[brettxw]

Hello everyone, hope all is well. Last night I was using my laptop with no issues..I turned it off as I do every night and put it on the floor beside the bed. However, this time I did forget to unplug the charger cord from the wall. So at some point last night my cellphone decided to jump off my bed and fall onto the floor and what my luck, it just so happened to fall in the same place my cup of water was and knocking it over. This made the rug wet and it also made the area wet where the laptop charger was. There was no water on top of the charger just on the bottom from the water soaking into the rug. I wiped it off and unplugged it from the wall and went back to sleep.
So here I am now and my laptop batter is at 0% and the the icon says the charger is not charging...Obviously the laptop charger HAS to be working seeing how my laptop is on but the battery is just not being charged. I have three lights on the front of my laptop for the power/charger/hd and the power light and hd light work as they should with blinking randomly but the charger light blinks on, off, on, off, on, off...I thought maybe if I shut the laptop off and let it charge that way maybe it would work but when I do that then all three of the lights blink on, off, on, off, on off..I also took the battery out and put it back in thinking that would work but nope.
So my question is, is it possible for the laptop charger to work but not charge the battery? Is it also possible for the battery to randomly die and not hold a charge? The area the laptop was on the rug did not have any water in the rug...Any suggestions I could try to get this to charge?
THanks in advance guys.

UPDATE : I took the battery out while the laptop was on and the notification worked correctly and told me no battery was detected. I put the battery back in and the icon did two and half full "battery charging" animations before it stopped and went back to "not charging".

Edited by brettxw, 27 May 2011 - 10:48 AM.

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Well, sadly you told us absolutely nothing about your computer, except that it is a laptop.

But even if you had given us details of your notebook and version of Windows (assuming not a Mac or running Linux), unless we had the same model, we would have to go out the maker's site, look up the model, download and read the manual, and that's what I recommend you do. Notebooks are very proprietary and flashing lights here don't mean the same thing there.

So my question is, is it possible for the laptop charger to work but not charge the battery?

Sure. Remember, that is more than a laptop charger. It is a laptop power supply that also charges. At some point, they become two different circuits. This is why many, if not most, notebooks can run without a battery. That's also why it is NOT obvious to me the charger works. Was the battery dead when you went to bed?

Is it also possible for the battery to randomly die and not hold a charge?

I guess that depends on if you believe in fate or not. "Eventually" all notebook batteries die and not hold a charge. Some disappointingly sooner, some happily later.

The area the laptop was on the rug did not have any water in the rug...Any suggestions I could try to get this to charge?

How close were they? How do you know no water splashed onto (and in) the charger? You said the top was not wet, was it warm? Did you hear this happen and were right on it? Does the charger (transformer) smell like electronics got too hot?

[Digerati]

Well, sadly you told us absolutely nothing about your computer, except that it is a laptop.

But even if you had given us details of your notebook and version of Windows (assuming not a Mac or running Linux), unless we had the same model, we would have to go out the maker's site, look up the model, download and read the manual, and that's what I recommend you do. Notebooks are very proprietary and flashing lights here don't mean the same thing there.

So my question is, is it possible for the laptop charger to work but not charge the battery?

Sure. Remember, that is more than a laptop charger. It is a laptop power supply that also charges. At some point, they become two different circuits. This is why many, if not most, notebooks can run without a battery. That's also why it is NOT obvious to me the charger works. Was the battery dead when you went to bed?

Is it also possible for the battery to randomly die and not hold a charge?

I guess that depends on if you believe in fate or not. "Eventually" all notebook batteries die and not hold a charge. Some disappointingly sooner, some happily later.

The area the laptop was on the rug did not have any water in the rug...Any suggestions I could try to get this to charge?

How close were they? How do you know no water splashed onto (and in) the charger? You said the top was not wet, was it warm? Did you hear this happen and were right on it? Does the charger (transformer) smell like electronics got too hot?

[Digerati]

UPDATE : I took the battery out while the laptop was on and the notification worked correctly and told me no battery was detected. I put the battery back in and the icon did two and half full "battery charging" animations before it stopped and went back to "not charging".

Please don't edit a post to make significant content changes. We only get notified of the original post, and the change in content may influence if and/or a person's response, if they had seen the change. Minor edits, spell check are fine, but for important content changes, please add a new post.

If there is any chance there is water inside, you should remove the battery and sit it, the notebook, and charge in a dry place for 24 hours or more. Blast a desk fan on it to speed drying it out. Don't apply power via the power block or battery or risk a short and permanent damage, or more damage, as the case may be.

The charger was charging the battery when the water spilled, right? Are you certain no water splashed on the notebook?

[brettxw]

Well, sadly you told us absolutely nothing about your computer, except that it is a laptop.

But even if you had given us details of your notebook and version of Windows (assuming not a Mac or running Linux), unless we had the same model, we would have to go out the maker's site, look up the model, download and read the manual, and that's what I recommend you do. Notebooks are very proprietary and flashing lights here don't mean the same thing there.

So my question is, is it possible for the laptop charger to work but not charge the battery?

Sure. Remember, that is more than a laptop charger. It is a laptop power supply that also charges. At some point, they become two different circuits. This is why many, if not most, notebooks can run without a battery. That's also why it is NOT obvious to me the charger works. Was the battery dead when you went to bed?

Is it also possible for the battery to randomly die and not hold a charge?

I guess that depends on if you believe in fate or not. "Eventually" all notebook batteries die and not hold a charge. Some disappointingly sooner, some happily later.

The area the laptop was on the rug did not have any water in the rug...Any suggestions I could try to get this to charge?

How close were they? How do you know no water splashed onto (and in) the charger? You said the top was not wet, was it warm? Did you hear this happen and were right on it? Does the charger (transformer) smell like electronics got too hot?

Thank you for the very quick reply. I apologize for not stating anything about the specs of the laptop. It is an HP DV7 1245dx, Vista Home x64 and 4g RAM.

When I went to bed the battery was not dead no, it was at 100% As soon as I heard the phone hit the floor I woke up and moved the charger and unplugged the wall. I am confident and 99.9% sure that there was no water on the top surface of the charger. The charger does get really warm at times, to the point where it's to hot to even touch (and I've been burned by actual fire before so when I say to hot to touch, its really hot!!) I do not believe that it does not smell like they got to hot.

I can try to replace the charger to see if that works and then replace the battery to see if that works, right? Or would you recommend doing the battery first then charger. If it still does not work it could be the DC connection in the laptop and then that would need replacing...

[brettxw]

Let me also add something that was going on previously with the battery. When I was running off the battery, the laptop would shut off around 50%, every single time. When I would connect it to the power source and turn it back on it was always charging around 50-60%..

[Digerati]

Well, it sounds like you have been having some battery charging issues for some time. It is hard to say. If the charger does not normally stay plugged in, this night was, perhaps sitting on the rug plugged in, it got too hot and a thermal overload device blew - and your guardian angle knocked your phone off to get your attention!!!!

If me, I would want to know if the power supply is putting out power. Sadly, the proper way to test power supplies and batteries is with the supply or battery being under a realistic load. So a trip to a repair shop may be in order.

It sounds like the battery was going anyway, but I would hate to recommend buying an expensive battery, only to find out the charger, or the notebook's charging circuits were to blame.

[brettxw]

Well, it sounds like you have been having some battery charging issues for some time. It is hard to say. If the charger does not normally stay plugged in, this night was, perhaps sitting on the rug plugged in, it got too hot and a thermal overload device blew - and your guardian angle knocked your phone off to get your attention!!!!

If me, I would want to know if the power supply is putting out power. Sadly, the proper way to test power supplies and batteries is with the supply or battery being under a realistic load. So a trip to a repair shop may be in order.

It sounds like the battery was going anyway, but I would hate to recommend buying an expensive battery, only to find out the charger, or the notebook's charging circuits were to blame.

I do appreciate your help! I'm going to buy a new battery and charger...It may even be worth it to just buy a new laptop...I can't imagine a new battery being more than 100.00?

[Digerati]

If you buy from notebook maker, it will cost a pretty penny. But if you Google around, you can usually find a replacement battery for less than $50.

[brettxw]

I just read the post about not editing the post and I am sorry for that. I have been running the laptop with the charger for a day now and the charger is sitting right next to me and I went to touch it and its pretty hot. Not as hot as it has been before but it would def. be to hot to touch for some. So with the laptop not holding a charge anymore and the charger being hot..Would that narrow the issue down to what is causing this? If I am doing a lot of multitasking where the CPU is getting worked hard, would that make the charger get hotter?

[Digerati]

A bad battery will often continuously demand to be charged, and the charger will work frantically trying to charge the battery. So, my guess is the battery is gone.

The bad news is, a bad charging/regulator circuit inside the battery can give the same symptoms, even with a good battery. So, you could be in the same boat with a new battery.

So you are in the unenviable position of having to decide to buy a new battery and hope it works, or taking the notebook to a reputable technician and have him check it out - for about the price of a new battery.

[brettxw]

If its going to want to constantly try to charge the battery then I'll take the battery out.... just did..I'll keep an eye on the heat coming frmo the charger. I found on ebay a charger for 13.00 and a battery for 38.00...Both are cheap prices compared to buying a new laptop..Hopefully its one of those and not the DC port on the mobo.

[brettxw]

I wanted to give you guys an update. I've been running the laptop with just the charger (not charging the battery) since I posted this up and today the charger finally decided to stop working all together. I took my laptop and charger to OfficeMax where I asked them if I could plug my charger into one of their HP laptops to see if my charger was the culprit or the laptop. It was confirmed the charger was dead. We then plugged in my laptop to their charger and the laptop started up fine and even the battery charging icon was back (phew). I didn't buy a charger from there because it was a 79.99 item but instead ordered one from eBay for 10.00 and will have it Tuesday. Phew!

[Digerati]

Not sure I would go plugging a strange power supply into one of my notebooks. And buying a charger off eBay at too-good-to-be-true prices has its risks too. Maybe you can take the new charger to OfficeMax too, and let them test it on one of their notebooks - before trying it on your notebook.

[brettxw]

Not sure I would go plugging a strange power supply into one of my notebooks. And buying a charger off eBay at too-good-to-be-true prices has its risks too. Maybe you can take the new charger to OfficeMax too, and let them test it on one of their notebooks - before trying it on your notebook.

If it's an exact match as to what I currently have how would it be able to cause damage? It's stated as brand new, unopened and the guy has 100% feedback..

[Digerati]

If it is an exact match, then ok.