Thinkpads Forum

I have a problem with the main battery on my thinkpad.

In the battery meter is it showing 77%. It will neither take any more of a charge, nor is is capable of running the laptop. If I unplug with only the main battery in (and not my ultrabay backup) it just turns off (not standby, or soft off, just a straight crash)

Does this sound like there is a problem in power transfer somewhere, or the battery is truly toast?

Thanks,

M

Only way to know for sure would be to swap out the battery for a test. I'd suspect that the charging circuit is still working and that the battery is probably toast.

If the charging circuit were blown, would that mean the ultrabay batteries would not charge either? Because I am having no problems with them.

Good call on the test, now to find somebody with an A30...

Where are you located? You can usually get cheaper replacements on Ebay.

momar wrote:Does this sound like there is a problem in power transfer somewhere, or the battery is truly toast?

Get butter and jam and brew some tea, the battery is toast!

Regards,

James

I'm in Toronto, Ontario.

IBM told me "What seem to be the problem here is the onboard dc charger. You are advised to take the unit in for repairs to the nearest IBM Business Partner."

I don't believe them, and I'm not missing the battery, so forget them. The ultrabay works fine for me, I just wish that my dead battery would not show 77% charged, so I could keep it in the machine and not have this gaping hole telling me I have juice I really don't have...

My other beef, I bought 2 ultra bay batteries (found some used ones for a good price) and of course, only of the ultrabay slots I have can take a battery, so really it makes the seconed one useless, since I can't hotswap without being plugged in.

Thanks IBM!

Find someone with an a30 or an a31 close by and try their battery, I wouldn't say oh well on such a nice machine

I'm in Toronto and may have an old A series battery lying around if you wanted to hook up and test your machine on AC .. drop me a line and we can figure it out.