstalled successfully.

Your instruction "Do the same thing with Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller" cannot be obeyed.  There is an ACPI Fixed Feature Button, ACPI Lid, ACPI Sleep Button, and a bunch of fans and thermal zones, but Windows does not see an ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller.

HP Battery Check no longer finds the battery, Status: Unknown(94).  OK, the tool depends on Windows drivers which no longer know about the battery.

I don't know why you ask me to shutdown instead of hibernate at this point, but OK.  I will shut down, remove both the battery and the AC adapter, press the power button for 1 minute to remove flea power, reconnect everything and boot ...

Yes, after rebooting, Windows found both battery slots again.

"Search automatically for updated driver software" says that the driver software is up to date.

HP Battery Check finds the battery.  The battery still reports that its full charge capacity is 1 mAh, but I still think it's around 600 mAh.

The battery has a printed sticker saying 8 cells, but HP Battery Check finds 4 cells, voltages 4117 mV, 4113 mV, 4128 mV, and 4115 mV.

It's not so important to fix the battery now that a replacement AC adapter is working, but it would still be nice.

Is there some way to make the battery report its actual full charge capacity?

[Sparkles1]

Hi @ndiamond,

Thank you for the update.

As you have tried all the previous troubleshooting suggested, please contact HP support for further assistance  with the capacity issue.

Please contact HP support at Contact HP Support

Best of Luck!

[ndiamond]

The warranty expired around 7 years ago.  Surely a call to Support would cost more than buying a replacement used PC!

Perhaps a suggestion could be made to developers of battery firmware to make new batteries more capable ofcalibration and reporting actual maximum capacity at whatever the actual level is after years of degradation.

[Sparkles1]

Hi @ndiamond,

Thank you for your comments.

Here is a link to HP Notebook PCs-Understanding Lithium-Ion and Smart Battery Technology .

Batteries  do degrade over time and some cells may indeed be dead and therefore not detected during calibration.

Hope this helps.