How to Decide if Your Laptop AC Power Battery Charger is Defective

If the battery charger doesn't work then the battery power will ultimately discharge after you switch on your laptop. When the re-charge warning light on your laptop fails to light after you connect the battery charger to the power plug and the laptop, then this indicates that no power is getting to the laptop and your charger may possibly be faulty. There are generally three parts to the battery charger, any of which can and from time to time do go wrong.

The most obvious first step is to replace the mains plug fuse and investigate that the electrical wires are tightly attached within the plug. Different international locations have various electric systems so yours may well not need a fuse. Furthermore, if the mains plug has at sometime been changed, then it may have been hooked up incorrectly so should also be examined carefully.

The AC power cable should be examined making sure that it doesn't have breaks or bumps along its length. Check in particular at the ends by carefully twisting the cord and making absolutely sure that the electrical insulating has not began to come out or is cracked. If there's any likelihood that the plug or cord is defective or damaged it should be replaced for safety reasons.

The laptop battery charger by itself rarely fails and may only be identified as faulty by substitution; nevertheless, the low voltage cable and connection very frequently fail. Look very carefully at where the cable connects to the low voltage connector that plugs into the laptop; this quite frequently stops working if the cord has been bent sharply. Should you try moving the wire very slightly the laptop may perhaps switch charging and not charging? Also take a look at the place the low voltage wire leaves the battery charger; this may often fail at this point in particular if the cord is regularly wound around the battery charger pack. However, should the low voltage wire or connector interconnection be broken or cracked then the complete charger will have to be replaced or exchanged.

If care is taken your laptop battery charger should last longer than the laptop itself, however, if you coil up the cord frequently or you bend the cable sharply at any point then it will be certain to fail at some time. Do not leave the charger constantly connected to the mains as this will use up energy and reduce the life of the charger.