Thinkpads Forum

Hello thinkpeople,

I shut my T61 off, disconnected the AC adapter and left it unattended for a few days. When I started it a few days ago, I noticed something wrong with the battery. I don't remember the exact sequence of events but it went from bad to worse. Now all I get out of the battery is a blinking orange indicator so I disconnected it.
The last time I tried to use the battery (by disconnecting the AC adapter while the Thinkpad was running), my T61 shut down after a few seconds. The trouble is that I couldn't restart it afterwards. The AC indicator was behaving normally but the Thinkpad wasn't responding to the power key (is there any other way to power-on a T61?). I tried disconnecting the battery and the power, waiting and so on to no avail. Then I tried changing the keyboard and I got my Thinkpad to boot. I put my usual keyboard back in and now it boots... sometimes (and sometimes not). I haven't figured exactly what makes it (fail to) respond to the power key.

Is this erratic behaviour normal for a battery-less T61? I'm planning to buy a new battery (I have no spare, not even an old one for testing) but I figured I'd run it by this remarkable assembly of experts first... maybe someone will recognize these symptoms and tell me not to bother with a new battery and to send the Thinkpad to whoever handles the IWS (it has a US warranty and I'm in Europe).
I suppose there's no point in trying to get the battery replaced (it's about 15 months old). Although this isn't the reason I'm writing, battery purchasing advice is welcome.

Oh! One last thing: is it recommended to take the battery out of Thinkpads that are going to sit idle for several days or even months? I've left charged batteries in Thinkpads (T4x models mostly) for long periods before and I don't recall noticing anything weird afterwards but maybe I've just been lucky so far...

EDIT: I forgot to say that nothing is read anymore from the battery. This wasn't the case at first: it displayed 5% remaining though the battery wasn't behaving normally.

I would guess that a faulty charging circuit could both drain the battery and create boot problems, but that's just guessing. Shutting a machine down and leaving the battery in should not create any problem, but LiOn batteries *do* have a reputation for simply going belly-up dead without any warning and it is possible the battery just died on you. With no battery, the computer should still boot without any problem on AC alone--which is why I'd suspect something is wrong in the computer and that killed your battery as well.

So I'd suggest explaining it that way to a tech, and sending the whole thing (including battery) in for warranty repair, emphasizing that the bad computer killed your battery so that should also be replaced as part of the damage caused by the warranty failure. Most vendors have some leeway in their battery policies and if the tech says they can't replace the battery in these circumstances--ask them to escalate the case to someone who DOES have that discretion.

Although it is possible that the battery will be just fine, once they fix something in the charging circuitry in the computer.

It's getting weirder and weirder.

First what I managed to establish: the battery isn't dead. Its symptoms were only the symptoms of having very little or no juice left. My T61 wasn't charging it, that's all. I bought a charger and that revived the battery.

But the erratic behavior of the power button persisted. And changing the keyboard booted the Thinkpad everytime it seemed like it was dead... isn't that weird? Maybe it's a coincidence and it'd boot without a keyboard switch if I was patient enough.

I managed for a while with an external charger and then the Thinkpad suddenly started charging my battery again! I assume this T61 wasn't made with Vorlon technology and that it didn't heal one of its fuses... something must have triggered this change. It might be a driver/BIOS update that reset something. I don't have a clue really. Does anyone?

I'll have to file a warranty claim at some point but I don't want to send my T61 anywhere right now. I'm using it and it sort of works. It's got another issue but that's a story for another thread...

HFat wrote:I assume this T61 wasn't made with Vorlon technology and that it didn't heal one of its fuses...

I think that this is the first B5 reference that I've seen here... <*> Although a thermal fuse, does in a sense, "heal" itself.

It certainly sounds like the original(?) keyboard has a problem with the power switch; either in the button itself or the connector that mates to the motherboard. It also sounds like there's an intermittent problem with the charging circuit in the system. If this were a T2x system, I'd suspect a loose inductor on the motherboard.

The next time this happens maybe you should take a page out of the Minbari handbook and meditate for several hours and hope your system is reincarnated with a stronger and clearer soul. If it becomes really maddening, then seek out a couple of Narns with baseball bats and I'm sure that they will take care of your problem.