Samsung Ativ Tab 3 power button not working, device battery always at 0%

Anonymous
2013-10-16T12:00:54+00:00

I am writing to you regarding a Samsung Ativ Tab 3 that I recently bought.

The item was purchased on 26-September-13, model no. is XE300TZC-K01AE. On 3-October-13 morning, I noticed that the screen was frozen and not unlocking when pressing the power button. After pressing the Windows button below the screen, the login screen came up and I was able to log in to Windows. On the home page, noticed that battery was at 0%, although there was about 45% charge around 7 hours back. I connected the charger, but the battery was drained by then and the device powered down. Though the charger was connected, the blue light was not on and also the device was not powering up. The charger was kept connected till 4 PM, but the device was still not powering up. After several calls and discussion with Samsung, the device was sent to a service center for repair and received on 10-Oct.

The device was working absolutely fine again, till yesterday evening. Again, the device froze and power key was not working and Windows button was used to unlock the screen after several attempts. Battery was showing 0% despite having 78% charge just fifteen minutes previously. On connecting the charger, battery charge was still at 0% but not increasing. Luckily this time the device did not shut down, but after 3 hrs of connecting the charger, battery has still been at 0%. I would like to know any suggestions to help solve this problem. I tried restarting the APC Battery Controller in Device Manager, but there was no improvement. I am also attaching results of the powercfg command.

Rgds,

Amrith

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2014-04-18T05:59:50+00:00

2 days later....the solution seems to be to just keep it going & not plugged in til the battery empties (backing important stuff up meanwhile). From the fact that it took several days, I gather the "battery 0" warning is part of the misfunction. During this time you can sleep it manually w the "power off" control on the charms bar, being careful not to turn it off (cos then you wont know if the battery's emptied yet), and turn it on w the home key.

Once the battery is totally empty (no reponse of home key, little blue light by power button off), you plug it in and it works.

My guess is this explains what happened previously when I (& others I read) sent it for repair. By the time it got to the workshop the battery had emptied, so they plugged it in, found it worked, & returned it with a message like "you must have forgotten to charge it", missing the problem.

We'll see: if it's something that happens every few months, & is this easily solveable, it's not so bad. Particularly since one can still use it while waiting for the battery to empty.

Wonder if regularly letting the battery get to empty ever few months would prevent the phenomenon?

Be interested to hear what others found.

Rivka

Was this answer helpful?

7 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

46 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-04-22T13:32:42+00:00

    The battery indicator shown on the screen is faulty and is not providing any indication of how much charge is left in the battery. The solution is to continue using the computer on battery power until the battery is actually fully drained. A quick way to drain the battery would be to stream some video (I recommend that you not do "mission critical" work on your computer since it may shut off at any time and you have no way to monitor the battery). Once it is fully drained and the computer has shut itself off, plug it in and turn it on again. It may work fine after that.

    I can't tell you why this worked (or why it should work), but it seems to have worked for RivK and myself.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-22T13:23:43+00:00

    I've been having a similar problem with my ATIV Tab 3. It's only 8 weeks old. 3 days ago I put it into sleep mode. A few hours later it wouldn't wake up. When it eventually did wake up the next day, the battery was at 0%. It has been that way since. I can use it to a certain extent once on.  Still when it goes into sleep mode for more than 5 minutes it wont turn on right away.

    1. The Blue LED light has not turned on at all,
    2. it won't charge, although I've tried different outlets and AC adapter cords.
    3. The power button doesn't seem to work.

    What's going on? How did you solve the problem? I couldn't understand from the replies. And I would hate to have to take it in.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-22T10:30:26+00:00

    Hi RivK,

    Your observations are very similar to mine. I was about to send it in to Samsung for service when I decided to give it another try. The battery had completely drained (for real), so I plugged it into the wall, turned it on and it spontaneously started working again. I ended up not sending it in for service, and I've been using it for about a month without any problems since.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-18T06:01:51+00:00

    Think I solved it

    Posted answer if you want to see

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments