T30 runs on mains power but does not run on battery at all

[debmalya]

Hello. I am new to this forum. A friend of mine owns a T30, which has this unique problem. The laptop runs perfectly on mains power using the adapter. But as soon as the power cord is pulled out the laptop dies. It doesn't even run for a split second on battery. I tested the battery in another T30, and the battery is fine. Not only that - I discovered the battery was charged too! Looks like the laptop charges it allright. But on this problem laptop - when on mains power the display shows battery charging - remaining charge 0% and no matter how long you charge it the charge level is always 0%.
If anyone else here has had this problem - they will understand what I am saying. I took the laptop apart and tried re-soldering all the solder poinsts related to the battery on the main board. But it did not help - definately not a dry solder problem. If any of you have knowledge regarding this I request you to share it please.

[tfflivemb2]

Is your friend running the Battery Maximizer/Power Management program from IBM? I had a similar problem on a 600E, where I needed to boot the 600E without the battery, install the Battery Maximizer/Power Management program from IBM. Once I installed it, I added the battery to the laptop while Windows was running and it recognized it. From then on I was able to boot from the battery or switch off the AC power and run on the battery.

These IBM batteries have "smart" chips in them, and the laptop needs to be able to communicate with them. If it doesn't, it might not be able to use the battery.

[debmalya]

Thank you tfflivemb2. I am almost sure that my friend does use the battery monitor program of IBM. I will suggest he follows the steps you said, and ask him the results. And I will post them.

BTW - the system does not boot from battery at all - just as you said. As if the battery is completely missing. I tried using the same battery in another working T30 and it worked. I also tried using the working T30's battery in this problem unit - but it doesn't work.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

[AbsoluteRaleigh]

Huh. I haven't seen that one yet..

If the battery is good and the unit doesn't work on it the system board is bad.

You could always try a BIOS flash but it probably won't help...

[debmalya]

And thanks to you AbsoluteRaleigh

I am also under the impression that it is a faulty main board. But it must be some small section or component and definitely not the entire board. If I could get a schematic I could have tried to fix the board. I was told by my friend that many people have reported this problem, and it was generally isolated to 'some' dry solder or bad contact, which is why I tried re-soldering all related points. Replacing the mainboard on an old model like this may be expensive and probably not worth the trouble. And moreover, since it does not belong to me, I can not decide on that. Thanks for all your advices.

[tfflivemb2]

I know that it is probably too late since you have already re-soldered the solder points, but was it still under warranty? I know that the T30s have been expiring over the past few months, as will mine on 12-28-05, since they were made at the end of 2002.