PTRACER

I've just bought a used Toshiba Satellite 2450-101 on eBay and it seems fine other than this battery problem.

The battery isn't always detected by the laptop and I'm unsure whether the problem is with the battery or the laptop.

Here's a quick run through of my problems:

- When I start up the laptop with the AC adapter plugged in, it doesn't always charge the battery and therefore sometimes doesn't detect the battery. The amber light doesn't always come on. When it does come on, it charges the battery and goes green when the battery is fully charged.

- When I have fully charged the battery, the laptop doesn't always start. I'll press the On button and the On light will flash on and go straight off as though the battery wasn't charged at all.

- If the above happens (can't run laptop on fully charged battery), I can plug the AC Adapter in, load the laptop, pull out the AC adapter and it'll continue to run on the battery. In Windows, the Power Saver will continue to tell me I am running on AC Power even when the power cable is disconnected.

- 75% of the time, if I take the battery out of the laptop and leave it out for a few minutes, it'll suddenly start detecting it again when I put it back in.

It's obvious the laptop is quite a few years old and the battery is probably the original. I'm not inclined right now to buy a new battery and test it out in case it's not the problem.

Is it likely to be a problem with the laptop, or a problem with the battery? The problem is rather intermittant.

TriggerFinger

Most likely this is a battery problem. To be sure, test your battery on a similar laptop or best if you get a genuine/original Toshiba battery. Besides it is always good to have an extra on the side.

PTRACER

I'm unable to test it on a similar laptop, but I have to be sure the problem is the battery and not the motherboard, else I'll be paying out money for a new battery for nothing. I have only just paid a load of money for some new hinges for the screen (which were a nightmare to replace).

There is a good chance you are right and it is the battery, as I ran it on low power for less than 20 minutes from full charge and it fell from 100% to around 80% and minutes later, it was down at 3% and I was being prompted to plug in the AC Adapter.

PTRACER

Hmmm, odd...

Just got a multimeter out on the battery and it's showing 12.4 volts (it's rated at 10.8V)

I put the multimeter on the terminals on the laptop, where the battery plugs into and its only registering 5.4V. I don't know if that's normal or not...

PTRACER

The battery just stopped charging again while I was using the laptop with the battery plugged in. Took the battery out, tested the laptop charging circuit and it is registering 9 volts. Put the battery back in and the battery continues to charge.