10 Best Fixes For Lenovo Plugged In Not Charging

Nothing is perfect, period. And this is true for your Lenovo laptop too. If you own a Lenovo laptop and constantly encounter an alert message stating the Lenovo plug is not charging every time you put your device on charge, here are its probable reasons and remedies. 

Admit that you’ve at least once, seen the aforementioned alert message on the device’s screen and wondered why it was so. Right? This is a pretty irritating and serious issue. Because in this case, your laptop won’t charge again until you address the issue.

This article will particularly address this issue in detail. You’ll find the answers to why the situation of Lenovo being plugged in, but not charging arises and how to eliminate it. 

What Are The Common Battery-Related Issues With Lenovo Laptops?  

There can be several issues that you face with your Lenovo laptop. But the following are the most common issues most users report. 

  • The battery stops charging before it’s fully charged. 
  • The battery shows that it’s fully charged, but it’s not!
  • The battery isn’t detected by the system and a red cross (❌) is shown in its place. 
  • The battery is not charging at all or showing that it’s incompatible. 
  • The battery stops charging whenever it reaches 96% or 98%.   
  • The recurring battery status: “Lenovo Plugged In Not Charging”

Why Does My Laptop Lenovo plugged-in not charging? 

Now, you must be wondering why the issue of your Lenovo’s battery not charging fully reoccurs. You’ll get the answers to this question in this section. 

Several Lenovo laptops are designed to maximize the lifespan of the laptop’s battery with the feature called Power Management Settings. And in case you have noticed that your battery is not charging above 60%, this setting might have been enabled.

You need to disable its setting to solve the charging issue, and for that, you need to know which preloaded version you have on your laptop. The following are different preloaded versions. And steps that are required for them to disable this setting.

1. For Lenovo Energy Management

  • Open Lenovo Energy Management.
  • There will be different battery settings on the screen, choose the one you desire. 

2. For OneKey Optimizer

  • Open the OneKey Optimizer.
  • Select the Power Saver Tab on the screen to open this. 
lenovo plugged in not charging
  • Press the Battery Conservation on the screen.
  • You need to disable the conservation mode so that your device’s battery can be fully charged.

3. For Lenovo Vantage

Lenovo Vantage
  • Access your device. 
  • Open My Device Settings on the screen.
  • Press Battery.
  • Now, disable the Conservation Mode.

4. Lenovo Settings

  • Open the Lenovo Settings.
  • Select the energy management icon.
  • Now, disable the Conservation Mode. 

These are all the preloads you might have on your Lenovo laptop, and the steps that are required to disable the settings. Once you do this, your battery issue should be resolved. 

Lenovo Plugged In Not Charging? Here are 10 Ways To Fix It!

Fixing the issue – Lenovo plugging in not charging is not a difficult task in most cases. You can use a few fixes all by yourself, these fixes are mentioned below. 

  1. Restart Your Lenovo Laptop
  2. Check All Physical Cable Connections
  3. Remove The Battery And Connect To the Power
  4. Make Sure You’re Using The Right Charger And Port
  5. Check For Hardware Issues
  6. Power Reset Your Lenovo Laptop 
  7. Update Battery Drivers
  8. Update Basic Input Output System (BIOS) Settings
  9. Get Another Laptop Charger
  10. Contact Lenovo Support

Let’s discuss each of these in detail below. 

1. Restart Your Lenovo Laptop

This fix works in almost every case, and with every issue. You can always try this first to restart your Lenovo laptop if you see this warning on the screen. 

To restart your laptop, you can simply follow the basic process of shutting it down and then starting it again. 

And in case your laptop is not working at all, you can try a force reboot. This can be done by holding the power button for a few seconds until the screen goes black. Press the power button once again to power up the laptop.

Check if your laptop charges as usual or not. If not, head to the next solution. 

2. Check All Physical Cable Connections

You should always start with the basic fix of inspecting the possible hardware problems before jumping into any technical part of the laptop.

  • Check all the physical power cable connections. 
  • If the connector is not securely connected to the laptop, reconnect it again. 
  • Inspect the point where the cable is connected to the AC adapter. 
  • There can be an issue with the charging cable that might be broken. Or the AC adapter is not working properly due to a technical issue. 
  • Check the electric outlet if there is any issue with the electric power. Because there might not be enough electricity supply in the outlet that might be causing the issue. 
  • Check if the charger is connected properly to the outlet. 

Once you check all of these connections and still nothing changes, then only try other fixes. 

3. Remove The Battery And Connect To the Power

Remove The Battery And Connect To Power

This fix will help you to determine whether the issue is with your laptop’s battery or not. In this, you need to remove the battery from the laptop. This can be easily done if your laptop has a removable battery. 

To do so, pull a few tabs from the underside of the device. If still, you are unable to figure out this, you can always check the Google manual or YouTube video for your specific laptop.

If the battery is not already dead, you need to shut it down before removing the battery completely. Also, disconnect all the accessories if connected to the laptop.

Then, hold the power button for a couple of seconds to clear out all the remaining charging. Once this is done, connect the charger to the laptop and try turning it on. If the laptop is perfectly working after this, surely the issue is with the battery.

You can try cleaning the compartment with a cotton or linen cloth. Then reseat the battery correctly to the compartment. If the issue is still there, most probably you have a dead battery that needs to be replaced. 

In case the battery of your laptop is not removable, you can always try opening up the machine. But this will lead to voiding the warranty of the laptop and might cause serious damage to the laptop. 

Therefore, the safest thing to do is to take the laptop to a professional as they have the proper tools for taking out the battery. They will recommend a possible solution to this problem. 

4. Make Sure You’re Using The Right Charger And Port

Make Sure You're Using The Right Charger And Port

With this fix, you can check that the laptop is getting enough power.

Most laptops only have one port for charging but the newer models have more than one port. Some ports are only for the transfer of the data. So, to identify that the connected one is the right port, you can check for the power icon or can try connecting with every port one by one. 

With this, you’ll find the correct port.

Except for this, you should always use the original charger that you get with the laptop. A fake or duplicate charger can cause serious damage to the laptop. Such as, it can cause slow charging or no charging at all to the laptop. While some chargers might not support big laptops. 

Lastly, check the power source as sometimes, some sources might not pull enough power to fully charge the battery. Although it will keep the battery stable but not increase the level.

5. Check For Hardware Issues

Check for hardware components, such as faulty AC adapters or/and charging wires. If any of them is broken or damaged, this might be causing the problem. Hence, you can try charging with a different charger if you have one or can buy a new original charger for the laptop.

6. Power Reset Your Lenovo Laptop 

This fix is a combination of battery removing and restarting the laptop. In this, you need to reboot and remove the battery at the same time. This is done by following the steps. 

  • Turn off your laptop.
  • Unplug the charger from the laptop.
  • Next, remove the battery by pulling the tab from the underside of the laptop. 
  • Press the power button and hold it for a few seconds. 
  • Put the battery back into the compartment and close the tabs underneath the laptop.
  • Again, plug back in the cable.
  • Turn on your laptop. 

This is how you do a complete power reset of your Lenovo laptop. 

To reset your laptop to factory defaults using Lenovo OneKey Recovery (OKR), watch this tutorial

7. Update Battery Drivers

If you’ve got an outdated battery driver, it’ll cause problems in the charging of your beloved laptop. Drivers depend on the model of your laptop, hence, you should always visit the manufacturer’s website to download it manually.

Besides this, you can choose specially designed programs to download the drivers to your laptop. These are the programs responsible for detecting the drivers suitable for your model. With this, you won’t be making any mistakes and will download the correct drivers. 

8. Update Basic Input Output System (BIOS) Settings

Update Basic Input Output System (BIOS) Settings

The Basic Input Output System (BIOS) is the one that is preinstalled on the motherboard. It’s responsible for booting up the system. Along with this, it has the potential to troubleshoot the hardware issues on your device. 

And if something is wrong with this system, your laptop might face several issues including not charging properly. And to resolve this, you need to update the Basic Input Output System of your laptop. 

And follow the steps mentioned below for this. 

  • Go to the Support Page of the Lenovo Laptop.
  • Select the Detect Product option on the screen.
  • You will access the product page. 
  • Open Drivers and Software.
  • Press BIOS. 
  • You need to follow the instructions displayed on the screen to update the BIOS.
  • Restart the laptop and you need to plug in the cable after that.

Just keep in mind that if you make any mistake while updating the BIOS, you can lose all of your data. Therefore, it is recommended to back up your data before starting this process. 

9. Get Another Laptop Charger

Everything that can be done with available resources is mentioned above. Now, the next thing you can try is getting another laptop charger. You don’t need to buy a new one if any of your friends have a similar charger. 

You can connect that to your laptop and see if that is working. If yes, then the issue was with your charger, and if no, then the issue is true with your battery.

And in case you are opting for the purchasing option, you should always consider buying from the official website of Lenovo or the store. This might cost you a little more than the third-party laptop’s charger but this is the safest option. 

Third-party chargers are not dependable; they can cause other issues for the laptop. But still, if you purchase a third-party charger, check the reviews of that first. 

10. Contact Lenovo Support

Lastly, if after doing everything and after trying each fix your laptop is still facing the same issue you need to take the device to the Lenovo store. And if not, you can always contact them by phone or online via the Lenovo support page. 

Because at last, it can be concluded that the issue is with the battery, and you should always take professional help in this case.

Before you still try to experiment with the battery it will lose the warranty and exceed the costs of repair. 

BONUS!!!

How To Improve The Battery Life Of Your Lenovo Laptop?

We are aware that every laptop comes with battery life, and so does Lenovo laptop. But there are still a few things that you can do to improve the battery life. 

Below are some of the things you can do to improve the battery life of your Lenovo laptop. 

1. Enable Airplane Mode

This is the best way to save the battery of the laptop. But this can be done only when you are not using the internet. This extends the battery life as all the apps run in the background. 

Note that by doing so, the push notifications will be disabled. Following are the steps that are required to enable the Airplane Mode. 

  • Open the Start Menu.
  • Select the gear option.
  • Tap on the Network and Internet option.
  • Select Airplane Mode on the left side of the screen.
  • Turn on the Airplane Mode by toggling the button. 
Turn on the Airplane Mode by toggling the button.

With this, the mode will be enabled. Alternatively, click on the Airplane icon to enable Airplane mode. 

Click on the Airplane icon to enable Airplane mode.

2. Adjust the Brightness

Adjust Brightness

A bright screen can be the main reason why your battery drains quickly. Not only this it can also cause fatigue and irritation to your eyes. 

So, you should always adjust your screen brightness and to do this follow the steps mentioned below. 

  • Open the Start Menu.
  • Select the gear option.
  • Select the System option.
  • You can now see the slider of the brightness of the screen. Move the slider to the left to decrease and right to increase the level of brightness.

Along with that, you can also turn off the keyboard lighting if you are not using the device in darkness. 

3. Use The Windows Battery Performance Slider

You can adjust the Battery Performance Slider settings, whether you want better performance or battery life. 

To change this setting, follow the steps mentioned below. 

  • You’ll see the battery icon on the right-end corner of the screen. Click on that icon.
  • You can now see the slider of the Battery on the screen. 
  • Move left to enable Power Mode which gives you the best battery life.  

This will automatically lower the brightness of the screen (in case it is not plugged in with the charger). Along with that, it will suspend apps running in the background. 

And you can always change the settings if you change your mind.

4. Remove Your Laptop From Sleep Mode And Put It Into Hibernation 

There are two modes available in windows laptops, i.e., Hibernation and Sleep mode while you are using the laptop

Hibernate mode is used for completely shutting off the system. You should only use this mode if you are sure the laptop won’t be used for a long duration. 

In Sleep mode, the laptop still uses the battery to power the RAM; therefore, this mode drains more battery.

5. Close The Apps/Programs That Consume The Most Power

Some apps might not use the maximum battery, while others might consume the most power. You might not be using this app at the moment, they are only running in the background, and still, they can drain the battery. 

Hence, you can check which apps are using the most power on the laptop by following the steps mentioned below. 

  • Open the Start Menu.
  • Select the gear option.
  • Select the Battery option.
  • Under the Battery Usage Per App, you can check the battery used by each app. You can check it for the last 24 hours or the last seven days, by changing the settings on top of the list of apps.

Hence, you can close the apps that are using more battery unnecessarily.

6. Update Your System

Updating your system is always a better option, as it not only increases the battery’s efficiency but can also solve other issues. Hence, update your system as soon as you get the notification of the availability of the new update. 

But you can always check manually for any updates by following the steps mentioned below. 

  • Open the Start Menu.
  • Select the gear option.
  • Select the Update and Security option.
  • Select Check for updates on the screen. 

If there are any new updates you’ll see on the screen, select install them. Your system will be updated after all these steps.

There is no exact number or guarantee of how much these options improve the battery performance, but they will surely make a difference. And none of these cost a penny so why not try them at least once?

Is There Any Way to Charge a Lenovo Laptop Without Its Charger? 

Charge your Lenovo laptop using a power bank

Yes, there is a way to charge a Lenovo Laptop without its charger. This can be done easily with the help of a power bank or a portable charger. 

Below are the things you need to do for this:

  • Buy a Power bank.
  • Charge the device.
  • Plug the power bank with your laptop.
  • Just wait for the laptop to be fully charged.

Just make sure the power bank supports your laptop and it gets the optimum power.

Besides this, if your laptop has a USB-C connection you can charge it with USB providing the charger supports Power Delivery. And follow the steps mentioned below to charge your laptop with this method:

  • You need to purchase the USB-C charger and ensure that the voltage is correct.
  • Plug the USB-C into the laptop and then the power source. 
  • Hence your laptop will start charging. 

You can connect this USB-C port to your phone charger only if it also supports the USB-C port. Although the speed of charging will be slow due to the different voltage ranges of phone chargers and laptops. Hence you should only use this way of charging in case of emergency.

You can also use a universal charger that can be used for phones or different models of the laptop to charge your Lenovo Laptop. This device (universal Charger) comes with different types of AC adapters. With this you don’t need different chargers for different devices, this one is enough. 

Conclusion

Hence, you might have resolved the issue – Lenovo plugged in not charging by now and we hope the article has helped you in this process. And with the BONUS section, you might have also improved the battery life of your device. All these issues are pretty common and can arise without any mistakes. 

And if not treated on time, can also cause serious problems further. 

Also, all of the above fixes won’t cause you a penny unless you have to take it to the service store. But this might not be required in more than 95% of cases. 

Meet the Author

Abdul Rahim has been working in Information Technology for over two decades. Learn how Abdul got his start as a Tech Blogger , and why he decided to start this Software blog. If you want to send Abdul a quick message, then visit his contact page here.