Second Battery for X40

[HumanOne]

Hi All,

I have recently purchased a second-hand Thinkpad X40 with an IBM 8 Cell Li-Ion battery which is all working and charging fine

I have purchased a second 8 Cell Li-Ion (non IBM) which hasn't worked since I installed it

When I hit the "Battery MaxiMiser Gauge / Battery Information" it shows the following:

Remaining Percentage Total = ERROR
Remaining Percentage Battery 1 = ERROR
Remaining Percentage Battery 2 = Not Installed

I have returned one of these batteries already to "Battery World" and explained that it doesn't work. They obtained another from their source and also advised that the original battery was fully charged when returned and therefore it must be a problem with may laptop instead and sent me away

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Frustrated, as the spare battery costs AU$230 and is not working, I have given the battery supplier the benefit of the doubt and have now gone away to check out if anything could possibly be wrong with the laptop itself.

Is it possible that the laptop rejects the battery for some reason unknown to me?

I have looked and searched extensively and can't find any reason it shouldn't just work.

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My next option is to see if I can find a supplier that has an IBM Proprietary battery in stock and take the laptop in to check that it works there and then - this will identify that it is the "Battery World" battery and not the ThinkPad.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated from anyone who has experience in these matters.

Important: the original IBM 8 cell works and charges fine!
When using the replacement while on the AC Charger it stops instantly when I pull the charger cord from the laptop!

Thankyou in advance

Pete

[bibendum]

Why are you giving the benefit of the doubt to the battery supplier? You've got a perfectly functional X40 that's capable of both charging and running off of batteries. I would trust your IBM equipment over a knock-off replacement battery.

I had a similar experience on Ebay with "cabattery". Received an X40 4 cell battery that my X40 wouldn't charge. Sent it back for a 2nd, which also wouldn't charge. They finally agreed to refund me my money, less postage. A third email to them got the postage refunded as well.

The battery they sent me both times was a non-IBM replacement from a Hong Kong mailing address.

[sugo]

OEM thinkpad batteries are relatively cheap compared to say Sony. Why risk your thinkpad with 3rd ones who may not even know anything about thinkpad circuits?

[tokyo_x40]

sugo:
FWIW, I have a cheap knock-off battery because I want to abuse the battery. If someone made a decent "battery weight saver" hollow plastic plug, I'd use it. Instead, I have a cheap aftermarket 4-cell which serves the same purpose. I don't use the big 8-cell except for when I'll really need it. ...I realize that the newer batteries aren't supposed to have as much cycling hysteresis problems as older NiCd, but on the rare day that I _need_ battery performance, I don't want a battery failure. I use AC 90% of the time, so I prefer to leave my trustyworthy expensive battery out of the machine.

HumanOne:
In case you've had limited success since your original post:
My eBay cabattery 4-cell works OK, but it's not perfect. It doesn't always charge when I want it to. If I run off batteries to say 50% power, then suspend or hibernate, it won't charge the next time. My fix is to hibernate, remove the battery for a second, then reconnect. After that it will charge. And it's not a winXP thing, it's a hardware circut thing, like sugo said--the battery will charge when the AC is connected, even if you haven't turned on the computer yet.

[sugo]

People say leaving battery in is good when there is a power outage. But look at your desktop, does it have a battery to use during power outage? How often do you get power outage?

I also use AC most of the time. I simply don't have a battery in the thinkpad. Lucky enough to get zero problem or power outage.

[HumanOne]

It sounds like it is more likely to be the battery itself from your replies, because my original 8 cell charges and runs fine without AC etc.

The new battery doesn't seem to recognize the AC charger.

My problem really is that most of the laptop and computer stores where I live have to order batteries in from somewhere else and therefore it's difficult for me to just walk into a store put a battery in to see if works then buy it if it works OK.

I am about to travel for a year, and this is why I wanted a second battery for while I'm away from power for a few days. It's becoming a bit hard, but I'd like to have it solved, so I can return the 'dud' battery that I have already paid $230 for.

Cheers