X41 tablet battery/charge problems - which is dead?

[boczkowski]

laptop battery help please (IBM X41 tablet)
hey hey

Essentially I'd like to know:
Battery broke?

Charger broke?

How to check?

The background:

a while back I bought a 2nd laptop for lugging around to the Uni library rather than banging up my new Lenovo.
Just what I needed as I only wanted it for writing on at the library. Smaller-lighter etc.

When I got it (about March 2010 I think) I used it a bit and since then it has been in the sock drawer as I no longer go to the library to write, so I use my nice big shiny Lenovo at home.

Yesterday I knew I wanted to use it, so I got it out and plugged it in at 8am - left it charging until about 10:30 - started it up - saw that it had 99% battery - unplugged it whilst it was on - closed it down - went about my day.

used it for an hour or so in a cafe - surfing & checking email and writing

Battery was at about 65% when I started it up (I think - I may have checked it after 15 minutes use or so)

Last night I continued to use the machine at home as I wanted access to the stuff I had written - installed dropbox-did some more writing - synced docs and when it asked me to plug in, I did.
Used it for another hour (Windows 7 Enterprise) and had a go at booting it from a Linux Mint usb stick to see if the wifi worked oob. Noticed no battery icon when inn linux pulled out power cord - fzzt - laptop goes off.

Plug cord back in - boot to Windows - icon says 99% and the indicator light is green (which means it is charged and not low-it is orange then)
but it says '99% - plugged in not charging' and when I remove the power cord - fzzt.

The laptop was in the car with me most of the day and then spent about 45mins in the boot (in a messenger bag) when I picked some other people up) I'm in NWest UK - it was cold yesterday- just above freezing - boot (trunk) will have been cold I suppose - but it wasn't in there for long (or was it?)

So:
Battery broke?

Charger broke?

How to check?

Newbie here-first post - sorry it is a fault finder - FYI - linux mint 10 (julia) works out of the box with the x41's wifi !!

[loyukfai]

I think the battery's time should be up no matter what, considering the age of X41T, unless the battery has been replaced before. Even if it can still hold a charge, it probably won't for much.

About mid-year I also had my friend's X41T's battery replaced. The PC said the battery still had a charge, but once unplugged the machine would shut down instead. (My replacement battery experience here http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=88235)

Besides, if I'm not mistaken, your problem could also be caused by a faulty mainboard.

Since it should be relatively easier to find a 16V Thinkpad adapter than an X41T battery, I think you could try borrowing one first.

Cheers.