T60 charging circuit dead: Can I still use full battery?

[chanel]

I have a T60 that I purchased in June 2006 with a 3 year warranty.

Last month (July 2009!) my battery died (the 2nd battery I've had since purchase) and I bought a new one. Waited a week or so for the new one and realized that didn't work either. The laptop does, however, work on AC power, whether or not the battery is in the laptop.

Swapped out the AC adapter just in case: still no battery charge.

Took it to the repair shop and they said it was most likely the charging circuit on the motherboard and the entire motherboard will have to be replaced to the tune of $600.

Called Lenovo and of course they do not care that it failed just after the warranty expired. (It's an amazing feat of engineering that things fail just after the warranty expires)

So I have two questions:

1. If I buy an external charger to charge the battery, can I still run the laptop on battery power?
2. Is there any way to replace only the charging circuit and not the entire motherboard?

I have loved this T60 ever since I bought it and I'm very sad to see it go. I am also frustrated with Lenovo that I paid hundreds of dollars extra for the extended warranty only to have this problem surface one month after the warranty expired. Especially since there was probably an issue before that since the thing went through batteries at a rate of 1/year... but when I called Lenovo back in 2008 they claimed there was nothing wrong.


Thanks for your help.

[LegendaryKA8]

Unfortunately, if the charging circuit on the motherboard is toast, you have to replace the board itself. Adding to the doom and gloom, I haven't heard of an external charger for the T6x machines... although you can get one for T4x batteries.

However, replacing the entire motherboard to the tune of $600? I'll be the first to say that you can definitely find another board for FAR less than that. I'd see if your repair shop would be willing to replace the board if you bring in another one. If not, if you're comfortable with handling/replacing computer components, you can download a service manual that shows you how to pull your system apart and put it back together.

Ask on the forum marketplace or check Feebay for replacements. The seller doesn't have any right now, but I managed to grab a T60p FireGL V5250 board for $150, shipping included. It works wonderfully, and I'm typing this post on the T60p in question. I'm sure you can find an affordable motherboard.

[richk]

What is your model number? It will be a format like 1953-xxx.

[HFat]

Hello. I've had a similar misadventure with my T61, also in July (see my thread lower). I bought a replacement battery and then an external charger, as you are doing now.

The good news is: my charging circuit fixed itself somehow over a month after the initial failure. This may have had something to do with updating the BIOS and the power management software so you might want to try that. Or you might want to simply wait a bit... I'm not sure what fixed it for me. This being the summer, maybe it's temperature-related but I doubt it.

1. If I buy an external charger to charge the battery, can I still run the laptop on battery power?

If you can run the laptop on charged batteries at all, yes. My T61 worked on the batteries charged by my external charger. But then again it worked with my replacement battery until it got discharged...

So yes, there are external chargers for T6x batteries. I found a cheap one on eBay, though I paid as much for international shipping as for the charger itself.

[chanel]

the model number is 2008 FS6

Regarding the heat: The circuit did fail on the hottest day of the summer (100+) and it was in a room without air conditioning. Originally I thought it was an overheating issue but once everything cooled down it still wouldn't charge.

Thanks for the reply about the external charger. I might just go with a $10 charger from ebay rather than $100+ on a mobo that I would still have to figure out how to install. Ultimately it's just very disappointing.

[sktn77a]

I hear ya! The external charger seems to make the most sense in this situation. Did you confirm that the laptop will boot with a charged (or partially charged) battery only?

[chanel]

No, I have to get an external charger to verify that

[HFat]

In case you want to minimize expense, it might be cheaper to get someone you trust to send you a charged, well-worn battery that's practically worthless.
Also, if you have no way to test the charge on the battery and your laptop doesn't boot, you won't know if you were sold a broken charger.

I don't think that any old charger will do. I bought one of these new chargers which take 20V. And I don't know if you'll be able to get one of these for $10.

[fry112]

Why dont u get a docking station and have it recharge the pc from the bottom.

[GomJabbar]

I saw a ThinkPad 600E with a bad charging circuit kill a battery. Years ago I was buying a used 600E from a local used computer shop. When I got it home, I discovered the battery was no good and would even prevent the 600E from booting on AC power (most times). If I removed the battery, the 600E booted fine on AC power. The computer shop had another used 600E with a working battery. As soon as I put that battery in my 600E, it killed the battery. The shop ended up swapping the 600E with me, then they had to acquire another functioning battery for me to use.

I am not saying the same thing will necessarily happen to you, but it might.