Q&A for How to Revive a Dead Laptop Battery

Every battery needs to go through a discharge cycle, down to 20% and then back up to 100%. Otherwise, the chemicals inside the battery don't get mixed up, and the battery won't work properly.

This is really about chemistry. When the battery freezes, the domains that were initially dis-aligned in the battery will converge and become one. Thus, they will be able to conduct the electric current.

It is possible to drain a laptop battery so much (and for so long) that it loses its "memory" for charge. We recommend giving these methods a try before throwing in the towel.

It should never be too late, as long as your charger works. The percentage is normally just the percentage on your battery and is not an indication of the power your computer receives directly from the charger.

Turn the system off and make sure the battery is well placed in the battery bay. Try removing the battery and reconnecting it.

Your laptop battery is dead.

You can power any laptop without battery by using its charger. It will provide the same energy as its battery.

Replace the battery. If you want to use the laptop on the AC, remove the battery. The laptop will run just fine without a battery on the AC. Plug in the battery only as needed to charge it. (Don't store the battery in a discharged state. Charge it first.)

You can add new life to your NiMH or NiCD laptop battery using the method in this article. If your battery is dead and this method doesn't work, you can remove the battery and replace it with a new one.

If your battery won't charge that probably means it is dead or the charger is somehow broken.

You probably can't. Get a replacement battery from the company that made your laptop or from another trusted source.

Yes. That's how most laptops work. The only time that doesn't work is when your charger is too weak to run the computer.

Almost all batteries have their chemistry written on them somewhere. A lithium battery will say "Lithoum", "Li-Ion", "LiPo", or "LiFePO4" somewhere on them. On Windows, you can also find the chemistry by running the Command Prompt or PowerShell as an administrator and entering 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐟𝐠 /𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 and then 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲-𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭.𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐥. This will open up a web page that shows your battery information. Look for "Chemistry" to see the battery type.

That is not possible. Putting electricity in a battery is what charging means. If you don't have electricity, you don't have anything to put in the battery. There are alternative sources of electricity, if that's what you meant. Gasoline or diesel generator, solar panels, and even hand cranks are all possible. The one that is best will depend on where you are using it, and your budget. A gas-powered generator is the most expensive, but can be used at any time of day (if you don't mind the noise). Solar panels can be cheap and effective, but require sunlight to operate. They can be used to charge batteries that are used at night, though.

It depends on the brand/model, and whether you buy an official charger or a third-party charger. Generic laptop chargers can be purchased online for under $20, but they tend to be poorly made and may damage your laptop when they fail. Used original chargers are usually around $25 to $30 on eBay. HP chargers tend to be cheaper than Dell or Apple chargers.

This can happen when the battery gets old or if there's a problem with it. When you unplug the charger, the laptop is running on the battery, and if the battery isn't holding a charge, the laptop can die even though it showed 100% when it was plugged in.

Some laptops, particularly Dells, have a sensor that detects the charger wattage. If it can't identify the charger, it will refuse to draw power from it while powered on, and will only trickle-charge the battery when turned off. You will most likely need to buy a new charger to resolve this issue. Another possibility is that you have changed settings on your laptop that cause it to drain more power, and your charger is not powerful enough,to compensate. Overclocking, heavy CPU usage, screen brightness,and some USB devices can all increase power drain.

Go to your nearest computer repair place. That shouldn't be happening and it should be checked out. If you can't do that, recycle your old laptop and purchase a new one. Make sure to take out the SSD if you can as you can use it to save your previously installed apps.

Your battery might be dead. If so, you will need to replace it or use your laptop on AC.

It means that your battery is already dead. Replace the battery immediately.

Your battery is dead. You will need to replace it with a new one. All laptops work without a battery when it is plugged into the charger but will go off instantly if the battery is no longer good.

Either your laptop is malfunctioning or dead, or the battery itself has locked itself to prevent from overcharge. The best way to verify this is to unplug the battery (if possible) and plug in the AC adapter to the laptop.

You can try, but the chances are that it will probably fail if the battery was dead for a long time.

Your battery is broken. You need to replace it.

You could try to charge it, replace the battery by ordering/buying one or take it to professionals.