T23 Battery Woes

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bishy · #1 Post by **bishy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:26 am

Hi All,

New to the forum, and finding all the info and help very useful, so thanks to everyone for that.

I have a problem with the battery on my T23, when I bring up the battery info page on the battery maximiser prog, the info says the battery is good and fully charged. however when I pull out the A/C lead the battery only lasts for around 2 mins, before the system shuts down, but curiously, seconds before the shutdown the info page on maximiser states battery at 98%. When I reconnect A/C power, reboot and once again check the battery info page, it now says battery at 2% and recharging. Lastly the recharging only seems to take about 20 mins.

I have tried a few recharging/discharging cycles with pc doctor but have seen no improvement.

Any help or advice would be very gratefully received.

Once again thanks for a great forum.

bishy.

EDIT: During recharging the meter on the maximiser prog. went from 3% charge to 100% charge in one jump!!!!!!!

#2 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:38 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

It simply sounds like your battery has reached the end of its useful life.

What really matters in the Battery MaxiMiser information is the "Full Charge Capacity" reading. You can have a battery register a 100% charge but if the capacity is only 4 or 5 Wh, then that explains the 2 minute runtime. Also look at the "Cycle Count" for an indication as to how many times the battery has been discharged and charged. As an example, the battery in the T23 I'm using right now reads 100%, with a full charge capacity of 25.48Wh and 19 cycles. When I got it (used) a few months ago it was 31Wh and 11 cycles so it might be time to put it through a couple of deep discharges and see if it regains any capacity.

bishy · #3 Post by **bishy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:11 pm

Hi Rkawakami,

Thanks for the input, however Maximiser reports the battery to be in good health other stats as follows:-

Full charge capacity 31.58
Design capacity 43.20
Cycle count 110
First used date 2003-06

Could you please let me know what you think of these stats and what they tell you.

Thanks again for all your help with this.

bishy

#4 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:25 pm

Those numbers seem to be from a low usage battery that should give you at least 90 minutes of power. Is there any chance you can either install another battery (borrow one) or put yours in another T2x system? Also, is it a genuine IBM battery or an aftermarket one? Real ones will have the IBM "stripped" logo without any notation next to it like "For". Here's a couple of links to pictures:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0202234206 (Genuine IBM)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0205853776 (Aftermarket without IBM logo)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0017370659 (Aftermarket with "For IBM")

bishy · #5 Post by **bishy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:39 pm

Hi rkawakami,

Thanks for your ongoing help with this.

The battery is a genuine IBM one, it seems to be in good nick, numbers on it if they are any help are :-

FRU P/N 02K7026
ASM P/N 02K7025

The number with the barcode is 1Z42N32WOSN

The only other info says NOM 10.8v 4.0AH

Unfortunately I am unable to try this in any other machine, so any other suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks again, Speak to you soon.

bishy.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:20 pm

My take on this is you could have a problem with the battery or with your T23 motherboard. As you have already tried a couple of discharge/charge cycles and it's still only able to power your system for a few minutes that's what I'm left with.

You said earlier that you used PC Doctor to drain the battery. Is this the DOS version (i.e., one you either run from floppies or CD as opposed to starting it from within Windows)? And if so, have you tried running the AC adapter and battery diagnostics under the "Other Devices" menu? And if the answer to that is "yes, and they passed", then I'm out of ideas other than getting another battery and see how it performs. That should isolate the problem to the battery or the laptop.

I'm assuming that you are using a 72 watt (4.5A) IBM AC adapter, correct? I doubt that you would have a problem with a lower rated supply (the 3.35A or 54 watt version) but you never know unless you ask.

Hmm... now that I think of it, you may want to try cleaning the battery contacts inside the laptop with some isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and a cotton swab. You can clean the terminals on the battery by using a straightened out paper clip and tissue. Try not to split the blades apart too much.

What does the battery LED on the laptop do during charging? Is it blinking orange/green and then steady green?

Here's what I've been able to find in the archives:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=49322
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30211

bishy · #7 Post by **bishy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:37 pm

Hi again Ray,

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will work my way through them and let you know tomorrow if I had any luck.

I have got the higher rated power supply.

I also have the dos version of pcdoctor (I downloaded the iso from one of your other posts!!!!!), but have not tried the 'other devices' diagnostics, so I will try a few more charging cycles at the same time.

Thanks for the cleaning tips, I'll give them a go too.

Speak to you tomorrow.

bishy.

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