HP Laptop battery passes all diagnostics and is 100% charged but shuts off in 5 min.

[Lindaeg]

I have an HP Pavillion laptop. My battery says 100% charged. I took the battery to a reputable store and they checked it and said it was great. I then ran the HP System Diagnostics test and the result said: "Primary - Passed (10)". However, when I unplug the laptop and try to run it off the 100% charged battery the laptop shuts down in about 5 min. Any idea what may be going on?

Thanks!!

 

[backbaysailor]

Is your laptop normally plugged in/charging at all times?

 

[ffg7]

how old is the laptop?

 

[Lindaeg]

@backbaysailor and @ffg7, thanks. Yes, the battery is plugged in all the time which I now realize after researching this that it is a mistake to do that. However, since the battery "expert" said it was just fine and the diagnostic test said it was ok, I figured it had some life left. The laptop is about 4 years old.

 

[ffg7]

leave the laptop on, disconnect the power adapter from laptop & watch the battery indicator in bottom right corner. if drops from 100% to 0% or there abouts in 5 minutes when laptop shutoff then you need a new battery.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Sounds like the battery is old and needs replacement. Depending on how it was used, and the care taken with it especially in running it low, it may check out as non-defective, but have an extremely small capacity for storing adequate charge.

 

[Lindaeg]

leave the laptop on, disconnect the power adapter from laptop & watch the battery indicator in bottom right corner. if drops from 100% to 0% or there abouts in 5 minutes when laptop shutoff then you need a new battery.

I actually did this. The battery said 100% the entire time, and then after about 5 minutes the screen went black and the laptop turned off. Very strange! I just hate to buy a new battery if it's not really needed

 

[hang-the-9]

leave the laptop on, disconnect the power adapter from laptop & watch the battery indicator in bottom right corner. if drops from 100% to 0% or there abouts in 5 minutes when laptop shutoff then you need a new battery.

I actually did this. The battery said 100% the entire time, and then after about 5 minutes the screen went black and the laptop turned off. Very strange! I just hate to buy a new battery if it's not really needed

Are you sure it turned off or did it maybe go to sleep or hibernate? Look in the power options and set all the battery options to "never turn off" and see what happens. If that is the original battery to a 4 year old computer, it is very likely bad and needs to be replaced. If a new battery does not help, you need to get the motherboard and power connections looked at.

 

[Lindaeg]

leave the laptop on, disconnect the power adapter from laptop & watch the battery indicator in bottom right corner. if drops from 100% to 0% or there abouts in 5 minutes when laptop shutoff then you need a new battery.

I actually did this. The battery said 100% the entire time, and then after about 5 minutes the screen went black and the laptop turned off. Very strange! I just hate to buy a new battery if it's not really needed

Are you sure it turned off or did it maybe go to sleep or hibernate? Look in the power options and set all the battery options to "never turn off" and see what happens. If that is the original battery to a 4 year old computer, it is very likely bad and needs to be replaced. If a new battery does not help, you need to get the motherboard and power connections looked at.

Thank you for the reply. I changed the battery settings to "never turn off" and still turned off. For the 5 minutes or so that the charge lasted, I kept looking at the life remaining. It got down to 98%. However, when I powered back up, the battery said only 20%. So it's definitely defective. Time for a new one. They aren't as expensive as I thought, so I'll just bite the bullet.