Instructor: In this lesson we're going to talk about
mobile power issues.
This includes things like poor battery health,
charging issues, and swollen batteries.
Now by design, batteries are designed to be charged up
and then use the power within them
until they become discharged,
at which point you would charge them again.
Now, unfortunately, over time, the health
of the battery will deteriorate.
For example, if you have a brand new laptop
with a new battery and you fully charged it
and it will last about 12 hours,
well over time, after a year or two,
you may find that it's only going to last 10 hours,
or eight hours, instead of that initial 12.
This is because the batteries will deteriorate
in health over time and certain parts of the battery,
which are known as cells, can die off and become unusable.
This is just a normal fact of life when it comes
to batteries, and if this becomes a major issue
you will have to change out that battery
with a known good replacement.
For example, I've had some laptop batteries
after three to five years, that will no longer
hold a charge more than about 30 minutes,
even though they used to hold 10 to 12 hours of charge.
In this case, the battery is said to have poor health
and it should be replaced with a new one.
When it comes to phones, tablets, and laptops,
some batteries are considered a replaceable item,
while others are considered a non-removable item.
In the case of batteries that are soldered into the device,
this is considered a non-removable battery,
and this is something that would be considered
beyond the scope of what an A plus technician
would be expected to fix.
The second type of power issues you may experience,
are what are known as improper charging.
Now, when it comes to improper charging,
there are a couple of different sources of problems here.
The first is when you're not following a proper charging
routine. Now, modern batteries, including those made
of lithium-ion, are considered to have a memory
of their charge pattern in them.
Now, if you start charging your battery using
an improper routine, you can actually shorten the life
of that battery, causing it to have poor battery health.
For example, if you have a mobile device
and it's at 100% and it goes down to 80%
and then you recharge it back to a 100%,
and you keep doing this repeatedly,
over time, that battery is going to learn
that 80% is considered its empty point,
and so essentially you're going to reduce your battery
from 100% down to only having about 20% capacity.
Conversely, you also don't want to fully discharge
your battery regularly when you're using lithium-ion devices
because this will reduce the battery life as well.
Instead, you really want to be able to get your battery down
to about 20 to 30%,
and then recharge it back to a 100%.
This is what is considered a best practice when it comes
to recharging your lithium-ion batteries.
Now remember, as batteries age,
the maximum charge that they're going to be able to hold,
is going to decrease,
and so you should expect a shorter battery life over time.
But by following good battery charging procedures,
you can extend the life of that battery,
and put less strain on the battery
in terms of charging and discharging it.
Another thing to consider when charging your batteries
is whether you're going to use a slow charge or a fast charge.
Some batteries will support a fast charge, where you can get
about 50 to 75% of that battery charged,
in under about 30 minutes.
Now, while this is great from an operational perspective,
it does put additional strain on the battery,
and it can lead to reduced battery life over time.
Instead, a slow trickle charge is considered better
for the health of your battery long term,
although it does take much longer to fully
charge your battery this way.
Another issue when it comes to charging,
is when you have a device that simply won't take a charge.
For example, if you've connected an AC adapter
between your laptop and a wall outlet to charge up
the battery in your laptop,
but the battery is not charging,
you need to identify why is that happening.
There are several reasons for this.
One, is it could be the AC adapter itself is not
properly connected.
In this case, you want to make sure the AC adapter
is connected securely in three places.
First to the laptop.
Second, between the cable going
from the laptop and the power transformer,
which is the large rectangular device that is connected
in the middle of your power adapter,
and third into the wall outlet.
If all three of these are securely connected
and you're still not getting a charge
on your laptop battery, you may want to replace
the adapter with a known good one,
to verify if it's the adapter
or the battery that's having issues.
In addition to the adapter or the battery having issues,
you could also have issues
with the connector on the motherboard itself.
These charging ports are a common area that will degrade
over time or become broken
because you're constantly plugging
and unplugging the power cable
into the laptop using these ports.
Because of this, these charging ports
can often become broken and the only way
to replace them is a take apart the laptop,
desolder them from the motherboard,
and then solder a new power connector.
Now the final thing we want to talk
about is swollen batteries.
Now, if you find a battery that is swelling
or has already become swollen,
this indicates a fault, physically, with that battery.
Now, most often you'll see this where the battery
compartment starts bulging.
If you try placing the device on a desk,
it is now deformed because this device
has now swollen and expanded in size.
This is a really dangerous thing
and you don't want to just try to
squish the battery back into the compartment.
Instead, you should stop using
that mobile device immediately because otherwise,
you could have damage to the device or yourself.
Now, when it comes to a swollen battery,
this often happens because the battery has become
overcharged because the circuitry inside of it,
that's supposed to protect it from overcharging, has failed.
In either case, if you have a swollen battery,
you should immediately take that device out of service,
and if you can remove the battery
because it's a removable part,
you should remove it from the mobile device.
At that point, you can then replace that battery
with a new battery into that device,
and return it to service.
If the battery is considered a non-removable part,
you should immediately stop using that mobile device
and send it back to the manufacturer
for them to repair or replace the device with a newer model.
Now, anytime you're handling a swollen battery,
you always want to do this
using the proper safety precautions.
This includes making sure you have a mask,
goggles, and gloves on, because that swollen battery
could be releasing hazardous chemicals
onto your skin as you touch it, or it could actually burst
because of the extended pressure from that swelling,
and in those cases, that hazardous chemical
could be going towards your eyes,
which is why you want to have goggles on as well.
Once you remove that battery from the device,
you do want to properly dispose of it,
and remember you cannot discard it using standard recycling
options at this point because those batteries
are now in a hazardous state.
So, you need to check your local rules, and laws,
and regulations, on how to dispose of that battery
properly and safely.
So remember, when it comes to mobile power issues,
there are three main issues that you're going to come across.
This includes poor battery health,
charging issues and swollen batteries.