Power supply problem

[Michael Hennessey]

During one of our Texas power outages I worked with my laptop and ran the battery down. I think it got down to 9%. Power has been back up for 4 days and it's only charged to 12%. When I disconnect it from the power supply it dies immediately. It's a Dell Inspirion 15 7000. Power Manager say the battery is good. I've different charging options to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Michael,

were you running the laptop when the power outage struck?, if you did, it may have caused a short in the battery???????.

 

[Michael Hennessey]

I was working when the power went out. I have the power supply connected to a battery backup.

 

[Bighorn]

Normally a UPS [Uninterruptible Power Supply] will allow for saving of open documents then an orderly shutdown of attached equipment which will prevent damage. It is intended to give several minutes or more if working properly. If the charge in the UPS is depleted before turning devices off it's just the same as a power failure. I use a UPS to avoid computers from turning off when exxperiencing power bumps [short or quick on/off]. When the commercial power fails I'm usually available to turn everything off before the charge is used up.

 

[Michael Hennessey]

I got done with the work I doing before I got a low battery warning. Before the rolling blackouts we had the was at 100%. Now after 4 days of charging it’s at 12%.

 

[Wolfie]

Remove the battery and let the laptop run on mains only for a day, then replace the battery and see how it charges, like I said above, the outage may have caused a problem with the battery!.

 

[Michael Hennessey]

I removed the battery for a day and the charging rate didn’t change. Now at 15%. Going to order another battery. Thank you to all who offered advice.

 

[Wolfie]

Another thought is to clean the contacts of the laptop battery with something like a toothbrush, make sure you are not plugged into the mains and the laptop has sat for at least half an hour without power!.