Battery draining problem help

brotob · #1 January 5th, 2005, 09:00 PM

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4010 laptob. I recently installed a new NiMh battery. When I shut down the computer and restart it the next day sometimes it has remains near the charge level that it was last at before shutdown but on many occasions the battery is totally drained. Is it a shutdown problem or a battery problem or something else and what should I do about it ?

**Murf** · #2 January 6th, 2005, 12:05 AM

Hi! Welcome to CTH

If this is a new battery and it is not holding a charge, it could be the charger. Does the light stay on the charger while it is charging?

When you shut it down is the battery fully charged? If it is loosing a charge over night then either the battery itself is bad (yes you can get a bad NEW battery) or the computer is not completed turned off or the charger itself is not doing the job.

When you shut down, without the charger hooked up, does the screen go blank and the lights on the laptop go out?

renegade600 · #3 January 6th, 2005, 12:07 AM

In addition, why did you replace the battery to begin with? Maybe related???

brotob · #4 January 6th, 2005, 02:25 AM

Generally I shutdown the computer and unhook everything. All lights on the computer are off which to me indicates that it has shutdown, I think. The battery is not always at full charge when I shut down. When everything does seem to work the battery loses about 3% of its charge overnight. If I leave the charge on it will charge up to the 100 %.

I changed the previous battery because it had been used for over 2 years and was not holding the charge for as long as I would have liked it to. Maybe there is some relationship between the two. How would I check that out ?

Bad Dog · #5 January 7th, 2005, 04:22 PM

If you can get a meter, check the output voltage of the charger. This will not absolutely confirm a good charger because no load is applied but it's a start.
It is also possible you bought a defective battery, hopefully locally, so it can be checked out or returned. I can imagine it a good pain in the old butt.

Good luck.
BD