Significant battery discharge while off.

[unimorpheus]

I have a T43p that will loose 25% or more of its power while OFF, not hibernating or on standby. I have tried a different battery that works correctly in a different laptop with the same problem. All wake-on-LAN/standby settings are disabled to no avail. Any thoughts?

[Harryc]

How long of a period does the laptop have to be off to lose 25% of its charge?

[pianowizard]

For reference, I didn't use my R50p at home for two weeks and its 6-cell battery lost only 2%.

[unimorpheus]

The laptop will loose 25% or more overnight from 100% charge.

[pianowizard]

What's its full charge capacity? If it's very low, then even 1 or 2 Wh would be a lot percentage wise.

[unimorpheus]

Current reported charge capacity. 74.15Wh, cycle count 9. These are new IBM batteries that work fine in other T43p laptops.

[richk]

Look in the event log and see if some device is failing at shutdown. Also, when it is unplugged and turned off, temporarily remove the main battery. Then return the battery, plug in and start it. See if there is an event message about a problem at startup.

[visionviper]

I think I am suffering the same problem in my T40. I charged the battery up 100% (or at the very least 99%) and when I turned it on a couple days later it was at 96%. Nowhere near as dramatic, but it was still a noticeable loss.

[pianowizard]

I think I am suffering the same problem in my T40. I charged the battery up 100% (or at the very least 99%) and when I turned it on a couple days later it was at 96%.

Sounds exactly like the Toshiba Portege R100 that I used to have. I think many old batteries are like that. But the OP's fairly new T43 battery shouldn't lose 25% overnight.

[richk]

The toshiba problem is different. I believe that their discharge is related to the way they allow you to play CDs when the machine is shut off. In other words, they never really turn off.

[visionviper]

I think many old batteries are like that.

The battery is brand new :-/

[ricerocket]

The obvious test would be to remove the battery overnight and see if it's any different.

And whenever someone uses the word discharge, it makes me think of bodily fluids...of unnatural color.

[pianowizard]

The toshiba problem is different. I believe that their discharge is related to the way they allow you to play CDs when the machine is shut off. In other words, they never really turn off.

Interesting. But that Portege R100 I referred to doesn't have an optical drive.

[gunston]

100% full charge, and put it to standby for 11hrs ++,

dropped to 93%.

[unimorpheus]

Well the T43p continued to show the discharge behavior mentioned earlier with one notable exception. While traveling to Vegas I used the laptop several times as it works well with the exception of the battery problem. When I returned home I could not power up the laptop. I removed the battery, plugged in the AC with no battery, nothing. No lights or any sign of life at all.

Called IBM support to arrange a warranty repair but decided to take a look myself. Apparently some trained monkey had disassembled this unit as most of the screw heads were rounded out and hard as hell to remove (laptop bought used). Whoever had reassembled the unit had pinched the wireless antenna cable between the keyboard and the CDROM drive housing mount screw head causing the insulation to wear until the cable shorted on the CDROM housing.

Applied a bit of electrical tape, reassembled the laptop with new screws an she booted right up. I still need to test to see if this solves the battery drain problem. I have the box from IBM so if it is still an issue I will probably let IBM replace the planar. We will see.