I've got an Acer Aspire laptop. Yeah, I know, not the best brand. But it's 17" and it was free!
It's been working fine for a few years, but now it seems to be confused about the battery. I have two batteries. One went dead while in the machine. I had set the laptop aside and hadn't powered it up for a few months. That battery is dust. I tore it open and one set of cells is at 1V1.
The other battery is fine, but the computer doesn't think it is. If I charge it, the computer charges it to about 37% and then stops charging and starts flashing the battery light to indicate a battery fault. If I remove the battery, I can charge it manually to 16V8 (4 cell battery) at which point, the battery disconnects as it should. It's almost like the computer thinks the battery is 1/3 of it's actual capacity and when it keeps drawing current, the computer thinks something's wrong. I've got a couple of battery monitoring apps that agree on all the battery parameters so it seems like the battery is reporting correctly.
I've cycled the battery, I've removed the battery and then held the power switch for 30 sec. (apparently that's supposed to clear something in the computer). I've cleared the CMOS. I replaced the power brick with a beefy linear supply. I even nudged the voltage higher than the normal 19V5. Nothing changed.
Any thoughts on how to proceed - other than a large hammer?
Ed