[Yoshi8765]

Hi all,

I have horrible luck with laptop batteries and have met multiple episodes of frustration with them. Right now, a very peculiar thing is happening.

I recently bought a new battery pack and charger for my laptop. The battery pack definitely is not out. It holds its charge. But I think the charger is slightly malfunctioned. Or maybe it's not. Let me explain....

I use Samsung's battery life extender program which only charges my battery up to 80%. It's very useful to extend its life. I use my laptop with only the charger plugged in as often as possible and only use the battery when I need to. I was doing this for about a week, but one day, when I was watching a movie, my laptop literally turned off. I did not accidentally pull out the cord or anything. And so, the nightmare starts.

I've had a charger before that broke and did not charge the laptop at all (I think the upper cord got completely frayed) so I was afraid the same thing happened. But when I put the battery on with the cord, the charger behaved perfectly, so I thought it was just a hiccup.

Turns out that when the battery is recognized as fully charged (80%), the charger supplies power consistently. The light at the bottom that signifies the cord is plugged in is green. But, if it is lower than 80% and needs to charge the battery, the light literally turns on and off from red to nothing to red to nothing. I'm guessing this means that the connection of the cord turns off and on repeatedly. If this is hard to understand, I can supply a video.
This happens every time. So much to the point that charging the battery completely to 80% often takes hours.

It is the worst when my battery is low, around 11%. When I put the charger on to charge it up while I work on the laptop, it is so inefficient at charging that sometimes, the battery amount decreases, especially when I use resource-extensive programs. The 10% low battery notice pop-up comes up from the taskbar every couple of seconds when I'm "recharging" from 10% to 11%. Quite annoying.

I've never had this happen before. The weirdest part is that the charger works perfectly when the battery is at 80% fully charged. The only explanation I can think of is that it's not the charger's fault, but there is a hardware problem inside the laptop, where the power jack is inserted. I have no idea how to deal with that, however.
Sorry for this big wall of text, I'd like your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

[srhoades]

Where the charger plugs into the laptop, is that loose, does it wiggle or is it secure?

[Yoshi8765]

It does wiggle a little, but only very very slightly. It does not change the connection, as far as I can see. I think it was like that as long as I can remember.

[srhoades]

Then I would guess the charger is malfunctioning.

[Yoshi8765]

Originally Posted by srhoades

Then I would guess the charger is malfunctioning.

Do you mean the charger/power adapter, or the place where the charger connects to on the laptop (I don't know what it is called, I'll call it power receiver).

I highly doubt the charger is broken; like I said, it was perfectly when the battery pack is fully charged. This is what is stumping me.

Also, the wiggling occurred with other chargers as well.

[Yoshi8765]

I feel horrible for bumping this, but I still have this problem...

[ForeverZen]

You probably need a new motherboard.

Also just throwing it out there, the 80% battery deal only applies to storage. If you store a battery at 80% capacity vs 100% it supposedly increases the life of the battery. Charging it up to 80% the draining it and recharging is just consuming your charge cycles faster than normal.

EDIT: If you feel like trouble shooting, you can take the laptop apart and have a look at the connection for the charging port. The ''wiggling" doesn't mean it's loose or broken because in most laptop it's just a little box that's independent from the motherboard but connected via a cable. I would inspect the plug that goes from the charging port to the mobo and maybe stick a test light in there lol.

[Yoshi8765]

A new motherboard? Does that mean I pretty much have to buy a new computer?
So having it charge only up to 80% is actually worse for my battery?
If it turns out that the connection from the charging port to the mobo is faulty, how hard is it to fix?

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for the multiple questions.

[ForeverZen]

If it turns out that the little charging port "box" is bad then all it takes to fix is a new one. Samsung might sell you one but they're really tiny I can't imagine it will be really expensive. If the mobo is bad then you would probably be better off with a new computer.

[Yoshi8765]

Ok thank you. Although I don't understand how it charges correctly when it is fully recharged when the charging port is broken, I'll check it out. I'll report back and (hopefully) mark this solved.

So should I turn the battery extender program off so that it charges all the way to 100%?

[ForeverZen]

I would let it charge all the way up dude lol. And yeah its weird but its worth a shot. Does your laptop over heat?

[Yoshi8765]

So basically, I shouldn't let my battery get to lower than 10%, and that would keep my battery life longer?

I don't think my laptop overheats. It does get hot from time to time, but not the the point that it stops working or shuts itself down. Is there a way to check?

[ForeverZen]

You can download hwmonitor to check temps. Also before you take the laptop apart you should uninstall the samsung battery thing. It may be shutting your laptop down prematurely because it thinks your voltage is so low that the battery is being drained too much.

[Yoshi8765]

What is the temperature my laptop should be at?
I think you misread what I wrote. My laptop does not shut down prematurely.

On a completely unrelated note, can I ask, how old are you?

[ForeverZen]

For the "package" it should be like 45-60c. Oops lol I re read your post. I'm 23.