My computer won't take a charge?

Laptop battery not charging

With the growing complexity of laptops, notebooks and netbooks, figuring out why a laptop battery does not charge is not easy. Laptop batteries that suddenly die or notifications like "laptop battery not recognized" or "Laptop battery not charging" trigger valid reasons for suspicion. Even more - simply replacing a laptop battery is an expensive affair and certainly not always the solution. Nowadays there are many components involved in charging a laptop battery. In this story you’ll find a simplified approach to narrowing down a laptop battery problem and possible leads to a solution.

In a hurry? Skip the intro and go directly to the laptop battery charging diagram

Simple laptop battery charging diagnosis

The simplified diagnosis assumes the following;

1) Laptop works on AC power – laptop battery doesn’t charge.

2) Laptop battery has worked before in the same laptop

The approach assumes the smart battery system architecture developed by Duracel and Intel. A DELL Latitude D610 business laptop is used as example.

Although the information here might not apply in all cases, it still might shed light on reasons why a laptop battery does not charge.

Diagnosis approach battery not charging

The diagnosis approach is based on the observation that all laptop battery charging components are active when the laptop is powered off with the AC power adapter connected. This is true for most laptops and eliminates the involvement of the main processor in charging a laptop battery.

Laptop battery charging is managed by a second processor on the laptop motherboard. In this approach the second processor is identified as the POST (Power On Self Test) controller. The controller executes initial test during power-on and manages laptop battery charging. Although this might not apply for all laptops, the observation mentioned earlier still stands.

When the laptop is powered-on information about laptop battery charging can be monitored through either through the BIOS setup screen or for example in Windows or Linux.

The laptop battery charging diagram below shows various components involved in charging a laptop battery. The blue and red marked text indicates click-able text and loads pages with more information.