Can a battery just die suddenly?

[dwilsonfl]

On vacation and using my X60t with Win 8. Use it on battery all day and plug it in every night. Ran it down last night and plugged it in. Used it a while today and then the battery icon started flashing. Still shows 100% but it says "The battery has failed according to normal wear. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery."

It was working great. So is this a normal thing to have happen? And is it true or is the icon lying to me?

Thanks,

David

[ajkula66]

Yes, batteries for *6x generation are known for this type of behaviour.

Some more than others...Panasonic is by far the best.

Remove the dead battery and run the machine on AC only until you source a replacement - I have a couple available if you're interested, PM me.

Good luck.

[loyukfai]

Personally confirm this (sudden death) happened to me on an X61T.

Cheers.

[emtee3511]

Yep -- I sold an X61 to a Forum member a few years ago -- battery left here green/good condition. Upon arrival, the new owner used machine for only a day or two when the battery suddenly went orange/dead I hadn't heard of this problem at the time, so had no clue what the issue was. New owner was happy enough to receive a refund to cover the cost of a battery, but I always felt it reflected badly on me the way the listed "green battery" tanked -- now I know differently -- it's just a sometimes occurring battery issue -- didn't realize the issue was mostly X6x.

[pianowizard]

Of the 45 Thinkpads that I owned, two experienced this problem: an X60s, and a 600E.

[cjmorisson]

I think this issue is known for the 6x generation release. For as long as you got the warranty, I think you can just request for a replacement.

<list of spam links removed>

[bill bolton]

I think this issue is known for the 6x generation release.

No

[TTY]

Lenovo offers a Power Management driver for ThinkPads. It seems as if they haven't released a version for Windows 8 yet. Furthermore, the X60 Tablet doesn't meet system requirements for the Power Management driver under Windows 7. I suppose that if you use an X60T without the Power Management driver, you could see problems with the battery. The same goes for the case that you use the Power Management driver with hardware, that the Power Management driver doesn't support together with the operating system you use.

The newest operating system, for which the X60 Tablet meets system requirements for the Power Management driver, is Vista.

[ajkula66]

Lenovo offers a Power Management driver for ThinkPads. It seems as if they haven't released a version for Windows 8 yet. Furthermore, the X60 Tablet doesn't meet system requirements for the Power Management driver under Windows 7. I suppose that if you use an X60T without the Power Management driver, you could see problems with the battery. The same goes for the case that you use the Power Management driver with hardware, that the Power Management driver doesn't support together with the operating system you use.

The newest operating system, for which the X60 Tablet meets system requirements for the Power Management driver, is Vista.

That's all fine and well - on paper.

I've been running W7 on a number of X60T units, System Update downloads the latest Power Management driver and all of the machines took it with no apparent issues this far, and it's been several months...

I really doubt that any of this PM stuff has much to do with battery failures. People have been complaining about Sony and Sanyo batteries used on R6x/T6x/X6x/Z6x three days short of forever. I just threw out a box of defective ones during my basement cleanup...Panasonics, on the other hand, seem to last for a very long time under the same or similar conditions...

My experiences only.

[gw74]

I just upgraded my x60s to win 8 with a battery at 50% of design capacity. 3 weeks later the battery is borked exactly the way you described. this is too much of a coincidence. can we make a claim against Lenovo for faulty PM driver?

[RealBlackStuff]

I'm afraid the best you can do is change your username gw74 into Don Quichotte.

[bill bolton]

I just upgraded my x60s to win 8 with a battery at 50% of design capacity. 3 weeks later the battery is borked exactly the way you described. this is too much of a coincidence. can we make a claim against Lenovo for faulty PM driver?

Since the X60s is not on Lenovo's supported model list for Win 8, you have no recourse on any basis, as you took on all risks associated with installing a Lenovo Win 8 driver on an unsupported device.

In any case, as you said your battery was already at 50% of original capacity, you wouldn't have had any good basis for a claim under any circumstances.

[gw74]

I disagree. Lenovo supplied the drivers to Microsoft which were installed automatically on my machine from Microsoft servers which received the data "windows 8" and "x60s" during the install process, which blew up my battery. Just because they release a bit of paper saying which models "support" windows 8, whatever that actually means, does not alter that fact, because they clearly support it otherwise the drivers would not have downloaded: either the upgrade should have been rejected by the windows 8 upgrade assistant, or the installation of windows 8 itself should have been blocked, instead of borking my £150 battery.

What, you think 50% to 0% in 3 weeks is "normal wear and tear"? No. It is not.

Thoughts?

[ajkula66]

Thoughts?

Get a new battery and call it a day.

[gw74]

And risk Win 8 chewing up that one too? Are you on a percentage from Lenovo Battery Sales?!

Seriously though, surely I run the risk of that?

[ajkula66]

And risk Win 8 chewing up that one too? Are you on a percentage from Lenovo Battery Sales?!

I'm not laughing.

Seriously though, surely I run the risk of that?

No.

If you have a battery that is a couple of years old, and is not a Panasonic, use it like you were certain that it's going to be dead in the morning.

[gw74]

use it like you were certain that it's going to be dead in the morning

I did that for every single day that I've owned it, which is why I am so sure it's Win 8's fault.

What about reverting to win 7 and trying to unbork the battery via registry? I remember reading elsewhere the problem might be circuitry misreads rather than cells...

Also, how could I get a Panasonic?

[ajkula66]

I did that for every single day that I've owned it, which is why I am so sure it's Win 8's fault.

While you're obviously entitled to your opinion, I had this happen in XP Tablet, Vista, W7 and Linux.

What about reverting to win 7 and trying to unbork the battery via registry?

Your time to waste, but you've got nothing to lose.

Also, how could I get a Panasonic?

A prayer to the deity of your choice might help...

[gw74]

Thanks for the advice (I do mean that!). Whatever the reasons behind this particular scenario, looking at all the Win 8 upgrade issues on the Lenovo Forums and here, even for Win 8-"supported" models, plus my other issue with my Intel Wireless adapter driver flooding the System Log with "The description for Event ID 5010 from source netwlv32 cannot be found") my love affair with Thinkpads is on the wane

A T430s with Thunderbolt eGPU would cheer me up though!

[bill bolton]

Lenovo supplied the drivers to Microsoft

If you install anything Microsoft throws at your system without reading and understanding the implications of the description accompanying them you are bound for great, and continuing, disappointment.

[gw74]

Surely that is what the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant and Microsoft's automated driver install/update servers populated in collaboration with manufacturers are for? This was not a manual update by me, so there was no accompanying description.

[RealBlackStuff]

If you keep going on in that tone, I foresee a short life for you here...

[gw74]

Sorry I've toned it down. Any advice greatly appreciated.