BIOS Woes: Need fully charged battery for Toshiba L755-S52xx series laptop!

[LordX]

Hey guys. I am running into a classic problem.

I have a Toshiba S755 series laptop that will not charge the battery.

Have to attempt BIOS update - which seems like it may fix the issue.

CANT - because it requires a battery with at least a 20% charge!

TRIED: Using a APC battery backup to try and TRICK the bios installer. Didn't work. Tried burning the bios to CD and booting in that way - still no luck (catches the battery even then!).

My last attempt would be having someone send me a FULLY charged battery - update the bios, and then send the battery back!

Unless anyone else can think of another trick I haven't tried!

 

[nlinecomputers]

It will not run without the battery?

 

[katz]

It will not run without the battery?

It sounds to me that the Op is saying that the BIOS update is requiring a 20% charged batt. Apparently it wants to "see" a semi-charged battery on the system for whatever reason.

I guess if it were me, I might try;

* Disconnect the power, hold down the power button for a minute to drain all power from board. Boot, try the update.
* Boot to the BIOS, look around for any settings pertaining to the battery, or anything that remotely makes a reference to the battery/charging/etc.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I know on some Dells that have problems recognizing a charged battery during a BIOS update you can install the BIOS from a command prompt and add "/forceit" as a switch to ignore the battery. Not sure if that will work on Toshiba or if they have a similar option.

 

[OaksLabs]

Hey guys. I am running into a classic problem.

I have a Toshiba S755 series laptop that will not charge the battery.

Have to attempt BIOS update - which seems like it may fix the issue.

How old is the battery? What type of battery is it? Lithium is an unstable ion, and from the day that battery is made the lithium starts to break down, and between 2-5 years later the battery just doesn't hold a meaningful charge. It's the circle of life.

If this unit was charging the battery correctly previously and now it isn't, I'd be more inclined to replace the battery. It's possible that the BIOS has a known issue with older/more "worn" batteries not being charged/detected, and a BIOS upgrade will make the PC work with a dying battery, but in the end you'll still have a PC with a battery that is "over the hill." [Assuming that this is a lithium-ion battery.]

A replacement battery will have a longer life than the current one (by the nature of how lithium degrades) and it should arrive with enough charge to do the BIOS update (if you really want to do it). If this is a customer machine, it'd be an easy sell (and they could always have the old battery as a spare).

 

[nlinecomputers]

If this unit was charging the battery correctly previously and now it isn't, I'd be more inclined to replace the battery.

+1

 

[LordX]

I got a replacement on eBay - same issue.. The board is likely the cause here with no charging - and I have seen some posts where the BIOS update helps fix this.

This reminds me 100% of an issue I had with an old Dell 1525 Laptop. They had bios updates all the way to A17 with the issues on that board. Battery not charging correctly was one of them.

As far as the 'forceit' option, there was something similar to that, and I tried it from the boot CD, but the new bios is a little bigger than the OLD bios - and this caused it not to allow the update!

If I could just try it with a charged battery, I could put this to rest once and for all.. either the bios update works and charges yay, or it doesn't and its time to part it.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Most batteries have at least some charge in them when they are shipped. Have you tested it with a DVM? I'm betting a bad board. I also don't understand why you need a battery at all. Most BIOS flash tools want to be on external power not battery. The fact that it is complaining about the battery implies that it is not detecting the charger.

 

[jmitservices]

I had a Toshiba in last week where the actual charging chip (MAX17435ETG+) had gone faulty. Would not even detect the power adapter as being connected. The laptop would only work on battery.

 

[MichaelBits]

Just had a dell with the same issue.
Client bought a new battery and a new charger... battery still would not charge.
It would also always give the error that the charger was incorrect and not the correct one. That can be killed in the bios, I turned it on to see the warning while I tinkered with it.

Solution...
This dell had the cable type dc jack connected to the MB. I think its 5 wires. One of those is for the battery sensor so to speak. It was the blue wire on this one. It had broken off from the jack. Replaced jack, all was good.

 

[LordX]

nline - a lot of laptops require both AC and battery for bios updates. Dell and Toshiba for sure.

Also - another method for me to attempt the bios update: Does anyone know a registry edit or hack to make the system see the APC battery as the MAIN PRIMARY battery? If I could do that, I could fool it into updating.

 

[NJW]

Dell ... for sure.

And it has to be a smart charger, reporting an appropriate power capability – if the spec. is a 90 W charger, you can't flash it with a 65 W attached.