I'm having serious problems getting my laptop to work.

I hadn't used my laptop for about a week and had been using it for about half an hour when it indicated a low battery state. I immediately plugged in the charger and made sure all was switched on.

After a few minutes the screen went blank and the blue light on the start button went out.

Pressing the start button only results in the blue light blinking 5 times and then nothing.

My wife has an identical laptop so ( with permission ) I borrowed her Acer charger in case mine wasn't working but it made no difference.

I then borrowed the battery from her laptop and great my laptop sprung into life and I quickly did a back up.  But her battery wasn't charging either dropping from 28% down to 21%.

So I removed her battery and put it back in her laptop, plugged in the charger ( to her laptop ) but the power level continued to drop down from 21% to 15% before I turned it off.

Now we have two laptops we can't use.  I know I can buy a new battery but that's no use if  I can't charge it.

Can anyone offer me some practical advice on this problem, bearing in mind
I'm no techie and wouldn't dare look inside the laptops but is there anything I can do?

Perhaps I should've done something in addition to making sure the laptop was off when I removed or replaced batteries?

Any practical advice would be much appreciated.

Ray

Take out the battery and the charger. Hold down the power button for 15seconds. There is a capacitor on the motherboard that holds a change and stop the battery from charging. Holding down the power button drains it.

If that does not work then its probably something with the charging circuit on the laptop.

Thanks @cjdodd

Unfortunately that didn't work on either laptop.

I don't suppose you have any other suggestion that might help?

Ray

Sounds like the perfect time to treat yourself to a new laptop

Nice idea but not likely at moment.

Seems very odd that both laptops now have problems after you say you swapped the batteries over and then back again.  So you're saying neither charger will charge either of the laptops?

Are you sure the mains socket is working  ??

Yep that's about it @ntpntpntp
Just tried wife's laptop and charger in different socket after holding down button for 30 seconds still didn't start charging.

Once battery and charger reconnected and power button pressed blue light still blinks 5 times and nothing happens

So will the laptop run, or not? If it's plugged into the mains the battery is superfluous. Indeed common advice for a deeply discharged battery is to turn on the laptop without the battery fitted, and fit it once the laptop has booted. If it does come on, but just won't charge I'd suggest that. If It won't turn on, even on AC then the battery is not the issue.

Have you got a light on the charger somewhere? There usually is, to indicate that's getting power.

@njee20
Removed battery from wife's laptop, plugged charger in pressed power button and no blue light and no life on screen.

Changed charger and socket repeated exercise still no blue light or screen.

Neither charger is fitted with light

That points to the chargers being faulty, which is weird, possibly some strange voltage spike in yours fried it, and then you repeated with your wife's.

Have you got a multimeter to check the output? Red probe down the charger, black on the outside.

Quote from: njee20 on July 21, 2019, 04:29:36 PM
That points to the chargers being faulty, which is weird, possibly some strange voltage spike in yours fried it, and then you repeated with your wife's.

Have you got a multimeter to check the output? Red probe down the charger, black on the outside.

And put it in DC Volts mode.

John P

Tried a multi metre on the chargers did not get a reading but couldn't get Red prob very far into the plug.

Had plugged charger into one of the lap tops  and left charging (in theory at least) for an hour but again nothing improved so @jpendle I'll start exploring your suggestion.

a bent paperclip is a good extension for the prongs of a multimeter
- wrap it around the prong

may be worth getting a new charger   

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LAPTOP-CHARGER-ES1-512-ASPIRE-S3-391/dp/B07HRK3B3M/ref=sr_1_53?crid=2C64NKLHFAJP1&keywords=acer+aspire+e1-531+charger&qid=1563728246&s=gateway&sprefix=charger+acer+aspire+E1+531%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-53


https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=acer+aspire+e1-531+charger&crid=2C64NKLHFAJP1&sprefix=charger+acer+aspire+E1+531%2Caps%2C134&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_26

if the PCs are dead, we can advise how to transfer the data...

As @Njee20 says, take the battery out and try just using the charger. The laptop should work.

Most unlikely given the sequence of events, and a (very) long shot I know, but just in case.... have you checked the fuses in the charger plugs? Or swopped the charger leads over with the bricks. Might be a broken wire.

Izzy