Recently I saw a yellow warning indication next to the battery icon on my Windows laptop. When hovering with my mouse over the icon, there was no additional information that indicates a problem with the battery or the charging of my laptop. The only message it showed was: ’47 minutes to full charge’, which is the normal expected behaviour.
Try another charger first
The first possible issue you are facing is the laptop charger that is currently connected. The charger may be broken / damaged / bend / … It is worth to try to another compatible laptop charger. If the yellow icon is no longer there with the second charger, it is likely a hardware issue.
Clean your charging port
In my case, I am using a USB-C laptop charger. It is a good idea to check the connector of the USB port: remove any dirt by wiping it clean and try to connect again. A laptop charger is sometimes connected and disconnected many times per day, and each time a little bit of dirt is inserted into the power port. After a longer period of time, this may cause issues.
Once the charging port is fully cleaned up, you may notice the charger will fit better into the charging port: it sits more firmly and there is less room for wiggling. If this is the case, indeed the dirt inside the port may have been the cause of the yellow battery triangle on your computer.
Ensure you are using a higher power charger
Not all laptop chargers can offer the same power. Some laptop chargers – especially when buying they are not genuine – don’t offer the full power (‘wattage’) compared to their original counterpart. And while such chargers may work (i.e. the charging does work and your battery percentage is increasing over time while the charger is connected), they don’t charge your laptop fast enough in some cases. Windows will recognize this slow charging behaviour and report the ‘bad’ charger by showing a yellow triangle in the taskbar to warn you.
Run the battery troubleshooter in Windows
If you don’t have any clue why the warning triangle is showing up for you, it may be worth it to have Windows run a diagnostic scan of the power in general.
- Open Cortana Search
- Type: ‘troublesheet’
- Click on ‘Power’ and run the troubleshooter
At the end of the troubleshooter process, you will be shown the results of the tests that were performed and suggestions or recommendations to mitigate any issues that may have been discovered.
Computer warranty
If none of the options above are working for you, there may be another issue at the core of the problem. Some components of your computer may not be working as they should: a faulty motherboard, a badly soldered charger connector, … In this case, it may be a good idea to have your computer replaced or at least checked by trained professionals for further inspection.