Windows 10: My battery charger is showing plugged in but battery is not charging. Why?

My charger is plugged in but the battery is not charging

:)

 

Battery plugged in but not charging.

All laptops will say connected but not charging when the battery reaches 100%. There is no trickle charge to keep the battery topped up, it would damage a Li-Ion battery to do so.

It is normal behaviour on a Dell for the battery light to go out when the battery is fully charged. Some other brands I own keep the light on at all times a charger is connected, but change the colour to indicate the state of charge. Usually it's amber to indicate charging, changing to green or white when fully charged. The charging light turning off is Dell's way to tell you it's fully charged. Unfortunately this is indistinguishable from the case of no charger being connected, or an unrecognised charger being used.


Interestingly, while I was waiting for the genuine article to be delivered I found that a spare universal charger I had (the sort suppled with a selection of adapter tips for the lead) would sometimes be accepted by the Dell. I'd plug it in a few times until the battery light lit up then leave it to charge normally. I'd see the same effect in the F2 bios screen, about one time in four when plugging it in the bios would show a '90W adapter' instead of 'unrecognised'. So it looks like the center pin may not be the only way a Dell decides if a charger is acceptable. This may explain why your charger sometimes works. My universal charger certainly had no 'third wire' on the lead's own plug. The Dell adapter's third pin had nothing it could be connected to, but still it would charge sometimes.

I still suspect there's a fault or a broken third wire in your Dell charger.

 

Plugged in but battery does not charge

If the laptop works without the battery then charger is functioning correctly. Take a cloth with a bit of rubbing alcohol on it (or some on-the-go alcohol swabs), and clean the metal contacts that connect your battery to your laptop.

Make sure to install all Windows important updates.

Install latest versions of your laptop device drivers you can download the latest device drivers from the device manufacturer or from your laptop manufacturer website.


Step 1

1. Shutdown your laptop.

2. Remove the battery.

3. Connect the AC power adapter to your laptop.

4. Power on the laptop

5. Open the Device Manager by typing Devmgmt.msc into Start Menu or from Control Panel.

6. Under the Batteries category, right-click all of the Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery listings, and select Uninstall (it’s ok if you only have 1).





7. Shutdown the laptop.

8. Insert the battery.

9. Power on the laptop.

If above suggestions wont resolve the battery charge issue then follow below steps.




Step 2

1. Shutdown the laptop.

2. Remove the battery.

3. Start the laptop with only AC adapter connected to laptop.

4. When you login to Windows OS connect the battery while Windows OS working.





Step 3

Reset the System Management Controller. Use one of these methods to reset the SMC, which controls battery management, battery status light.

1. Shut down the computer and disconnect the power cord.

2. Remove the battery.

3. Press and hold the power button for ten seconds.

4. Reattach the battery and AC power adapter, then start up the laptop.


Hopefully one of the above suggestions will help you resolve the battery not charging problem. If battery still doesn't charge, you may need to replace your battery.

 

New battery not charging


I have an Acer Aspire V3-771 laptop (which is three and a half years old) with its original battery. As the battery is not holding the charge for as long as it used to I decided to replace it. I inserted he new battery, which already showed a charge of 60%, and let it run down to the point when the laptop turned itself off. However, when I tried to recharge the battery, the battery icon showed "6% available, plugged in, not charging". I contacted the supplier of the battery and they sent me a new one. This showed an initial charge of 93% so, in view of my problem with the previous battery, I decided to try and charge it up to full capacity before letting it run down. But as soon as I tried this the battery icon showed "93% available, plugged in, not charging". So I unplugged the charger and again let the battery run down until the computer turned itself off. I plugged the charger in again but then got "6% available, plugged in, not charging". I have no problem charging the old battery, so can anyone please suggest what the problem might be? I have tried taking out the battery and unplugging the charger and holding down the power button for 30 seconds, but this hasn't worked. Grateful for any advice.