HP Envy - battery won't charge?

King Rat

King Rat

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
15,897
Reaction score
10,105
Location
Uttoxeter, England
My computer is failing me. In the middle of editing pictures and writing my feature!
Battery is critical level, plug the lead in and the screen goes bright for a few seconds, then it goes back on battery again. The charger is workingbut only for a couple of seconds, without any movement of the wire or computer, so it isn't a bad connection... is it the internal battery failing? Or likely to be something else? I need to take it to a computer doctor, but it would be nice to not get my leg lifted by having an idea of what the repair might be.
Thanks.
 
Depending on what exact model you have, but a new battery looks like £80ish

Plenty of YouTube 'how to' videos so if you know your way round a screwdriver it shouldn't be a difficult DIY job.

Will it fix the issue?

Maybe, maybe not.

So....

I'm guessing you're charging it using the supplied charger with some sort of round plug thing?

In which case it might be worth checking there's no fluff or other debris inside the plug and giving it a bit of a clean just in case (not when plugged in of course)

If that doesn't work (which it probably won't but it's a good place to start) then my next question is - does it have a USB-C port?

If so and you can find a charger that you can use to charge via USB-C then that will tell you if your issue is with your charging adaptor / circuit. It also means you can just use that from now on and not go spending any more money.

If you can't charge from either then I would open the thing up (use YouTube and a screwdriver) and have a look at the battery.

These normally start to bulge when they're on the way out. If it's bulging then you have a dead battery.

The choice then becomes whether you are happy to gamble the £80 (or whatever your specific battery costs) or if you just accept that these laptops are going End Of Life and HP no longer supports them and so maybe it's time for a new one.

Ideally you would buy the battery from somewhere that accepts returns so if it doesn't work then you're not out of pocket. Otherwise you could stick it on eBay or similar but you wouldn't get your money back. I'd guess at about half what you paid unless you get lucky.

Anyway, step 1 - toothpick and a bit of isopropyl or electrical contact cleaner or something. You might get really lucky :D
 
I'd try another power lead/charger, could be a dry solder joint losing conductivity as warms up?
 
LOLGEOFF said:
I'd try another power lead/charger, could be a dry solder joint losing conductivity as warms up?
Click to expand...
Dry solder joint is a real possibilty.

A different power lead / charger is also worth considering but MAKE SURE IT'S THE RIGHT VOLTS / AMPS or you might regret it very quickly...

DAHMHIK :D
 
It is an HP Envy Core i9
if that helps. It is completely dead. The charger doesn't even light the charging light now.
It is so expensive to replace I will take it to a proper place. It was about £3000 when I bought it.
 
yeah.. for a £3k laptop I'd be taking it to a 'proper place'

Battery + labour most likely not much less than £300 I would guess. Other options might well be cheaper. New charger probably £30.

Not really knowing what you need a £3k laptop for, I might be inclined to take it to a different 'proper place' than the one that sold it to you....

I work in IT, have done video editing and other high processor demanding stuff commercially and have never needed anything remotely that expensive (and I worked for a multimedia company that spent £300 on a 1GB SCSI hard drive back in the day)

I know nothing about your industry but really can't imagine why you would need anything like that. Could just be ignorance on my behalf but just don't want to see you spending money you don't need to spend.
 
Hi, do you have a model number, hopefully still on the underside of the laptop. The charging brick, is that a round pin, or USB-C. Is the any information from the charging brick? Model /voltage/amp/watts?

Usually even if the battery is toast, you can run from the charger. If a round pin , can you test the voltage, may be something like 19v the information is on the brick.

If you look in the charging pot is there any damage? With a round pin sometimes the center pin can get bent to the side.

Let us know the computer model and we can sleuth a bit.
 
sparkplug said:
yeah.. for a £3k laptop I'd be taking it to a 'proper place'

Battery + labour most likely not much less than £300 I would guess. Other options might well be cheaper. New charger probably £30.

Not really knowing what you need a £3k laptop for, I might be inclined to take it to a different 'proper place' than the one that sold it to you....

I work in IT, have done video editing and other high processor demanding stuff commercially and have never needed anything remotely that expensive (and I worked for a multimedia company that spent £300 on a 1GB SCSI hard drive back in the day)

I know nothing about your industry but really can't imagine why you would need anything like that. Could just be ignorance on my behalf but just don't want to see you spending money you don't need to spend.
Click to expand...
John Lewis. I boughtvit for editing pictures and videos.. it is still slow!
I don't know anything about the bloody things.
 
a couple of possibilities, the obvious being the charger. Easy to check if you can borrow a compatible charger.

the other one is the battery developed a fault which progressed to a very low impedance or dead short. This will then sink all of the current from the charger so the laptop cannot run. The charger should detect the excess current and switch itself off. I would check this by disconnecting the battery and then seeing if the laptop will run from the mains only. This situation is more likely if a laptop is frequently plugged into the charger and the battery allowed to reach 100% permanently. I manage this by altering the smart charging settings so that the charge never goes over 80% when effectively using a laptop as a desktop device, as I am doing now.
 
King Rat said:
John Lewis. I boughtvit for editing pictures and videos.. it is still slow!
I don't know anything about the bloody things.
Click to expand...
Ah, OK.. John Lewis aren't going to rip you off.

They're usually really good with returns and warranty stuff. Bit like Apple. You pay a bit more when you buy them, but that covers the cost of proper customer service afterwards.
 
sparkplug said:
Ah, OK.. John Lewis aren't going to rip you off.

They're usually really good with returns and warranty stuff. Bit like Apple. You pay a bit more when you buy them, but that covers the cost of proper customer service afterwards.
Click to expand...
I think it is about 6 years out of warranty! It was before cv19 when I bought it. Must have had it 7 or 8 years. Hopefully it can do another 10!
 
I hightly doubt they will offer much assistance on a 7 or 8 years old computer to be fair.
Be prepared to be offered/asked to replace it. Or at least this is what I’d expect from a larger outlet.

I’d test the charger first (as suggested above) as that could be the fault, and a fairly cheap fix (either original parts or ebay/afternarket compatible ones).
See if they can help with a compatible charger to test in store and clear that first.
 
John Armstrong said:
If your laptop uses the USB-C for its power input then having one of these is a great alternative as I left my laptop charging lead at home when I headed down to Morocco earlier this year, much cursing as I had chose not to take my Anker power pack that could have been used instead:

Click to expand...

that will be my route in future if needed rather than buy a cheap Chinese "brand specific" charger replacement

the other thing I used with my work laptop when using it at home was to hook up the secondary display via USB-C. This had the advantage of transferring data to the screen and charging the laptop via a single cable.

Powering by USB-C is definitely the way forward but the pre-Covid era laptop in question may not have that technology! It was not standard on the HP Envy range until 2021.
 
John Armstrong said:
If your laptop uses the USB-C for its power input then having one of these is a great alternative as I left my laptop charging lead at home when I headed down to Morocco earlier this year, much cursing as I had chose not to take my Anker power pack that could have been used instead:

Click to expand...
They can get stuffed with their "you need to buy a new one" approach. I have gone to our local computer wizard who was at school with our sons.

It uses a 200w charger on a 3mm (3.5?) jackplug. New original charger ordered as they think it is the charger too. It has USB, not even USB-B and has a boiler at the back I put coal dust in to power it up....
 
The other thing I would make sure I do is to get everything backed up, if you haven’t done so, and make sure everything is backed up on a regular basis if it is repaired. Removable hard drives are cheap and hold a lot of storage.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The battery positive charging terminal just spins and won't unscrew. Any tips of fixing it?
Replies
6
Views
778
SBD
Battery won't go back in
Replies
11
Views
1,810
Rock10
Rock10
Boxerboy55
iPad won't charge
Replies
14
Views
5,012
Bendy toy
davidgibson999
Zumo 660 won't charge in Nav IV mount on TE
Replies
6
Views
1,895
davidgibson999
davidgibson999
MMC
1100, new battery, ran fine, now won't start.
2 3
Replies
40
Views
5,894
MMC
MMC


Back
Top Bottom