Laptop Plugged In But Not Charging? What to Check

You plug your laptop in, but the battery icon says "plugged in, not charging" — or the charging light doesn't come on at all. It's one of the most common problems people bring to us, and the cause isn't always the laptop itself. Before you assume the worst, work through the simple checks below. Many of them take less than a minute.

1. Check the power point and the wall end

It sounds obvious, but start at the wall. Try a different power point you know works, and plug straight into the wall rather than a power board or travel adaptor. Make sure the switch is on. Power boards and double adaptors can fail without you noticing.

2. Look closely at the charger and cable

Unplug everything and check the whole length of the cable in good light. Look for:

• Frayed, kinked or chewed sections, especially near each end
• A loose connection where the cable joins the power brick
• A power brick that's unusually hot, smells burnt or makes a buzzing noise
• A bent or damaged tip on the plug that goes into the laptop

If you see any damage, stop using that charger. Damaged chargers aren't just unreliable — they can be unsafe. Many chargers have a small light on the brick; if it doesn't come on when plugged into a working wall socket, the charger is the likely culprit.

3. Make sure it's the right charger

Chargers can look alike but deliver different amounts of power. A charger from another laptop, or a lower-wattage USB-C charger, might keep the laptop running but not be strong enough to charge the battery. Check the label on the brick against the original charger or the label on your laptop. If you have access to the original charger, or a known-good one for the same model, try that.

4. Check the charging port

If the charger only works when you hold the plug at a certain angle, or the light flickers when you wiggle it, the charging port (often called the DC jack) or its connection inside the laptop may be loose or worn. Look inside the port with a torch for dust, lint or bent pins. Don't poke anything metal inside. A port problem doesn't usually go away on its own and tends to get worse over time.

5. Try a full restart

Sometimes the laptop just needs a proper restart. Save your work, shut it down fully (not sleep), unplug the charger, wait a minute, then plug the charger back in and turn it on. On Windows, using "Restart" is more thorough than "Shut down" for clearing temporary glitches.

6. Check battery settings

Some laptops have a battery care or charging limit setting that stops charging at a certain level — for example at 80% — to help the battery last longer. If your laptop stops charging at the same percentage every time, this may be why. Look in your laptop maker's settings app or the battery settings in Windows.

7. Consider the battery itself

Batteries wear out with age and use. Signs the battery is the problem include the percentage jumping around, the laptop shutting off suddenly when you unplug it, or only working while plugged in.

If the battery looks swollen — the case bulging, the trackpad lifting, or the lid not closing flat — stop using the laptop, unplug it, and bring it in. Don't press on it or try to charge it.

When to bring it in

• You've tried a known-good charger and it still won't charge
• The plug is loose in the port or only works at an angle
• The laptop shuts off as soon as you unplug it
• The battery is swollen, or the laptop gets unusually hot when charging
• There's no power at all, even with a working charger

Bring the laptop and your charger in. Having the charger lets us test whether the fault is the charger, the port, the battery or something on the board. We'll explain what we find and give you a quote before any work starts. See our laptop battery replacement and laptop charging repairs pages.

See our laptop repairs page for charging, battery and port problems. If the laptop has no power at all, the fault may be in the charging circuit — our laptop board repairs page explains how we check that.