Another person with 'Battery won't charge' problem...

This is actually on my sisters AOA150; I believe she managed to run it flat, then didn't charge it for several weeks afterwards - so total depletion is probably the cause.

Anyhow, the symptoms.

When on AC power, the charging light comes on orange as usual - windows claims the battery is charging, but it never moves from 9%. As soon as AC power is disconnected, the machine immediately switches off - the charge isn't sustaining the machine for any time at all, as though no charge is entering or leaving the battery at all.

The Notebook Battery Info tool agrees with Windows... sort of:-

Power State: AC Power Present. The Battery is charging.

Rate: 0mW
Voltage: 11066mV
Current: 0mA

The tool also reports the battery as having only a 3% wear level; which seems impossibly low for a battery that is 6 months old.

The AOA originally had the 3301 firmware, but following advice elsewhere that updating it might resolve the battery problem - I updated it to the latest I could find, 3314. It has unfortunately made no difference

Any ideas?
We have a courier coming to pick it up tomorrow to return it to Acer for repair (still in Warranty period), but it'd be nice to know what the problem is and what Acer are going to do to repair it.

:edit:

Oh, just to clarify a little more - the problem definitely lies with the battery, as i've tried swapping it around with the batteries from a pair of AOA150's I own.
Neither of my netbooks can charge my sisters battery; and my sisters netbook has no problem charging either of the batteries from my netbooks.

 

Acer returned the netbook; seems they replaced the battery & all is working fine now.

Though they didn't return the original box that we sent it in :evil:

So, a word of warning - if returning anything to Acer for a warranty repair - do not send it in your original box if you want it back!

 

Aspire 150
"If the battery discharges below a certain charge level, it may not be able to be
recharged unless the System BIOS is flashed to revision 3309 or later." extract from acer support usa.

Instructions:
1...Download and extract the latest BIOS for the netbook. (I downloaded 3310)
2...Rename the BIOS file from 3310.fd to zg5ia32.fd.
3...Drop all files on to a blank flash drive
4...Insert flash drive in to acer
5...Boot acer in to windows xp
6...select flash drive and click on InsydeFlash
I have just done it on two dead batteries now charging fine .Friday 28 august 2009 theborgbabe, England

 

@theborgbabe, to upgrade the BIOS you do not need to rename the xxxxx.fd file into zg5ia32.fd. That is necessary for BIOS recovery only.

Anyway, I have upgraded from 3114 to 3309 and my battery that was left out of the netbook for only two weeks, refuses to recharge. I even left it connected for about 3 days. No changes. The battery was not old(couple of months) and it worked just fine prior to this.

The only thing that (I thought) it got it moving was hot swapping a good battery with this one. Windows claimed it got it to charge. I even got the green light after a few hours, but it looks like it was just a false reading, because the battery actually stayed at 0%. I found out after starting up the AOA ..on AC.

So, I guess the conclusion is that while upgrading the BIOS is a good thing to fix some other issues, it doesn't necessarily kick start your discharged battery.

If anyone has some other tricks up their sleeve, it would be nice the hear them. I have personally tried everything posted on this forum...

Cheers!

 

Like wise I tried every single method to get my battery charging, hot swap, left on for days, etc and the only one that worked was the above method: flash bios to later version. This info came from Acer Support USA not Off this site

As for renaming the file that info also came from acer support site, USA

From Acer Support USA
Quote
"If the battery discharges below a certain charge level, it may not be able to be recharged unless the System BIOS is flashed to revision 3309 or later.
If the battery will not charge, please ensure that you have the latest BIOS before fore calling the Acer warranty support line. Updating the BIOS will require a USB flash drive to store the BIOS information on during the update. To perform the update to the BIOS:
Go here and download and extract the latest BIOS for the netbook.
Rename the BIOS file from 3310.fd to zg5ia32.fd. "Unquote <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<look

This is a direct cut and paste from Acer Support
It then goes on to use the method as documented by "Macles" but as the zip for 3310 contains InsydeFlash I used that instead
Anyway I have got two dead batteries going so I am now a happy bunny! MY friend is also a happy bunny cos I got her battery working also, Score for batteries resurrected so far, Three!!!! , Monday 31 August

 

Lucky you theborgbabe !

My only one dead battery doesn't want to be revived...I suspect she's not a believer hehehehe :lol:

Cheers!

 

My battery was dead after returning from a four week holiday, I was actually browsing the net for the pinouts for the battery to stick 20 volts up it to kick it in to life. Unable to find pinouts the track was: Google, chinese site, pan am site, (wernt they an airline?) finally arrived at Acer Support USA where the info was to solve the problem. Wasted many hours on this and other sites looking for the definitive answer to the "dead battery" problem. I am just trying to help by posting the solution which works,unlike other methods that dont. Kaplah!

 

AAO zg5, Linux...says battery is 100% charged, but wont boot at all w/o power and if remove power cord while on = dies instantly.
Acer replaced old battery...new battery same problem.
any one got any ideas? all bios upgrade info here for XP-ness.
thanks