Thinkpads Forum

I often use a DC to AC converter to power my computer, using the computer's AC adapter, in the car. This has been going on without incident for about a decade with the same converter and with computers from a T42P up to the recent T530. A couple of months ago I turned off the car before switching off the converter -- the rule normally is to have the converter off before turning the car on or off. Immediately after this occurance, the computer battery management indicated the battery in my X200 was bad and it would no longer charge it or discharge it. I am curious, because there is an intelligent charger chip inside the battery that communicates with the outside world, specifically the computer, is there any way to interface with and query the chip to find out what the failure mode was?

I ordered a replacement battery that I ignored to check if it was a Lenovo product or a compatible -- the picture had the right colors, but ...... The Lenovo power management now has a message that the battery is non-genuine which is correct. The computer still allows the battery to function normally. I have checked the temperature by touch during charge and during battery operation and I can't detect any abnormalities. What should I be aware of?

If I would interface to and interrogate the chip in that battery, assuming they used the same battery management chip, can I find out about charging activity and temperatures?

I will appreciate any advice/help you might provide or additional references I can check.

Welcome to the forum!
You may be able to disable the "non-genuine battery" warning. See the following thread:
http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0560&hilit

There may be a simpler way [WIN7 64bit]; try this:

Launch Power Manager

Click on OPTIONS

Uncheck “Periodically show message about battery charge capacity”

Click APPLY

Click OK

For me, the nag stopped and all I gave up was the popup messages about charge capacity, which I can otherwise get if I really need it.

RRHODY wrote:There may be a simpler way [WIN7 64bit]; try this:

Launch Power Manager

Click on OPTIONS

Uncheck “Periodically show message about battery charge capacity”

Click APPLY

Click OK

For me, the nag stopped and all I gave up was the popup messages about charge capacity, which I can otherwise get if I really need it.

Thanks I'll give this a shot