New-ish Gigabyte G5 laptop battery dead after prolonged non-use - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TinkeringSteve
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2024, 05:28:03 pm
content: Hello,last year I bought a Gigabyte G5 KE laptop, but since it took a while for my preferred Linux distribution to integrate the NVIDIA driver, so it would even install, I continued to use my old laptop for a while, until somewhat recently.While everything works as I wanted it w.r.t. the rest now, there's just that the (unfortunately, internally "hidden") battery never gets > 0% charge,after days of trying.The behavior is a bit odd:1. no external PSU connected. All LEDs on the laptop are off.2. ext PSU connected, laptop remains switched off: -> power LED orange, battery LED orange. (which seems to indicate: present but not in operation / not charged)3. after some hours of keeping things this way, the battery LED will turn off completely, the pwr one stay as it was.If I instead of 3., turn the laptop on, before waiting hours, the OS will show the battery is present, ascribing "97 % health" to it, and 0% charge, and claim it was charging. But after waiting those same hours, the battery symbol will vanish, as if none is detected.Once I start at 1. again, this is perfectly repeatable.As if the internal controller, after power cycle, tries for hours to charge, then gives up and declares no battery is there.Might the battery be in some sort of deep discharge protection mode that it won't get out of for some reason, or could it actually have died? If this can happen from not using a laptop for a while, that would seem rather sad.While the mfr states to give 1y warranty on the battery, which is barely over now (), this restriction seems not to be legal here (stuff must work for 2y), and the seller did offer me to return the device.I'm still looking for possible fixes, as I have here a factory-new, pristine (except battery) laptop with the display protection foil still on, and they could return to me a technically working refurbished thing with dirt, scratches, tobacco stench, imperfections. It would be a bad deal if there's a chance of getting this to work again and I just don't know howSo, is a known error mode, and is a chance to fix this?

author: smaultre
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2024, 05:42:47 pm
content: I just fixed one HP Li-Ion battery with "jump start" technique.Set regulated PSU to ~13-14V, limit current to 1,5-2A, and periodically contacted 1 short time ~0,5s every 1-2sec, with battery power terminal.Battery starts to receive continuous power after ~3min.I charged it with continuous current 0.4A for about a 30min until it's get ~10V, than put in laptop and charged to 100% until changer led light goes green (charged) state.Wear protective goggles for your safety!!!

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 26, 2024, 04:23:50 am
content: Quote from: TinkeringSteve on October 22, 2024, 05:28:03 pmTry asking to return and exchange just the battery?

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2024, 07:45:43 pm
content: You need one of these tools --Worth it, because if you going to go buy a brand new battery today, chances are it will be crap.Other than that, all you can do is open your laptop, disconnect battery, disassemble battery. Charge it directly bypassing the controller. Fingers crossed, it's not controller error, it is just discharged lithium. Plus you can check the fuse and for general damage, but I doubt it's that.If no luck. At this point, either give your laptop to someone who has this tool or buy a new battery -- so long as it is original.