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Today I found an old ASUS UL30A laptop collecting dust in my office. The hard drive was missing and it seems the battery is dead, but I just so happened to have an Ubuntu USB stick lying around so I plugged in the power cord and brought it to life. Power Statistics is showing the following info for the battery:

Power statistics for (dead) battery

My question is what, exactly, does this mean? I suppose the battery is dead, but is this a situation where I can just buy a replacement battery, or does this indicate that something in the chain from charger to battery is genuinely damaged? I should mention that, regardless of how long I leave it on the charger, the laptop immediately dies when I unplug it.

Thanks!

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  • It looks like that battery is now useless. Anyway, you can get a replacement. If the charger would be damaged, then your laptop wouldn't turn on.
    – Ed Villegas
    Apr 30, 2014 at 1:08
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    I do not think that the hardware would be able to distinguish between a failing charging circuit (the part that controls the battery, I mean, because clearly the power supply is working) and a failing battery. Nevertheless, I had a behavior exactly similar to what you describe two times, and it was the battery --- you couldn't do anything short of trying with a good one.
    – Rmano
    Apr 30, 2014 at 3:15
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    Thanks @Rmano, I just ordered a new one, hopefully it's just the battery.
    – Jackson Walters
    Apr 30, 2014 at 4:24

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The battery is certainly dead. Now, it could be dead because the charging circuit in the laptop is toast, but that's pretty rare IMHO.

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  • Yup, it was just the battery. Replaced it for $23 on eBay and the new one is working beautifully.
    – Jackson Walters
    May 6, 2014 at 20:18

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