My son told me one morning that he’d let his tablet charge overnight, but the battery level was at 60%. I messed around with it, and indeed, it seemed that the battery had lost its ability to charge with the wall charger. Here’s how I fixed it.
For whatever reason, sometimes the higher-amperage wall charger confuses the battery, so the trick is to let them trickle charge off a computer USB port. The tablet will only charge off a computer’s USB port when it’s powered off, however.
So the right way to try this is to power the tablet off then plug it into a USB port on a computer that’s going to be powered on continuously for a few hours. A desktop computer is ideal. If all you have is a laptop, be sure its power settings are set so it won’t hibernate or sleep while you’re trying to charge the tablet.
Depending on how bad the battery is, it can take up to 10 hours to charge all the way back up. In my son’s case it went from 6 percent to 84 percent in about six hours. Yes, by the time I figured out this needed to be done, the battery didn’t have much left in it. Be patient; eventually it will get to 100 percent or very close to it.
Charging it this way is a lot more convenient than taking the tablet apart and unplugging the battery, so try this before the tablet gets to a point where it won’t power on anymore.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.