Chromebook batteries not detected

[timbo343]

Before we WEEE about 10 Chromebooks which have an issue with detecting their battery yet are otherwise perfectly fine 5 year old chromebooks (these are Dell, Lenovo, Samsung), is there anything that can be done to kick these batteries back into life or get them to be detected again by the motherboard?

 

We've tried a powerwash, hard reset with Refresh button and power, they are running the latest version of ChromeOS yet the battery will not be detected.

 

It'll be a shame to WEEE them but some of them won't even turn on with their power adapter plugged in, yet power on with a USB-C phone charger.

[dmj]

Check the charging circuit, and whether the batteries have a charge. I'm sure they are fixable, but maybe not cost effective if it can't be done in house 

[6Foot2]

1 hour ago, timbo343 said:

... some of them won't even turn on with their power adapter plugged in, yet power on with a USB-C phone charger.

 

For those with this issue, Is their adapter failing to charge the battery properly or supply power at all?

 

It seems obvious, and you have probably tried this, but you don't say so: Try swapping adapters for these with known "good" ones to see if anything changes?

[timbo343]

2 hours ago, dmj said:

Check the charging circuit, and whether the batteries have a charge. I'm sure they are fixable, but maybe not cost effective if it can't be done in house 

 

Whilst the Chromebook was on charge i put a multimeter across the + and - pins and saw it had a reading of around 11volts.

 

2 hours ago, 6Foot2 said:

 

For those with this issue, Is their adapter failing to charge the battery properly or supply power at all?

 

It seems obvious, and you have probably tried this, but you don't say so: Try swapping adapters for these with known "good" ones to see if anything changes?

 

Their adapter isn't failing, theirs's works with working devices and other working adapters don't work on these faulty chromebooks.

 

[6Foot2]

When the adapter for my old Chromebook was damaged (the less said about that, the better) I went to the local computer repair shop to see if they had a compatible replacement. Sadly, no luck.

 

However, they did offer me a three-pin plug adapter with a USB-A and a USB-C port on the back. It has no other ports. They also offered a long USB-C to USB-C cable. This solution worked well until the Chromebook went EOL (no more updates)

 

This cost me a shade under £20, less than the cost of a replacement adapter.

[timbo343]

25 minutes ago, 6Foot2 said:

When the adapter for my old Chromebook was damaged (the less said about that, the better) I went to the local computer repair shop to see if they had a compatible replacement. Sadly, no luck.

 

However, they did offer me a three-pin plug adapter with a USB-A and a USB-C port on the back. It has no other ports. They also offered a long USB-C to USB-C cable. This solution worked well until the Chromebook went EOL (no more updates)

 

This cost me a shade under £20, less than the cost of a replacement adapter.

The chromebooks will power on with a 3 pin USB-C adapter but the battery won't charge.

 

I think it's curtains for these chromebooks.

[dmj]

8 hours ago, timbo343 said:

I think it's curtains for these chromebooks.

 

Stick em on ebay, there are a lot of hobby electronics people who will take them off your hands, so they might go for more than you expect even listed as 'not working'

[timbo343]

4 minutes ago, dmj said:

 

Stick em on ebay, there are a lot of hobby electronics people who will take them off your hands, so they might go for more than you expect even listed as 'not working'

That's not a bad idea 👍🏻 thanks.

[PotNoodleTech]

My general rule of thumb is, if you unplug the battery and the chromebook still works when plugged in,  then it is the battery at fault.

 

If the chromebook doesnt work even with the battery unplugged then it could be either the charger itself, or power section on the motherboard.

[Jobos]

6 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

My general rule of thumb is, if you unplug the battery and the chromebook still works when plugged in,  then it is the battery at fault.

 

If the chromebook doesnt work even with the battery unplugged then it could be either the charger itself, or power section on the motherboard.

 

Even if you know how to fault find and fix the issue on the motherboard have you got the kit to fix it.  

[PotNoodleTech]

10 minutes ago, Jobos said:

 

Even if you know how to fault find and fix the issue on the motherboard have you got the kit to fix it.  

 

No not here - mobo problems tend to end up with write off sadly. 

[Fazza]

If it was me I'd try and see if the batteries are faulty or not - the easiest way to do this is to try a known working battery in the laptops to see if it's the charging circuit on the motherboard or a worn out battery etc.

[Sephiroth]

WE've had a spate of Dell Latitude 5400 chromebooks failing to charge. The main culprit is that the mains cable to the adapter is faulty (I suspect we got a dodgy batch in 2021), but a few have been found recently that the battery wasn't plugged into the motherboard properly, most likely due to rushed manufacture. Over time they worked just loose enough to not connect any more. Unplug and plug in again worked in all cases of this we had.

 

Possibly not your problem, but might be worth a quick check as it's an easy fix.

[Fazza]

WE had some USB-C Lenovo devices that charge the battery up OK with the Lenovo USB-C charger but with a generic/universal USB-C charger of the same power/wattage it doesnt charge the battery so always worth trying multiple chargers as it appears not all USB-C chargers are the same!

[Primus]

4 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

WE've had a spate of Dell Latitude 5400 chromebooks failing to charge. The main culprit is that the mains cable to the adapter is faulty (I suspect we got a dodgy batch in 2021), but a few have been found recently that the battery wasn't plugged into the motherboard properly, most likely due to rushed manufacture. Over time they worked just loose enough to not connect any more. Unplug and plug in again worked in all cases of this we had.

 

Possibly not your problem, but might be worth a quick check as it's an easy fix.

That's not good as those weren't cheap to begin with.