Thinkpads Forum

I have just bought an X60s on eBay. It was rather tired and neglected when I got it, but with some care and attention it is looking just fine. And it is working beautifully too -- except for the battery.

Switching the machine on without mains power produces absolutely nothing, not even the momentary flicker of the system lights that a deeply discharged battery can often manage.

On mains power, the battery light flashes orange. Windows 7 battery monitor reports '74%, plugged in, not charging'. Xubuntu battery monitor also reports 74%.

A bit of Googling suggests two possibilities. Either the battery is dead or, more worryingly, the battery recharge circuitry on the motherboard has failed. I don't have another X60 to swap battery with, so I can't decide which, if either, of these two possibilities is correct. And I am not keen to spend money on the wrong solution.

I'd be very grateful for any ideas.

Neil

It's probably just a defective battery. For some reason, the T60/R60/X60/Z6x generation had what seems to be a very high battery failure rate. I have over one dozen bad ones at home including an X60s 8 cell with only a few cycles that is stuck at 89%.

There were quasi-recalls for some of the batteries for models listed above, but most of the programs were time-sensitive, including the X6x program. Follow link below for more info;

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 67765.html

That's both helpful and reassuring. Thank you!

I had the same problem with a X60s that I got on eBay last year for $285, so I gambled on a $28 Chinese battery from eBay and that solved the problem. Apparently the charging circuit requires enough juice from the battery to either tickle the charger circuit or to stabilize the feed. Anyway, it's a cheap experiment.

Now my X60s runs like new! Wow, what a deal!