I have an Acer Aspire E11 (ES1-111M-C7DE), with Windows 8.1.
I am receiving the apparently common battery error of "plugged in, not charging". The battery is completely dead, 0%.
- I have tried resetting the battery with the pinhole. (per https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Acer+Aspire+V5-572+-+Battery+Reset+Pinhole/33898) This failed.
- I have tried physically removing the battery, and restarting (as per http://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series-Laptops/0-available-plugged-in-not-charging-acer-aspire-5830TG/td-p/151407) ....
- I also tried uninstalling the driver for the "ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" both with and without removing the physical battery (per here http://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series-Laptops/0-available-plugged-in-not-charging-acer-aspire-5830TG/m-p/454007#M12107 or per here https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-uninstall-reinstall-the-microsoft-acpi-compliant-control-method-battery). None of these work.
- It was suggested that I update the firmware and BIOS (here: http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26255/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDc2NDcxODY4L3NpZC9NMTNnSjUxbg%3D%3D). This model Acer has a particular BIOS update with the note "Improve compatibility of battery charging".
However, I cannot install any of these updates, because running the BIOS flash utility gives me the error "Battery is too low (0<15). Please charge your battery to 15%." (Which seems silly, I'm not sure why it won't run on AC power.)
- I also tried updating the chipset, which it wouldn't let me do either ("error copying files", inexplicable).
So my questions are:
Is there a way to flash the BIOS by command line and avoid the charging issue?
Is there anything else on the software/OS side I can do, before I spend money on a new charger or battery? Especially since every other person with this error seems to have a Windows problem, not a hardware problem.