Why is light suddenly blinking red on my Lenovo G50-70 laptop? (laptops, hard drive)

[PilgrimsProgress]

When the laptop is plugged in but off, one tiny light on the edge closest to me below the touch pad is always green. When I turn the laptop on, another tiny green light appears next to it.

Yesterday watching a youtube video, I paused it to go into the kitchen. When I returned the light which is always on whether the laptop is on or off and plugged in was blinking red. I resumed the video and it turned to green. Happened again during the video so I restarted my computer and it was green again. It was at night so I thought maybe the computer overheated.

This morning I wanted to take laptop outside so disconnected the power cord while I had three tabs open. Laptop totally turned off. Plugged it in again, restarted and both lights were green.

My battery is fully charged. The battery, a year old, had become disconnected a couple of months ago because one of the latches kept opening. I taped it securely shut and no problems except this new one. Could it be related?

What's going on? I don't want any surprises!

[james112]

How can it be fully charged if you disconnect the power and it shuts off?

[Paul_G]

Usually, when unplugging main power causes a shutdown, the battery doesn't have enough charge to run the unit, or has issues with how the laptop is reading it.
How to perform battery gauge reset using Energy Management - ideapad - https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...gement-ideapad

Is this battery a factory original or a generic? Is the power supply original, or has it been replaced?


Front panel indicators - page 14:
Battery issues - page 31:
https://download.lenovo.com/consumer...ug_english.pdf

[PilgrimsProgress]

Originally Posted by james112

How can it be fully charged if you disconnect the power and it shuts off?

This is a laptop which works without its power cord if it's fully charged. It was and is fully charged. I usually keep it plugged in if I'm sitting in one spot.

Some hours later today I was watching youtube again and paused a video and noticed the red light started blinking again. Perhaps it had been blinking the whole time before I noticed it but I was too busy. I exited out of all tabs and restarted. It's still blinking red. I pulled out the cord and this time it didn't shut down but continued functioning fine. WTF? I replaced the hard drive a year ago.

[PilgrimsProgress]

Watching Defected on Badlands Media's channel on Rumble. Both lights were green. Then after an hour, one started blinking red again. Exited Rumble, now only here typing this and it's still blinking red.

I'm trying to find a pattern. Anything I can check myself?

[Paul_G]

Did you see my earlier post?

Originally Posted by Paul_G

Usually, when unplugging main power causes a shutdown, the battery doesn't have enough charge to run the unit, or has issues with how the laptop is reading it.
How to perform battery gauge reset using Energy Management - ideapad - https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...gement-ideapad

Is this battery a factory original or a generic? Is the power supply original, or has it been replaced?


Front panel indicators - page 14:
Battery issues - page 31:
https://download.lenovo.com/consumer...ug_english.pdf

[rjm1cc]

Could be that the computer thinks something is wrong with the charger


I would us AI and ask the question. I think you will get a reasonable answer.

[PilgrimsProgress]

Looked on some computer forums for Lenovo. Didn't find my particular model but it seems there are a few others that have similar minor electrical glitches. No major fixes needed. I am not having a problem with my laptop malfunctioning. Everything is in order so I will ignore the blinking light for now. This could have been going on for days or weeks and I never noticed since it's a mostly hidden and tiny light.

[PilgrimsProgress]

UPDATE

I figured out the problem but not sure how to solve it. Have a temp solution.

Laptop seemed to randomly shut off. When I restart, I get a message to contact Microsoft about 'stopcode' and Memory Managemented but didn't see a solution.

I think the problem is my battery is loosely connected. One of the latches doesn't stay tightly closed. So I've taped it to hold in place and also taped the entire battery length.

When I restart I manually hold and press the battery and the blinking red light turns green.

My battery icon in taskbar is black, always says: 2 min (96% remaining). Wouldn't that mean there should be plenty of 'juice' to run the laptop unplugged? Instead it goes black.

[TurcoLoco]

How old is the battery? How does it look, flat or bloated?
The symptoms you mentioned and the fact that is shows 2 min(utes)/ 96% charged seemed like a false reading. There might be a connectivity issue with the battery but if everything looked firmly connected and cords also looked OK then everything points to a faulty battery REGARDLESS of what the charge level or even health might show.

If you are inclined to dig a little deeper, download the free standalone app: BatteryInfoView
Run it and examine the following two values: Battery Health and Battery Charge
I also like to test the battery's charge and discharge rate to get a feel for how it handles under "load".

Similar to a car battery. Just because the battery can charge and shows fully charged doesn't mean it can actually hold a charge. A "load test" can be very helpful in determining if the battery is truly "good".

If it can charge up to 100%, then look at the "Current capacity" value.
Disconnect the AC power source and see what the discharge rate is with 1-2 apps open (like a browser with 1-3 tabs open) plus either an email app or some documents. If the battery is supposed to last 3 hours under light use or used to last that long. Then look at the "Current capacity" value and divide it with discharge value.

For example: If the current capacity is 24K mWh (milli Watts hour) and discharge is around 8K milli Watts then the battery should be completely depleted in about 3 hours.

I usually let the app run while also have a browser window open with YouTube showing a 10-hour 4K video of some scenery. I let it discharge for about an hour to see if the values add up and seem within spec.

If during this test, the laptop shuts off, then fair to suspect the battery being bad.

I think you did mention laptop shutting off when the charger was disconnected. That typically tells me either the battery is bad or the DC connector. If battery was actually showing charging/charged yet still shuts off when charger is disconnected, then it is the battery!

If the battery shows 0%-5% but battery is not getting charged yet charger not showing connected then it is either the DC port or the charger. Typically most OEM laptops throws some sort of a warning if the adapter is faulty or below spec (happens with aftermarket chargers).