Laptop battery only partially charges

A reader is having an issue with her laptop battery:

“This is an ongoing problem with my Win 7 laptop. It is getting old, and also WIN 7 expires next year I know. But what happens, I always keep it plugged in, so I’m not using the battery for it to say it is down and charging. Right now it is showing 75% (plugged in and charging) What I have been doing, I go ahead and pull the electric connection so it is running on battery. Then I check for it to get low on the amount remaining. I plug it back in and charges to complete. But why is it doing it? I’m curious about why I might be doing wrong.”

You may not being doing anything wrong, really.  As you say, it’s old. As batteries get old, they can lose their ability to fully charge. You might be surprised to know it’s not good for most batteries to be on a charger all the time. They’ll last longer if you let them completely run out of power from time to time.

Here’s a link to an article that explains how to troubleshoot if your battery problems are caused by a driver issue: https://cynmackley.com/2018/12/04/battery-not-charging/

You might also try disconnecting the charging cord and removing the battery from the laptop. Wait about three hours and then replace the battery. Plug the cord back in, but don’t turn on the PC. Allow it to charge overnight before turning on the computer.

The issue might also be a connector or a cord. As you said, the system is getting old. If it’s still working pretty well for you, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As you said, time’s almost up for Windows 7 and you’ll probably be looking for a new device soon.