Laptop Battery Issue?

[osanders]

Hi guys hopefully someone can give some advice on this. I am thinking bad battery or overheating. I'm working on Toshiba x505 had been sitting 3yrs the last service done at BestBuy. It's a customer spare laptop. When I received it showed 2gb memory, dead battery charging but stayed 0% and hdd 3/4 full and cmos date 3yrs behind. I found the memory issue due to a memory board loose. Couldn't run windows updates repeatedly fail so re-installed windows. Fast forward I purchased a battery not original and also less wattage than original but fits. Installed the battery it showed 100% and the laptop runs 10mins and shuts down so I let it charge a few hours and no change and getting worst. Soon as trying to load windows it shuts down on startup. If I get into the bios in time it stays on but soon as trying to load windows it shuts down. If plugged in and loaded into windows it may run 5-10mins and gone. I'm wondering if the battery is bad or too weak or a heating issue. It has an i7 processor and runs while plugged in. It did shutdown a couple times when I first got it while running on 2gb of memory and tons of apps loading so I figured that was a memory issue.

 

[nerd2u]

Sounds like something is overheating and causing the thermal breaker to trip. I'd start looking at fans and heat syncs

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[osanders]

Sounds like something is overheating and causing the thermal breaker to trip. I'd start looking at fans and heat syncs

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I did notice a lot of dust in the fans when I first opened it and blew them out but didn't tear the MB down to the processor. I had to order a bezel for it and trying to wait on it before tearing down again to check clogged heat sync. Thank you for the tip

 

[johnrobert]

Bad decision should have bought a new laptop, aftermarket batteries not good.

Toshiba stopped building laptops many years ago.

 

[osanders]

Bad decision should have bought a new laptop, aftermarket batteries not good.

Toshiba stopped building laptops many years ago.

It's just a spare the customer inherited from his job. I'm working on it in my spare time

 

[Porthos]

Bad decision should have bought a new laptop, aftermarket batteries not good.

Toshiba stopped building laptops many years ago.

Exactly.

It's just a spare the customer inherited from his job. I'm working on it in my spare time

I can think of better things to do in my spare time. Plus by the time you get done parts and labor you could have got him a good refurb.
But it is your time and his money so be it. I would have got the client a refurb after 10 minutes of looking at it.

Does he plan to game with it after its "fixed"? I looked it up, It was a really nice computer 10 years ago. Those 18.4" screens if you ever need one are a little pricy and hard to find at the well known places.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[osanders]

Exactly.

I can think of better things to do in my spare time. Plus by the time you get done parts and labor you could have got him a good refurb.
But it is your time and his money so be it. I would have got the client a refurb after 10 minutes of looking at it.

Does he plan to game with it after its "fixed"? I looked it up, It was a really nice computer 10 years ago. Those 18.4" screens if you ever need one are a little pricy and hard to find at the well known places.

Hope it works out for you.

Yes it is a nice laptop and no he's not going to use for gaming. He has 2 others in addition to his current work laptop so don't need a refurb. He mentioned possibly selling it so just want to clean it up. I crazy glued the cracked bezel but he wants to go on and replace which I found on ebay and waiting to arrive.

 

[Larry Sabo]

What happens when you boot a PE/live CD? What does CoreTemp say?

 

[nerd2u]

The bios may also be able to give you numerous temps any time I have seen a of shut down repeatedly then go for a while longer after being off for a while it's been the cpu tripping the thermal break.

Not sure how hard the cpu is to get at on that machine but that is where I would start.

Sometimes the best service you can offer your customers is letting them know when they are throwing money down a bottomless pit and guide them towards a better spend for their money.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[osanders]

What happens when you boot a PE/live CD? What does CoreTemp say?

I will have to check the temp when I get to office tomorrow. It's been running fine while plugged in, just when running on battery it shuts down. The old battery stayed at 0% and the replacement shows charging but I have noticed it drains quick.

 

[johnrobert]

I would say 98% bad battery.

I like farting around with old stuff also its a challenge.
I just got 2 desktops working you can barely give them away now.

Gone are the days when I used to queue outside a place that built XT's you had to be there at 9 am
the first 5 people got one $1,500 floppy drives that was it. think I had to go back several times to get one, put dos disk in then had to figure out how to use Dbase

 

[osanders]

Thanks guys for assistance with this, attached is a picture of the core temps. Received replacement bezel today so I will be tearing it down and check the CPU and probably return the battery received.

 

[Larry Sabo]

attached is a picture of the core temps.

Were you running Prime95! during this? If not, I'd be interested to see it under those conditions.

 

[osanders]

I would say 98% bad battery.

I like farting around with old stuff also its a challenge.
I just got 2 desktops working you can barely give them away now.

Gone are the days when I used to queue outside a place that built XT's you had to be there at 9 am
the first 5 people got one $1,500 floppy drives that was it. think I had to go back several times to get one, put dos disk in then had to figure out how to use Dbase

The other laptop I fixed for this customer was Lenovo I forget what model but was creeping along. It was flying after a cleanup, customer was surprised.

 

[osanders]

Were you running Prime95! during this? If not, I'd be interested to see it under those conditions.

CPUID HW Monitor - I have completed the tear down and found some dust in the CPU Vents but not much. Cleaned old heat compound and now it appears to be running a little cooler. Also prior the fans were running high almost immediately now has been running a while and barely hear them. The battery I purchased definitely going back, realized a big difference in the weight of the battery I received not sure if that matters.

 

[Markverhyden]

Battery weight = cells. So if there's a big difference then you got short changed on cells.

Are you sure the pipes are good on the heat sinks? Machines that old usually aren't functioning properly, meaning they're empty so can't properly dissipate heat. But if they aren't really driving it hard it may not matter. If the heat is concentrated at the sinks, nothing on the pipes, then they're probably not good.

Edit: maybe think about tossing in some cheap SSD's. You can get 1tb Inland's for $85. That'll really provide a boost.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Cleaned old heat compound and now it appears to be running a little cooler.

Are the temps in the latest screenshot while running Prime95!? These temps are nice but until you load the CPU with something like Prome95!, you can't be confident they won't rise under load.

+1 to what @Markverhyden said about the heat pipes.

 

[osanders]

Battery weight = cells. So if there's a big difference then you got short changed on cells.

Are you sure the pipes are good on the heat sinks? Machines that old usually aren't functioning properly, meaning they're empty so can't properly dissipate heat. But if they aren't really driving it hard it may not matter. If the heat is concentrated at the sinks, nothing on the pipes, then they're probably not good.

Edit: maybe think about tossing in some cheap SSD's. You can get 1tb Inland's for $85. That'll really provide a boost.

I doubt that this laptop will be used for much unless this customer sells it to someone else. The laptop itself isn't getting very hot in the area of the heat sink. Not sure what the initial issue was 3yrs ago when taken to BB but they told customer the HDD was bad. It was loaded with crap when I got and HDD almost full. I hope to get another battery that works and not reveal another problem.

Are the temps in the latest screenshot while running Prime95!? These temps are nice but until you load the CPU with something like Prome95!, you can't be confident they won't rise under load.

+1 to what @Markverhyden said about the heat pipes.

The screenshot was from CPUID HW Monitor haven't had a chance to download and run Prime95 yet.

 

[osanders]

Update and thanks everyone for the advice received. I purchased another battery for this laptop and installed and tested out great on battery power and since cleaning the processor and refreshing the heat compound it is still running cooler. Glady it's back in the customers hands.