Toshiba Satellite A205 Strange Battery Issue - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: canadaboy25
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2017, 03:27:51 pm
content: Hey guys, I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 that is giving me some strange battery issues. Less than a year ago, I bought a brand new 9 cell battery from amazon. I believe it was an Anker battery but do not remember for sure. It had plenty of positive reviews so it seemed like a legit product. The battery has worked great for about 8 months but now it is giving me issues. I am not sure if the problem is in the battery or the laptop.I can charge the laptop with it on or off and it seems to charge normally. The orange battery light will change to blue and the battery meter in XP will show 100% battery. The problem is the battery will run down normally until around the mid 80's and then it will drop to about 4%. I then plug the laptop in and the battery will sit at the same percentage for a very long time. Sometimes the percentage even goes down a bit. If I leave it for a while and come back it will say fully charged again.I have tried steps I've read on the internet to re-calibrate the battery by letting it die completely and then charging it fully without turning the laptop on. This hasn't fixed anything and it is still showing the same problems.Any ideas whether the problem is a calibration issue or the battery itself?Thanks

author: Armadillo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2017, 05:23:53 pm
content: The battery is defective. If you always leave your computer on the AC power, it will shorten the life of the battery.

author: canadaboy25
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2017, 05:30:14 pm
content: Quote from: Armadillo on February 09, 2017, 05:23:53 pmI realize that it is hard on lithium cells for them to stay fully charged for extended periods of time which is why my laptop spends minimal time on the charger. It is only on the charger for about 12% of the time. Why would the battery go from working fine to not working at all? The symptoms don't seem to indicate shorted cells to me.

author: Armadillo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2017, 05:55:26 pm
content: When its on battery power, the battery gets heated up and develops the internal short.... I watched somewhere in the youtube, someone suggested putting the battery in a plastic bag and then in the freezer.... I have not tried it or endorse such method though...If you constantly on battery power, of course, the life will be depleted as well....The recommendation meant, if you always on AC line, take out the battery from its compartment.... and put it back when you travel out...It's time to buy a new battery.... too bad.

author: RayRay
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2017, 05:56:34 pm
content: I wouldn't be too quick to blame the batteries if I were you.It could also be an issue with the charger. Just because it appears to be working, it doesn't necessarily mean it's working 100% properly.It's possible that it doesn't provide enough voltage (or amps) and the battery doesn't fully charge as a result of it.If you know your way around electronics, there are definitely ways to test those things, if not, then maybe you should just go ahead and try a different charger. There should be a part number on it (which you could Google in order to find a fully compatible replacement)

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2017, 09:49:13 am
content: There are utilities out there which will tell you the battery voltage --- you could monitor the discharge/charge and see if the voltage is moving appropriately, but I guess it could be something wrong with the fuel gauge IC.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2017, 02:20:31 pm
content: its a chinese knockoff battery, symptoms you describe are the _default fault mode_ of those batteries, especially the ones made from recycled cells in shenzhen sweatshops, staple of cheap Amazon laptop "replacement" batteries.utilize it (special recycle bin in EU for electronic ewaste, no idea about rest of the world) and buy another one, or better yet buy new(or newer used one, brand name preferably) laptop because this is a museum pieceand this is coming from me, old crap aficionado (Thinkpad R61 T9550+ssd as a third computer in the house)