Question Sudden and inexplicable total battery failure

[Carlos Yung]

In 2018 I purchased my ASUS X541U laptop. I have never replaced the battery . I don't game or do anything excessively intensive for my hardware. Today all I had running was Visual Studio Code and a browser, when suddenly my computer just died. Like completely and suddenly. It will not power on without AC power, and the battery charge is stuck at 86%. As soon as it is disconnected, it dies.

Moreover, this year I swapped my old hard drive and 4GB ram stick with a broken Dell's SSD and 8GB RAM. A bit of a Frankenstein's monster surgery. I mention this because I had trouble with drivers (i.e. ASUS drivers like the key combination to power off the screen.) Could it be that I'm missing a driver that keeps the battery cells' health? It might be entirely coincidental, but I am surprised that my battery is failing me NOW when I have an SSD and not before when I had a hard drive. Maybe that's exactly why I couldn't tell the battery health was actually deteriorating, but I'm almost shocked about how sudden it died.

My questions are:

1. Is there a way to run a battery diagnostics? Even if it means using a multimeter.
2. Can I salvage my battery, at least until I can get a new one?
3. How can I find out what happened so it doesn't occur again?
4. Up to date battery health tips?

 

[geofelt]

You ask some good questions.

I doubt that the ssd had anything to do with the failure.

1. There may be some ASUS battery management software and drivers available.
If you can find some, on the ASUS support site, install them while you are running plugged in.
Batteries do not last forever. I think you need a replacement.
Buy an authorized exact ASUS brand replacement part number.
Some laptop makers have chips in the battery so "compatible" replacements will not run properly.

2. I doubt anything is salvageable.

3. I would assume that the battery simply failed.

4. I have heard of some, but none that I would consider as reliable or worthwhile from knowledgeable sources.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

A laptop battery from 2018? It's reached the end of its life and requires replacement. There is nothing you can do to resurrect it or prolong its life.

 

[Carlos Yung]

I doubt that the ssd had anything to do with the failure.

I agree. If anything, it should have helped keep it from dying longer. What I meant is that because some drivers did not automatically reinstall, perhaps that could have affected battery life. But I doubt it.

 

[Carlos Yung]

A laptop battery from 2018? It's reached the end of its life and requires replacement. There is nothing you can do to resurrect it or prolong its life.

Weird thing happened. I opened it up to remove it. But this particular model is a pain in the ass, having to remove pretty much every component just to take out the battery. So I just took a picture of the battery model. I closed it up. I don't know why but I tried booting it up without AC power. And it did. So I just proved you wrong

Except that time will probably prove your right again. I am waiting for another instant power off as I type this. Still, it wasn't that obvious, was it! How come opening it up resurrected my battery, at least temporarily? Very intresting