Quick, help!

[Rew]

Okay, I have no idea why my laptop is doing this, but right now it's telling me I have 30% power remaining and that it's plugged in, but not charging. What!? So I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and it said it was charging. Disaster averted, I thought. Only a few minutes, later, however, and it's now not charging again.

How do I fix this (and before the power drains)? I mean, is this normal, like a way the computer conserves power and I've just never noticed it before?

[ZeldaMaster#1#1]

Is the laptop off? If not, try turning it off.

Or try going to the Control Panel and change the power setting to something like Energy Efficient, then try charging it.

[Rew]

It says it's on "Balanced" mode power plan, and it hasn't gone under 30% this past little while. So maybe this is what it's supposed to be doing. (In which case this is all just a false alarm. And I look rather silly. But I'll take looking silly over having my system randomly shut down on me! :XD)

[Nictel]

I'll make a calculated guess and say the adapter is broken, try starting the laptop without the battery.

Though I have no idea what 'Balanced' mode means, could be it won't charge when over 1/3 of the power.

[Lady Fay]

aww..im not sure what you do..ill get some attention for ya.
*goes and gets attention*

[Gustaf]

Hey whats up, I just stopped in becuase someone got my attention....oh.

[GDwarf]

...Please don't spam the threads.


Now, onto the problem: It seems odd that it would only charge to 30%. In fact, I find it very odd indeed. I think we can safely say that this is not normal.


So, something is broken.

Do you have a spare battery and/or adapter? If so, I'd try swapping them around to see if that changes anything.


Oh, and what's the exact message you're seeing?

[Rew]

Here's everything it says when I click on the power icon:

30% available (plugged in, not charging)

Select a power plan:
o Balanced
o Power saver
o High performance

[links]
Learn how to conserve power
More power options
Windows Mobility Center

Mine is currently set on "Balanced." I've noticed it's been at 30% all day now--the good news being, it hasn't gone down anymore nor tried to power down my system. My theory now is that this must be the system's way of conserving power. However, if you GDwarf (whom I'm assuming knows a lot more about computers than I) see this as problematic, I'm definitely open to suggestions! It is odd that I've never noticed this nor the power icon at all before, and I've had this laptop since last summer.

EDIT: Also, I don't have a spare battery or adapter, even though I do still have my former laptop lying around (the only thing wrong with it that made me replace it was a dead monitor; everything else is intact). I might be able to use the battery/adapter from it. I'll keep you posted.

[GDwarf]

Power-saving on a laptop usually means that it's reducing the battery power it's using, not outlet power. So it should charge faster in power-saving mode. (Well, maybe not faster, it's still using roughly the same amount of power, but it'll go to sleep faster and stuff like that.)