- May 8, 2021
- 3
- 0
- 10
Hi all,
TL😀R; Laptop had swollen battery and didn't last over 30 mins before dying. I bought newish battery, new PSU and it now won't hold a charge or run unless it's plugged in. What could be the hardware issues I'm facing?
Back story is, I purchased a 2nd hand Gigabyte P35 laptop from eBay on 27th October 2021 for £310, with the idea of gifting it to my girlfriend for her birthday in Dec. Guy sold me it with description of "battery isn't great, runs around 30 mins before dying" and also "undercase was missing a screw", and "I lost the charger for it so it's a replacement charger".
So I figure, OK, he's had it open at some point, and worst case scenario I'm looking at a new battery (£50) to replace the old one, and potentially same amount for an authentic PSU if the other one isn't delivering enough power to keep the unit on. So I buy an authentic BUT NOT NEW battery from eBay (it was removed from a Gigabyte p35 that had a motherboard issue so they couldn't test it, but said "no reason to think it doesn't work")
I get it, wipe his account and set up a new one, and it doesn't cut out at all. I gift it to my gf, she plays The Sims 4 on it for around 20 mins and boom, it cuts out and reboots. It does this consistently, over a few days. She was formatting an excel document and it did it too, so I'm thinking the battery's probably done. I open it up and the battery that's inside it is DANGEROUSLY swollen. Like nearly popping the back case off swollen. I remove it and replace it with my new authentic battery. Everything seems OK, except I did have to pull the battery tab quite forcefully as the adhesive was really stuck on. But no like burn marks to any components, wires all look good, it looks OK. I clean it a bit and close it up.
I downloaded a GPU stress test and ran that and there didn't seem to be any issues. The laptop got SUPER hot but it didn't cut out. I thought the issue was fixed, gave her it back, she played Sims again and boom, it reboots again. So I ran an online CPU stress test (unsure if that's the same as a GPU but I don't think it is?) and it cut out after 20 seconds.
So I purchased an authentic PSU (£45) and charged it back up again. Switched it on, and noticed it was showing 0% battery (plugged in) and it looked like it was charging (battery light at very front of laptop stays on) but the icon on the taskbar showed it filling with power for like 10 seconds then the graphic stopped... and it didn't show (plugged in) anymore...
I ran the same GPU/CPU tests while the "new" battery and "new" charger are in, and it DOESN'T CUT OUT. I ran both of these for 15 mins each. But. It still doesn't charge. Nor does it work if I unplug the charger (it dies instantly).
Questions
A) What the hell do you think is going on?
B) I'm pretty annoyed that eBay and Paypal can't help me recoup some losses from the seller, as I think the damage to this machine was likely caused by the swollen battery somehow, but am I likely to be able to fix this for less than it would have cost me a new machine?
C) Should I just cut my losses and sell it for parts?
I'd appreciate any help with this guys. Other info can be gathered if needed. Thanks so much and have a great Christmas everyone!!
TL😀R; Laptop had swollen battery and didn't last over 30 mins before dying. I bought newish battery, new PSU and it now won't hold a charge or run unless it's plugged in. What could be the hardware issues I'm facing?
Back story is, I purchased a 2nd hand Gigabyte P35 laptop from eBay on 27th October 2021 for £310, with the idea of gifting it to my girlfriend for her birthday in Dec. Guy sold me it with description of "battery isn't great, runs around 30 mins before dying" and also "undercase was missing a screw", and "I lost the charger for it so it's a replacement charger".
So I figure, OK, he's had it open at some point, and worst case scenario I'm looking at a new battery (£50) to replace the old one, and potentially same amount for an authentic PSU if the other one isn't delivering enough power to keep the unit on. So I buy an authentic BUT NOT NEW battery from eBay (it was removed from a Gigabyte p35 that had a motherboard issue so they couldn't test it, but said "no reason to think it doesn't work")
I get it, wipe his account and set up a new one, and it doesn't cut out at all. I gift it to my gf, she plays The Sims 4 on it for around 20 mins and boom, it cuts out and reboots. It does this consistently, over a few days. She was formatting an excel document and it did it too, so I'm thinking the battery's probably done. I open it up and the battery that's inside it is DANGEROUSLY swollen. Like nearly popping the back case off swollen. I remove it and replace it with my new authentic battery. Everything seems OK, except I did have to pull the battery tab quite forcefully as the adhesive was really stuck on. But no like burn marks to any components, wires all look good, it looks OK. I clean it a bit and close it up.
I downloaded a GPU stress test and ran that and there didn't seem to be any issues. The laptop got SUPER hot but it didn't cut out. I thought the issue was fixed, gave her it back, she played Sims again and boom, it reboots again. So I ran an online CPU stress test (unsure if that's the same as a GPU but I don't think it is?) and it cut out after 20 seconds.
So I purchased an authentic PSU (£45) and charged it back up again. Switched it on, and noticed it was showing 0% battery (plugged in) and it looked like it was charging (battery light at very front of laptop stays on) but the icon on the taskbar showed it filling with power for like 10 seconds then the graphic stopped... and it didn't show (plugged in) anymore...
I ran the same GPU/CPU tests while the "new" battery and "new" charger are in, and it DOESN'T CUT OUT. I ran both of these for 15 mins each. But. It still doesn't charge. Nor does it work if I unplug the charger (it dies instantly).
Questions
A) What the hell do you think is going on?
B) I'm pretty annoyed that eBay and Paypal can't help me recoup some losses from the seller, as I think the damage to this machine was likely caused by the swollen battery somehow, but am I likely to be able to fix this for less than it would have cost me a new machine?
C) Should I just cut my losses and sell it for parts?
I'd appreciate any help with this guys. Other info can be gathered if needed. Thanks so much and have a great Christmas everyone!!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram