easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
220-1201 Practice Question: A customer says their laptop battery no longer…
A customer says their laptop battery no longer charges. The laptop works when plugged into AC power, but the battery icon shows '0% available (plugged in)'. What is the most likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Defective battery
When a laptop runs on AC but the battery shows 0% and does not charge, the battery has likely reached the end of its life cycle. Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and lose capacity; eventually they can no longer hold a charge. The solution is to replace the battery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Faulty AC adapter
Why it's wrong here
A faulty AC adapter, particularly one that fails to provide sufficient voltage or current, would prevent the laptop from receiving power altogether. This would manifest not only as the battery failing to charge but also as the laptop being unable to power on or operate when connected to the AC adapter without a charged battery. Since the customer only reports the battery not charging, and not a complete inability to power the laptop via AC, the adapter is less likely the sole cause.
- ✗
Dead CMOS battery
Why it's wrong here
The CMOS battery is a small, coin-cell battery responsible for maintaining the system's BIOS/UEFI settings, date, and time when the main power source is disconnected. Its function is entirely separate from the primary power delivery system and the charging circuit for the main laptop battery. Therefore, a dead CMOS battery would typically result in lost BIOS settings or an incorrect system clock upon startup, not an inability to charge the main battery.
- ✓
Defective battery
Why this is correct
A defective battery is the most direct and common cause when a laptop battery fails to charge, assuming the AC adapter and internal charging circuitry are functional. Internal cell degradation, short circuits, or a failure within the battery's own management system (BMS) can prevent it from accepting a charge. Even if the laptop operates normally on AC power, a physically or electronically compromised battery will refuse to store energy, indicating a hardware failure within the battery itself.
- ✗
Corrupted battery driver
Why it's wrong here
A corrupted battery driver primarily affects the operating system's ability to accurately report battery status, charge level, or estimated remaining time. While it might display incorrect information or cause the OS to misinterpret the battery's state, the physical process of charging the battery is managed by hardware components, specifically the power management ICs on the motherboard. A driver issue would not physically prevent the battery from accepting a charge from the charging circuit; it would only misinterpret or fail to display its actual state.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 220-1201 question from scratch — 972 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.