Thinkpads Forum

Last night I had heartbreak as my T61p refused to boot. Lights show power source and battery, but nothing when you hit or hold start button.

I had previously shut it down a few hours earlier and all was well.

It is a late buil T61p with the corrected gpu. It's been well cared for, upgraded and little used for years. Really want to find the problem if possible and not discard it.

UPDATE:

Eventually I discovered it was the CMOS battery, when I pulled it out, things worked normally (other than lost settings). Now that I have replaced the CMOS, the battery will not charge.

The computer recognizes the battery, says the condition is good, says it is charging, but it never leaves 0% or takes a charge. It was working perfectly before the CMOS came out. I have gone through the bios and Lenovo power software but can't find a reason why. I do have the Middleton bios installed.

I do not have a 2nd batter for this machine to swap to see if the battery was somehow damaged while diagnosing the CMOS issue. Any thoughts?

Oro wrote:... the battery was somehow damaged while diagnosing the CMOS issue. Any thoughts?

Unlikely -- the battery may have failed, but for other reasons. Turn off the unit but leave it plugged in, remove and reinstall the battery, and leave it for an hour -- let's see if that produces a charge.

Nope, nothing I try makes it charge, though the machine reads it and calls it's health "good."

I must have shorted it while diagnosing the CMOS somehow; it happened the same day. Too much time, in my experience, tinkering under the hoods of cars, motorcycles, and humans over the years to believe in coincidences like that.

Oro wrote:Last night I had heartbreak as my T61p refused to boot. Lights show power source and battery, but nothing when you hit or hold start button.

I had previously shut it down a few hours earlier and all was well.

It is a late buil T61p with the corrected gpu. It's been well cared for, upgraded and little used for years. Really want to find the problem if possible and not discard it.

UPDATE:

Eventually I discovered it was the CMOS battery, when I pulled it out, things worked normally (other than lost settings). Now that I have replaced the CMOS, the battery will not charge.

The computer recognizes the battery, says the condition is good, says it is charging, but it never leaves 0% or takes a charge. It was working perfectly before the CMOS came out. I have gone through the bios and Lenovo power software but can't find a reason why. I do have the Middleton bios installed.

I do not have a 2nd batter for this machine to swap to see if the battery was somehow damaged while diagnosing the CMOS issue. Any thoughts?

May seem like a crazy thing to do but have you tried removing the power adapter and battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds?

What says Lenovo Power Manager for that battery?
What cells is used?
What is the valtage and charging current?

I have 1 strange battery with Sony cells. I don't know is it genuine but it have very bad habbits:
- it slowly discharges even when thinkpad completely off
- when it discharges to 0% it is wery slowly gets charge.
When it at 0% Power Manager says - voltage is 9.12V and charging current is 0.13A. It writes that cherging time is ~3 hours. But it may take longer. Now it can store 47.2 out of 56.2 Wh (it is 6 cell).

I'm not worried about it because this battery powers work think pad that most time sits on AC. But some times in holydays i powers iy off and it can discarge completely (about 2 weeks without working and it completely discharged).

The PM software said the battery was good and charging (see above).

I just left it in and went about my business for this past week. Sleep/hibernate/shutdown. Pulled it out once in a while. After four days, it just magically started charging and works fine now, just as before. I had recently recalibrated it, so I knew the charge time, and it's the same as before.

Odd, but it's back now. I'll get a slim spare in case it happens again, but I have to believe it was not the battery but something else related to the CMOS and opening the case; it happened that moment and not before or after.

Odd....