Chromebook won't charge

Question

My chromebook won't charge properly, so I'm trying to figure out if the problem is with the battery itself, or with the charger. It's an Acer Chromebook 314, and I've had it for about 1.5 years. During that entire time, it's been plugged in. For most of that time, it was asleep (lid shut).

Right now, my battery is showing at 1%. The hardware light indicates that it is charging. If I unplug it, it immediately shuts down after showing the battery symbol on the screen. My OS is up to date. The only thing I have running is Chrome with two tabs (this one and crosh) and the Diagnostics app.

Diagnostics shows this for the battery:

Screenshot of Diagnostics:

The numbers seem to be nonsense, like a windows loading dialog. The time to charge will periodically change to different values between 29 days and 39 days.

Crosh shows:

crosh> battery_firmware info
EC result 3 (INVALID_PARAM)
Battery info:
  OEM name:               LGC KT0
  Model number:           AP18C8K
  Chemistry   :           LION
  Serial number:          7B56
  Design capacity:        4267 mAh
  Last full charge:       4191 mAh
  Design output voltage   11250 mV
  Cycle count             1
  Present voltage         12457 mV
  Present current         6 mA
  Remaining capacity      126 mAh
  Flags                   0x1b AC_PRESENT BATT_PRESENT CHARGING LEVEL_CRITICAL

crosh> battery_test
No test length specified. Defaulting to 300 seconds.
2022-10-05T04:26:13.854189Z ERROR dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(774)] Failed to open /dev/cros_ec: Permission denied (13)
2022-10-05T04:26:13.854328Z WARNING dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(646)] Setting full factor in OS is deprecated.
2022-10-05T04:26:13.886120Z ERROR dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(774)] Failed to open /dev/cros_ec: Permission denied (13)
2022-10-05T04:26:13.893269Z WARNING dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(646)] Setting full factor in OS is deprecated.
2022-10-05T04:26:13.923355Z ERROR dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(774)] Failed to open /dev/cros_ec: Permission denied (13)
2022-10-05T04:26:13.933290Z WARNING dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(646)] Setting full factor in OS is deprecated.
2022-10-05T04:26:13.981647Z ERROR dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(774)] Failed to open /dev/cros_ec: Permission denied (13)
2022-10-05T04:26:13.981988Z WARNING dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(646)] Setting full factor in OS is deprecated.
2022-10-05T04:26:14.016761Z ERROR dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(774)] Failed to open /dev/cros_ec: Permission denied (13)
2022-10-05T04:26:14.023183Z WARNING dump_power_status: [power_supply.cc(646)] Setting full factor in OS is deprecated.
Battery is charging or full (3.01% left)
Battery health: 98.13%
Please make sure the power supply is unplugged and retry the test.
[ERROR:src/main.rs:184] ERROR: command failed

I don't have a spare charger that's appropriate for a laptop, or any other electronics that I'd be willing to plug this charger into (given that it might be what's malfunctioning.) Is there anything else I can do to help figure out if the problem is with the charger or the battery?

Answer 1

I've had it for about 1.5 years. During that entire time, it's been plugged in.

This is very hard on batteries. You should be using Threshold Management for a battery (controlled in BIOS) to keep charge level at 80% (generally accepted level).

Try the following:

Shut down fully. Charge the battery as much as it will charge. Now let it run down fully while the computer is on (not suspended). This may (only may) reset the battery.

Most likely, you may need to replace the battery.

If your computer does not offer Threshold Management (I think it should), then you need to charge, unplug, charge, unplug .... in normal use.