Symptoms

Chromebook 11 3180 and 3189 laptops may not be able to charge the battery or the battery charge level may get stuck at 1%.This issue is commonly seen after long-term storage of the Chromebooks.

Cause

No cause information.

Resolution

Chromebook Battery Unable to Charge or Stuck at 1% There are several possible solutions to this situation. Ensure that the AC adapter is plugged into a working outlet and is providing power to the Chromebook.Determine if the battery is in precharge mode or is not charging at all. A battery in precharge mode will typically show 1% charge level but will also show a time duration until full (scenario A). Batteries in this state could take up to 30 minutes to exit precharge mode once then Chromebook has been plugged in. After the battery completes precharge, it should begin to charge at a normal rate. To avoid precharge mode, Dell Technologies recommends charging devices before storing them. Batteries continue to slowly discharge even when a Chromebook is turned off. See Chromebook Battery Storage for more information. Batteries that are not charging remains at the 1% charge level, even if left plugged in indefinitely (scenario B). (Figure 1) Figure 1: Battery time until charging is complete versions A or B. If a battery is still in precharge mode or is not charging after 30 minutes, check to make sure you have updated to the latest version of the Chrome Operating System (OS). An updated Chromebook firmware was incorporated into version R61 (9765.81.0, Kefka 7287.371.0) starting October 11, 2017. To update to the latest version of the OS, see the steps below labeled OS Update. Versions after R61 will also include this updated Chromebook firmware.Try charging battery for 25 minutes before attempting to power the Chromebook on.If the battery still will not charge, attempt to reset the EC. To do this, first shut the unit down and then press and hold the 3-key combination of ESC+ROUND ARROW+POWER. Note: The Round Arrow is also known as the Refresh key (Figure 2). Figure 2: Chromebook Keyboard, Round Arrow/Refresh Key If the Chromebook then boots to an ! OS missing error, press and hold the ROUND ARROW + POWER to reboot.Perform Step 2 above to determine if the battery is charging. Try reseating the internal battery connector. Remove the back cover, disconnect the battery connector, press and hold the power button for 10 seconds to drain flea power, reconnect the battery connector.Perform Step 2 above to determine if the battery charging. For steps on reseating this connector, please see the manual for your specific Dell Chromebook model on Dell Support Website. If the battery still will not charge, the battery may need to be replaced. Contact Dell Technical Support. Chromebook Battery Storage The recommended steps for Chromebook storage can be found in the following article: Preparing Chromebooks for Storage OS Update To check for ChromeOS updates: In the Chrome Browser, click the options menu in the upper right corner and choose Settings.Click Settings.In the upper left, Click Menu > About Chrome OS. Under "Google Chrome OS," click Check for and apply updates (Figure 3). Figure 3: Chrome Browser Settings If your Chromebook finds a software update, it starts to download automatically (Figures 4-7). Figure 4: Selecting Restart for the Google update process. Figure 5: Installation of the update. Figure 6: Chromebook is up to date. Figure 7: Verification that the update is installed.

Support Cases