“Plugged in Not Charging” – Every Possible Solution

Having a laptop is like a pet, once in a while it does get sick and now it’s on us to choose, that we need to try some home remedies or just go to the doctor (engineer, what I say).

Usually, the first option is the only one we prefer most, to get rid of the sickness. That’s why we especially dig the internet to look for a perfect solution which matches our situation.

So for this error treatment, you really don’t need to get depressed, because “Plugged in not charging” is the same old Windows OS Error and sometimes can be fixed, quickly as a wink.

Generally, the problem is coming from the OS side, but if you are really running out of your luck. Then it’s surely possible that the problem relates to some major hardware and you’ll have to send your laptop to the repair shop.




This problem can make your laptop to suffer from lack of charging or just providing you the bad battery backups. You can notice that sometimes the error can also turn off your charging light too, or can make it flicker like a twinkling star.

Often the charging light may appear, even though your computer won’t charge the battery and displays the error message like “0% available (Plugged In, Not Charging)” or any other frozen digit.

Having the issue after Operating System upgradation is also quite common these days;

Anything’s feasible with this error, even when you are using a 2000 dollar laptop. I know, that sometimes the life gets even worse. But as we say ‘If life deals you lemons, make lemonade’.

To peacefully troubleshoot your laptop, there are a lot of different steps what you’ll need to follow in order to find the actual problem. Moreover, I don’t think you should really need to worry about it because this article covers all the handy solutions that you can try even when you are not a professional.

Tip: The procedure is still the same, even if the error came along with the use of a new charger or battery.

#let’s start to understand the problem;

There are mainly four common reasons for this error to be on your laptop’s screen. Blaming any particular one is like finding the naughtiest in quad babies. You just can’t tell who did what.

But when you look for some evidence, surely you can catch the criminal;

That’s how the only way to find the core of this dilemma is by looking over all the complications that your laptop has recently gone through. To do that, the first thing I prefer is to check your ‘Windows’, second the ‘Charger’, third the ‘Battery’ and if, it’s really the hard time of yours, then it might be possible that the ‘Charging circuit of your laptop got blown up’ too.

So, just follow the procedure given below and I hope you will quickly fix this problem;

#Troubleshooting Windows

Most of you will fix your laptop by pursuing the first step of this troubleshooting guide. I’m only delighting you because there is 95% of chance that the error is occurring due to corrupted Power Adapter Drivers of your Windows OS.

The name of that corrupted driver which I’m talking about is “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery”;

ACPI stands for “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface”. The actual work of ACPI is to maintain your laptop’s charging services, but once in a while, it does corrupt, when you didn’t take good care of your Operating System.

Certain errors only arise when you carelessly download anything from the internet, mostly when you’re looking for some free stuff.

Good advice is always being ignored, but that’s not a reason to give it. Always be polite to your PC, or otherwise, it will mess you up big time.

In concern of drivers matter, uninstalling it is a long shot approach to fix the problem instantly. The best part is, on the next system restart, you actually don’t need to re-install the drivers back because your OS will automatically do it for you.

To remove the corrupted driver;

First, you should completely turn off your laptop (not to put it in sleep or hibernation). Then turn it upside down and remove the battery. After that, I want you to start your laptop by only using the power adapter cable.

Surely you can use any laptop without plugging the battery. It’s just like using a desktop computer without a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). To make it start, only the power supply is needed.

The removal of the battery is also important, or otherwise, the drivers won’t properly uninstall.

In case, if your laptop is having some problem to start itself without using a battery, then it’s quite clear that the power adapter of laptop might be faulty too. To test that, skip everything and just move to the “Troubleshooting Hardware” part, down in this article. Otherwise, just continue.

After when you start your laptop using the direct power supply, it’s the time where you need to open the ‘Windows Device Manager’ by typing the “devmgmt.msc” command in the ‘Run Commander’. Or you just search for the Device Manager in the ‘Windows Start Menu’.

After that, you have to expand the “Batteries” tab and then you’ll be able to see the “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery” drivers of your computer.

As you can see in the example picture given below, I’ve highlighted two different drivers, but you only need to remove the main one, “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant…” which is listed on the second position.

To remove that driver, you’ll just need to select it and then right click on it, to unhide the extra options. After that, click on the ‘Uninstall’ button and when the ‘Confirm Device Uninstall’ box appears, just click on ‘OK’ to remove that driver completely out from your computer.

When the driver got successfully removed, now again shut down your OS and put the battery back on its place and then again start the laptop. Hopefully this time it’s possible that the problem is gone.

If cleaning away the ‘ACPI Driver’ doesn’t seems to help you, in that case, you’ll need to repeat all the above-given steps, for removing the first highlighted driver called “Microsoft AC Adapter” and maybe that will help you.

Suggested link: How to Uninstall Drivers From Windows Operating System?

#What to Do, If This Problem Still Stays, Or Come Back Within A Week or Month?

Usually, uninstalling the drivers won’t work when the problem is coming from the other side of the OS. It can be your OS Registry Database which has been cracked lately, or it’s just your OS, which needs to get restore or re-install in some cases.

Using the best in class ‘Registry Cleaner Tool’ on your computer is a quick way to fix any registry related issues. The major reason behind suggesting a tool is because there are thousands of Registries indexed in your Windows Registry Database and it’s really hard to find that which particular one is actually causing the whole issue.

You can find more than 50 Registry Cleaner on the internet but those which work are only available in the paid version. So, before spending your bucks, so first, I want you to reset your laptop’s BIOS. If that won’t work either, then use the ‘System Restore’.

To Reset your Laptop’s BIOS, first, open it by pressing the F2 key or Del key or maybe whatever the key your computer shows on the first black logo screen of its startup to get into the BIOS Menu.

After when you successfully get into the BIOS, find the reset option to load the default configuration and mostly you can find that option in the “Exit” tab of your BIOS.

For better understanding, here’s an article about;

How to Reset Bios, Laptop and Desktop Both?

The procedure of resetting bios is the same for both desktop and laptop, there are three different ways what you can try to make it done and those are; Reset By Internal Bios Setting, Reset By Bios Jumper, Reset By CMOS… Read More 

If resetting BIOS flops too, then it’s the time when you should use the ‘System Restore’ to reverse certain settings from backup (like drivers, system files, installed programs, and much more). This tool only works when a restore point is created in the past. So, make sure you check for it.

System Restore – Uses and Features Explained

Microsoft released this tool since ‘Windows ME‘ came out in the year 2000, but you can still find this tool in almost every latest or previously released version of Windows, besides the server editions like; Windows Server 2008 etc… Read More

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. Before testing the hardware (mainly battery or power adapter), buying a ‘Registry Cleaner Tool’ or re-installing the OS is also not a prudent judgment.

#Troubleshoot Hardware

Nevertheless, the problem mostly relates to the OS. But once in a blue moon, your battery or adapter might be the one which is causing this issue.

Let’s start with the charger;

Power Adapter Checkup: It’s not actually your fault when your laptop adapter starts to lack the correct or steady power supply. Sometimes, when a wall power socket of your home/office gets broken from the inside, it’s surely natural to experience a ‘constant power supply problem’.

For tuning up your adaptor, you can try to use some different wall socket, just to confirm that the power supply is coming enough to charge the laptop.

If any of your friend or colleague is using the exact same looking charger, as your laptop has. Then it’s good to ask for their precious charger. Or otherwise, you will have some problems to properly troubleshoot the adapter’s fault.

Checking with a different adaptor is the first thing, what usually a usually professional would do when you bring your laptop to some repair shop.

I personally have a ‘Universal Adapter’ of my own, only for these kinds of situations.

Anyhow, if you can manage to get a ‘Digital Multi-meter’, then it’s sure that you don’t have to hunt for the specific charger because a Multi-meter can test your own power adapter.

To test your charger by using a multimeter, first, you need to find the amount of Output Voltage that your power adapter is producing, just to crosscheck those numbers on the multi-meter.

Output Voltage details are mentioned on the back of your power adapter, where everything is written on the sticker, it’s like ‘19V 4.7A’, ‘18.5V 3.5A’, etc.

Now plug in the power adapter into the wall socket and set the multimeter’s knob to the ‘20v Direct Current Voltage’ mode.

Then next, attach the Red and Black wire into the appropriate sockets. You can find the instructions about wire attachment in the multimeter’s manual book.

Thenceforth, insert the red stick tip inside the adapter’s jack and touch the other black one to the outer metal part of the jack. Be careful with both of the metal tips, make sure you don’t touch them together while the power is ON.

Now check the Multimeter’s display to see the output voltage coming from your power adaptor. If the voltage looks nearly same as printed on the sticker of your adapter, that means your charger is working perfectly fine.

The difference in voltage can be acceptable if it’s under +/-1.5v range. Or otherwise, it’s feasible that your adapter might be faulty.

Suggested Link: How To Buy Compatible Power Adapter For Our Laptop?

For Battery Checkup: Just like the adapter, the only way to identify it’s a battery’s fault. You again need to borrow a compatible battery only for the testing purpose. Without professional tools, you’ll always have to beg for the compatible stuff. This is at least you can do.

Sometimes, even I beg for hardware machines from my friends. Recently my ‘BGA Machine’ got broken down, which I crucially needed in order to reflow a Laptop’s GPU. So, I took the motherboard to my friend’s shop just to get it done.

Calibrating the battery may help, only when you experience that your laptop is charging (because you can observe the battery backup), but still the error came along, right after when you insert the power jack.

To Calibrate Your Laptop’s Battery Manually, you’ll again have to go into the BIOS Menu and look for the ‘Battery calibration’ option. Then read the on-screen instructions and it will properly calibrate your battery.

If your laptop’s BIOS Menu don’t have this option, then you can manually do it by using your ‘Windows Power Options’. But before getting into any setting, make sure you fully charge your laptop (until the charging light gets off). Even though, don’t remove the charger afterward.

Then go to your Windows Control Panel (which you can search for, in start menu) and look for the ‘Power Options’. After opening the power options window, click on ‘Choose when to turn off the display’ option from the left sidebar menu.

Then click on ‘Change Advanced Power Settings’.

Soon after, the “Power Options” box will appear on your screen. Now in the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab, unfold the ‘Battery’ option from the dropdown menu. Under that option, click on ‘Critical Battery Action’ and set ‘On battery’ to ‘hibernate’. Then, click on the 3^rd one called “Critical Battery Level” and set both ‘On battery’ & ‘Plugged in’ options to ‘5%’.

Next, get back to the ‘Edit Plan Setting’ page and make sure that every display setting is set on “Never”, as you can see in the example picture given below:

Now the time comes when you should plug out the charger from your laptop and let it discharge until it automatically gets hibernate. And Please! don’t try to use your laptop while the battery is discharging, or else you’ll disrupt the calibration.

When the laptop put itself in the hibernation mode, then you again need to plug back the charger and charge your laptop until it gets done to 100%.

Therefore, don’t forget to bring back the old display setting and it will definitely calibrate your laptop’s battery to its normal state. After calibration, only retrieve the display setting from the ‘Never’ pre-set, not the one I told you to put on in ‘power options’.

If calibration won’t work either, then get a spare compatible battery from somewhere just for the testing purpose, as I say. It’s also quite possible that your own battery is having some trouble to charge itself. Using the different one can at least clear the doubt.

Buy a new battery, when the error doesn’t appear with the other compatible one. And always buy original, if you don’t want to feel anguish about it in future.

#Highlighting Last Possibilities

Now other than reinstalling the OS, now you’ve left with to install a registry cleaner tool.

In my opinion, “Zookaware” and “CCleaner” are the two best in class Registry Cleaner Tools available which can actually make things back to normal.

It’s all on you to select which one, but according to me, the Zookware is quite worthy because it’s not just a simple registry cleaner and can also provide you more than 4 useful tools to optimize your PC’s overall performance. Not just that, this one also comes with the 60 Days Money Back Guaranty, which is the icing on the cake.

You can use these links to directly go to the download page:

• 1st Best – Zookaware Cleaner
• 2nd Best – CCleaner Professional
• Suggested Link: What’s A Good Registry Cleaner and How to Pick One?

If the curse still lives on in your computer, installing a fresh OS (or Factory Reset) might become beneficial for you. Or otherwise, you can send your laptop to some professional to look at the battery charging section on the motherboard.

There is only 1 or 2 percent chance that the error ends up as a hardware problem. But what we can say ‘The worm’s bad luck is the bird’s good fortune’. Elseways, still, there is a 30% chance that the error belongs to the OS and can be fixable, only if you are ready to put some extra efforts.

I have some great tutorial about, taking backups, installing Windows and compatible drivers, which you can find here;

Link: How to Install Windows on Desktop or Laptop Computer?

“That’s all for now, thanks for sticking with the article. It is always good to let me know about your views, in the comments below.” 🙂