Toshiba Satellite Pro battery problem

[sorcerer]

Client brought in a Toshiba Satellite Pro C850-1EQ because they thought their battery was faulty but after buying a replacement the laptop just does nothing (well, almost nothing anyway).

With the new battery in place absolutely nothing happens - no lights, no fan, no HDD spin; absolutely nada.

With the new battery in place and the charger connected, the DC IN light flashes orange at a rate of 1 second on, 5 seconds off, rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Other than that absolutely nothing else happens; dead as the proverbial Dodo.

With the new battery OUT and the charger connected, the laptop boots to be fully operational and works perfectly as it should.

Because it works perfectly on mains power I couldn't see it being a charger problem but just for kicks I tried a spare Toshiba charger and also a universal charger that I have here and as I suspected, I got the same results as above. The new battery they bought is a no-name one and I'm wondering if a proper Tosh battery would be the way to go but, before I tell them that they've possibly wasted their money, I just wondered if anyone has any idea about the '1 second on, 5 seconds off' blinking of the DC IN light - does it constitute some sort of error code and if so, what?

 

[sorcerer]

No thoughts on this folks?

I suppose I'll have to tell them that my best guess is that the battery they bought from Ebay or wherever is the most likely culprit and that a genuine Toshiba battery may be the way to go.

 

[coffee]

To me I would suspect a short in the charging system. You stated that when the battery is in it does not work. With just the power on and no battery it does. If this is correct your going to find that there is a problem with the battery circuit. Grab a multi meter and start checking voltages from the battery terminals back to the DC Jack.

Otherwise you might find that buying a Toshiba replacement battery probably will not change a thing.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks for the advice Coffee, much appreciated.

 

[coffee]

Thanks for the advice Coffee, much appreciated.

No problem. Also when I have issues like this the first thing I do is price out a replacement MB. Gives me an idea on how much time to spend on trying to isolate a MB issue. If you can get a replacement board under 100 bucks then I opt for that approach after checking the basics (charger, battery, connections, DC Jack). Just depends on the cost of replacing the MB compared to how much work you have to put in on troubleshooting.

Grab a Multimeter and ground the negative lead and very carefully trace the 19volts power (or whatever) from the dcjack to the battery. Be careful though as its under power

 

[sorcerer]

Right, I've got the mobo out and can't see anything obvious. I can confirm that there's 19v from the DC jack into the motherboard side of the power connector but can't really trace it from there to the battery connector.

I've measured the voltage on each of the nine pins of the battery connector, the results of which can be seen here. I have no idea how laptop batteries and their charging/sensing circuits work but, knowing that it's a 6-cell battery (10.8v) would I be correct in assuming that each cell is charged individually and as such, there should be 6 pins with 3.x volts on them, whereas here there's only 5? If so, that would seem to confirm your hunch of something being wrong in the charging circuit - or have I got it completely wrong?

 

[coffee]

Here is a thread with some things to try:

http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Satellite-Pro-Laptops/Battery-Plugged-in-Not-Charging/td-p/291593

As for the way the batteries are charged, I do believe all battery packs - inside the batteries are attached in serial. This means they all get charged at the same time. I dont know but 3 volts seems like a small amount to charge the batteries with but I do not have enough info on that. Best practice would be to take a similar laptop and check its pins when plugged in. Not saying that all laptops are pin-for-pin identical - Im just saying you will get an idea of how much the charge voltage probably should be - because all these battery packs use the basic same type of battery cells inside. The only real difference is the amount of cells and size.

A quick look on ebay shows some of the more expensive motherboards being 75 bucks. Thats worth matching up your motherboard and probably replacing it if nothing in the thread above produces any results. If I can find a pinout on your laptop I will post it here.

 

[coffee]

Right, I've got the mobo out and can't see anything obvious. I can confirm that there's 19v from the DC jack into the motherboard side of the power connector but can't really trace it from there to the battery connector.

I've measured the voltage on each of the nine pins of the battery connector, the results of which can be seen here. I have no idea how laptop batteries and their charging/sensing circuits work but, knowing that it's a 6-cell battery (10.8v) would I be correct in assuming that each cell is charged individually and as such, there should be 6 pins with 3.x volts on them, whereas here there's only 5? If so, that would seem to confirm your hunch of something being wrong in the charging circuit - or have I got it completely wrong?

BTW -- that brown chip with a Y on it next to the pins looks to be a fuse. I would probably check for continuity across it with no power of course. Otherwise, What is the part number for that board? There should be a sticker on it with the part number. Do not go by the model number of the laptop. There are going to be several versions available.

 

[juiceman39]

The laptop requires a Toshiba branded battery. I posted about this subject about a week or so back. Same situation, but with two toshiba laptops.
Branded battery got them both working. "No name" battery just wouldn't work.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks again Coffee - all noted and will have a go later.

Juiceman39 - very interesting, thanks man.

 

[sorcerer]

Coffee - I tested for continuity across that chip with a 'Y' on it and it's ok, so it's either something else on the board or the fact that it's not a genuine Toshiba battery as suggested by Juiceman39.

I now realise that different manufacturers use different batteries and pin-outs so we can't make direct comparisons but, just for interest I tried the pins on a fully working HP Pavilion G6 and got the following results:

The HP only has 8 pins rather than 9 but, left to right as above, the readouts were:

Pin 1 3.07v
Pin 2 3.07v
Pin 3 3.29v
Pin 4 3.29v
Pin 5 0v
Pin 6 3.23v
Pin 7 0v
Pin 8 0v

Does it really mean anything? I don't know, but all I've wasted is my spare time

EDIT: Mobo is an H000052360 model and I can get a replacement for around £90 (124USD) but after adding my time, I think it'll be beyond economic repair for the client. Probably best to try the Tosh-branded battery first I think.

 

[coffee]

Coffee - I tested for continuity across that chip with a 'Y' on it and it's ok, so it's either something else on the board or the fact that it's not a genuine Toshiba battery as suggested by Juiceman39.

I now realise that different manufacturers use different batteries and pin-outs so we can't make direct comparisons but, just for interest I tried the pins on a fully working HP Pavilion G6 and got the following results:

The HP only has 8 pins rather than 9 but, left to right as above, the readouts were:

Pin 1 3.07v
Pin 2 3.07v
Pin 3 3.29v
Pin 4 3.29v
Pin 5 0v
Pin 6 3.23v
Pin 7 0v
Pin 8 0v

Does it really mean anything? I don't know, but all I've wasted is my spare time

EDIT: Mobo is an H000052360 model and I can get a replacement for around £90 (124USD) but after adding my time, I think it'll be beyond economic repair for the client. Probably best to try the Tosh-branded battery first I think.

The reason I suggested that is to get an idea of what a average charging voltage would be. Looks to be about 3.x volts. So, Looking back on your pinout of the MB it looks to be charging ok. So, Must be a proprietary battery deal as suggested earlier.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks very much for all your help Coffee, and you too Juiceman39 - it's all very much appreciated.