Thinkpads Forum

So I woke up today, went to turn on my computer, and noticed that hmmm - the battery indicator is blinking yellow. That's strange. I booted it up, checked the battery indicator, and I see "a battery error has occurred. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery." Huh. Well, that's new.

I'm not quite sure why this happened - the laptop has been sitting on my desk, plugged in, for the past 2 weeks, with no problems. Last I noticed (last night?) the battery was at 95% capacity, and it didn't have more than ~100 cycles on it. I should probably also note that my laptop is a T61, and this is a 9 cell battery.

So my first question is, well, what the heck just happened here? I've only had this computer for a year and a half, and after I graduated the past summer its mostly just been sitting on my desk. Is this possibly a battery-drivers-got-infected-with-malware problem, or is this battery 100% dead? How badly do I need to replace it if right now I'm using the laptop as a makeshift desktop? I can't quite believe that this is a common problem, batteries just committing suicide out of the blue.

starlancerii,

You are not alone with this issue.

Check out the following links:
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=52

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67765


Chris

Not sure what's going on here even after reading through those links - power manager is what is telling me the battery is failed, not message center. I tried that app, and it tells me my battery is not eligible for replacement. And then, if I unplug my AC adaptor, the computer just shuts down.

And yet, battery manager tells me "Full charge (100%) A battery error has occurred...". I guess I'm just out of luck?

The exact same thing happened to me this morning (T60) -- same day, same message, and same prior state of the battery (it was FINE).

I tried the Lenovo online battery recall check, and mine is not one of the FRUs listed. This is a replacement battery sourced from Lenovo in July. This is a Sony 11s92p1142z1 battery.

starlancerii wrote:I tried that app, and it tells me my battery is not eligible for replacement.

I don't know what application you tried, here is a link to the current battery replacement program. Run the battery diagnostic tool if you haven't done so yet.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ATT-082009

There are apparently two recalls with automated checking of the battery bar code. AFAIK, first one has ended (the 2006 recall), and the second (the 2007 recall) happened before they sent me the battery this summer! The automated system for the second recall says it cannot read the battery bar code. The part # is within the list of the second recall: 92P1142 -- but they should never have shipped out a defective battery from those in the recall!

Follow-up:

I had the university find the e-mail order receipt, and called Lenovo again. This time I got a helpful person, and a call about four hours later from "fulfillment," asking for the info and giving me an e-mail address to forward the receipt. I should be getting a new battery.

Follow-up #2:

Battery arrived, within a week!

Could you give me this email? I have this problem since yesterday.