power question

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 09:07 AM

If you're using AC power on a laptop, and your battery is completely dead, would your computer still stay on or would it shut off?

ONCE AGAIN my lovely laptop is giving me problems. It'll say "Critical battery" then something about how I should switch to AC power if I want to save stuff. BUT I AM USING AC POWER. Then within a few minutes, it'll shut itself off. Is it my adapter that's crapping out on me? Sometimes before the computer wouldn't recognize that it was plugged in, then I'd have to twist the plugin thingie around and it'd work.

Earlier this morning I went to turn it on just for kicks, and it worked for about ten minutes. It did the "Critical battery" thing again and turned off about 5 seconds later. While it was on though I checked to see how much battery power there was, and it said it was at 100%, and it was using AC power. I dunno what the deal is.

I tried taking the battery out and blowing on it, thinking maybe there was dust or something but it obviously did no good.

Right now I took out the battery and am using AC power soley. Now I put the battery back in and it says "Total battery power remaining: 3%"

A few minutes later.... it says my battery is at 100%. It doesn't charge that fast, does it? It said it was at 100% earlier and it crapped out on me a few minutes later.

**aqlo** · December 24th, 2003, 09:11 AM

Sounds like you should replace the battery?

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 09:15 AM

I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DO THAT.

*sigh*

**Ken17625** · December 24th, 2003, 09:22 AM

Looks like the battery isn't able to hold a charge.

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 09:35 AM

Arggghhh it did it again with no battery and running on AC power. No warning this time.

**Foreverboard** · December 24th, 2003, 09:57 AM

3 things, could be all could be one, or a combination of the 3.

1-bad power plug on the system board
2-bad AC addapter
3-bad battery

sounds like the battery for sure is gone, the when mine went bad it went from 100% to 20% in jsut a few minutes then to nothing and shut off. It also kept the system from working properly.

what kind of laptop is it?

**fujow** · December 24th, 2003, 10:01 AM

Need more info on the laptop brand, Some sony's have that problem.

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 10:16 AM

Not a Sony.

hp pavilion ze1210

I don't see why it should shut off when using AC power though.

**hawkburn** · December 24th, 2003, 11:01 AM

Same problem happened with my cousin's Compaq rite when she got it. She returned the battery, got a new one, and it works fine.

It's kind of like re-chargable batteries. 1.) If they're new, they might be faulty. 2.) If they're old, they're out of possible re-charges. 3.) If they're in between - it was shotty manufacturing.

Good luck, and maybe get yourself a new battery for x-mas.

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 11:27 AM

Oh just what I wanted to spend the moneys on.

*waves goodbye to the digital camera*

**cpugeniusmv** · December 24th, 2003, 12:30 PM

i have an old 486 laptop...the battery can barely hold a charge. unplug it, and it has about 3 minutes of life.

i imagine it would still work, try taking it out and powering it up.

**Potato** · December 24th, 2003, 12:37 PM

I did that. It ended up shutting itself off anyways. That's what I don't get. That's what makes me think it's something else too. But I'll try it again.

**shawners** · December 24th, 2003, 12:45 PM

The LAPTOp cant handle the voltage and has to change it to DC power and if its plugged in wall, its still drawing the battery power cause its changed to dc.. So battery needs replacing, how long you had this laptop?