Battery trouble Toshiba dynabook R731/W2TC

[homoludens1000]

My dynabook is about 7 years old, over the years I had a few items replaced (keyboard, screen), but the battery is still the one from the beginning.

For a few days I've been having the following problem:

1. If on A/C with battery plugged in, the battery indicator says "Battery 0%", yet system is switched to battery mode (not A/C mode). The battery LED in the front is dark.

2. If I unplug the A/C, and/or put it back in, nothing changes, i.e. the computer seems oblivious to the fact that the fact that something has changed. (Well, not entirely, the power cord LED goes off and on.) The battery seems to be charging though.

3. If I start the system only on A/C, I get an battery silhouette icon and a message "Unknown remaining".

I'm not even sure what kind of problem I am looking at here. Battery that is too old? Computer problem with the power management?

Any help much appreciated.

--
Background specs:
- Toshiba R731/W2TC (Portege R830 Series, Model-No. PT321N-02N01X)
- RAM 8 GB, 256 GB SDD
- recently did a clean re-installation of Windows 10 Pro (switched from 32 bit to 64 bit)
- before the problem the computer would last ca. 3h on one battery charge

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The battery has probably reached the end of it's useful life and therefore needs replacing, that's why percentage remaining is "Unknown".

They don't last indefinitley, and 7 years is about par for the course for the original OEM battery.

I'm confident a new battery will fix this issue.

 

[homoludens1000]

Phillip, thanks for the quick reply, I'll go ahead and exchange the battery.

Best