T60 not drawing charge from battery

[palfguy]

So this randomly started happening a couple days ago. I'm sitting in class and the computer just turns off for no reason. The battery had around three hours left on it, so I was confused. When I went home I plugged it in and rebooting it showed that the battery had a charge in it. As soon as I unplug the laptop from AC it loses power. I figured it was the battery, so I found a cheap replacement one on Amazon, but I'm having the exact same results.

So clearly there is something besides the battery causing this problem. I saw this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=93791 but it's pretty unhelpful considering the starter gave up on the problem.

Any advice?
Thanks in advance.

PS - I don't really have time to wait weeks and weeks sending it in for repairs - and I am comfortable openin' her up if there's a definite fix for the problem.

[richk]

There isn't an easy fix. Unless you have 2 bad batteries, it sounds like the charging circuit (on the motherboard) has died. What is the full type number? (like 1951-xxx)

[palfguy]

1951-4MU

[palfguy]

So I've been looking around for solutions, and I'm pretty sure my problem is different than most other people's.

My battery will still charge just fine (I use BatteryBar to confirm this) but the computer won't draw electricity from it. All of the other posts I've found said that not even their battery will charge.

Also, I just received this laptop in January through TigerDirect. It's offlease. Why would it fail so quickly? I've gone through a [censored] Acer, an old HP with hinge problems...I got this so I would have something reliable. What the hell Lenovo? Anyways, I emailed the company who apparently refurbished it.

[richk]

If you feel comfortable doing some repairs, I have an extra motherboard for that machine that is not very expensive.

[palfguy]

Is it definitely a mobo problem though? I believe the laptop comes with a 1 year warranty through the refurbisher, so I'll wait on them before pursuing a more 'hands on' (and fun ) fix.