# Laptop battery connection turning off and on repeatedly



## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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!


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

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


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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.


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## srhoades (May 15, 2003)

Then I would guess the charger is malfunctioning.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

srhoades said:


> 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.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

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.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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.


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

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.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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%?


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

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?


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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?


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

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.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

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?


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

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


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

My temperature seems too high then.... I have about 3 programs up, CPU Usage is around 70-80%. I'm not playing any games or watching HD movies, but I am watching youtube videos.


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

WOAH! lol if I was a mechanic I would say "there's your problem right there" Your computer is shutting off because it's over heating. That's borderline meltdown temperature. At maximum load my laptop only get's to 90, and that's streaming music and playing a game at max settings. You need to clean your laptop out and re paste it lol.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

But it's not shutting off... Is that ok? I just need to clean my laptop out with a dust blower can and get thermal paste?


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

Also you have a background process that's taking up a vast amount of your resources. Unless one of the programs you have up is compiling a cad rendering of the space shuttle you shouldn't be seeing anywhere near those temperatures.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

Do you mean CPU usage resources? Well, the background programs I have up that are taking up about 60% of the CPU usage are utorrent (Which I won't get into, against the rules), Avira, a small java program, thunderbird, and Freeram XP Pro. I'm checking on process explorer. Or do you mean services?


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

Processes, and yes my ultrabook doesn't have half the processing power your computer does and I only use 30-40% of the cpu playing skyrim. Somethings not right there. You should also uninstall any toolbars or suspicious/useless looking programs. Blowing out the dust and repasting will probably help. Repasting is probably necessary if your computer has been running at 90c for who knows how long then your paste is probably burned up.


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

Here's what mine looks like. This is with a few tabs open, with some flash on a few pages.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

That is really really really weird. I don't install any toolbars, and I frequently uninstall programs I don't need....


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

I have utorrent open and "running" all day long every day, along with steam. You should try to clean install windows. Or consult with one of the virus specialists here. Bottom line something is amiss in your processes, Repasting is unavoidable but a clean install may help get those temps manageable if you don't want to do that right away.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

I have literally dozens of Gigabytes that I can't delete, so a clean install in not an option. (Also, this laptop came pre-installed with windows anyways, so I don't have a disc.)
Do you really think it's a virus? I haven't encountered any suspicious behavior.


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

I don't know, but one of the virus people here are better trained at identifying viruses or the lack thereof. I realize that a clean install is not the right option for everyone but in my opinion it's the only fool proof way of fixing any software issue.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

Ok, thank you. I'll go over there to check.


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## Yoshi8765 (Sep 1, 2010)

I decided to hibernate my computer for about 20 minutes since the battery does not recharge at all anymore when the laptop is on. It was also cooling down. When I started it again, I decided to check the temperature. It looks a lot better now. The temp might have been high because I had the laptop on overnight.


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## ForeverZen (Jun 23, 2012)

That's still about 20-30c above normal but hey if that works for you, problem solved.

A side note: Modern batteries stop charging when they reach a critical temperature to prevent damaging themselves. Constant exposure to i'd say, above 60c destroys the cells.


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