Gateway battery not charging

Discussion in 'Mobile Technology' started by Aankhen, Oct 20, 2006.

  1. Aankhen

    Aankhen Geek Trainee

    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    I bought a Gateway "Platinum Edition" notebook about a month ago. The specifications are as follow:

    Model no. MP6954
    Intel Core Duo T2050 @ 1.6 GHz.
    2 GB RAM
    15.4" widescreen (native resolution 1280x800)
    Philips DVD+-RW SDVD8441
    WDC WD1200BEVS-00LAT0 120 GB hard disk
    Mobile Intel 945GM integarted graphics
    Intel 945GM-based motherboard

    ...I think that's about it, but let me know if I left out anything important.

    I've been loving the notebook so far (no gaming on it, of course... the tradeoff for five and a half hours of battery life). However, I recently moved house and encountered a problem: my battery has stopped charging. For some more background information, let me say that the notebook was not lying unused for more than 16-20 hours. I have left it on at night and plugged in (i.e. charging) quite a few times, not sure if that might have dramatically affected the battery; I know that leaving it plugged in reduces the battery life, but I didn't think it would kill the battery completely.

    The situation now is that I can use the notebook while it's plugged in without any problems, but within minutes of unplugging it, it goes off. It won't come on at any time without the AC adapter connected. I tested this by leaving it charging for a couple of hours and then trying to power it on: no luck. According to Gateway's battery recalibration utility, the computer has no battery installed. The Power Meter also says battery #1 is not present (battery #1 is the only one shown on the meter). Windows's Device Manager shows two entries under Batteries: "Microsoft AC Adapter" and "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery", both of which are apparently working fine. Unfortunately, I don't recall whether there were more entries earlier, since I didn't really pay any attention to the Batteries section in my previous forays into Device Manager.

    I've tried removing and reinserting the battery too, but to no avail. The LED indicating that the notebook is charging won't come on at all.

    I attempted to locate answers on Google... perhaps I didn't use the right keywords, since I didn't find anything except that old batteries (18+ months) may exhibit this behaviour.

    Since I use my notebook to take notes (!) in college, I'm in something of a situation here. Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!
     
  2. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

    Likes Received:
    145
    Trophy Points:
    63
    If your laptop is just a month old, I'd get in contact with Gateway pronto about hooking you up with a new battery for starters. You've got a warranty on it, so there's no reason not to make use of it.
     
  3. Aankhen

    Aankhen Geek Trainee

    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Unfortunately, it's a bit over a month old.

    However, I read an interesting bit of news today about how Gateway is recalling 35,000 of its batteries. Mine might be one of them (haven't checked yet since I'll have to switch off the computer and remove the battery, according to the site).
     
  4. Aankhen

    Aankhen Geek Trainee

    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Update

    Looks like my battery is not affected, so I'm going to have seek another solution. It would have been useful to simply have Gateway replace the battery. :(
     
  5. Matt555

    Matt555 iMod

    Likes Received:
    98
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Most warranty's are at least a year, contact Gateway and ask them as a battery not working after a month isn't right.
     

Share This Page