Repair laptop or take the loss : irreparable damage error

[Jnetty99]

I posted in an earlier thread that my battery died on my laptop.

After trying 2 new batteries I experience the same problem. So according to GomJabbar:

I tend to think it is the charging circuitry on the motherboard.

Do you think repairing it would be cheap? Laptop is out of warranty. If the repair cost is too much I probably take the loss and buy a new laptop and sell this one on ebay as is.

Update: "irreparable damage" is the error I get. After doing some google search a lot of people have this issue with new and older Thinkpads but there doesn't seem to be a real conclusion on what causes the problem.

Some say it happens only when you boot into Windows so its possibly a driver issue and to re-image your system and that helps. But mine happens even when the system is off. Something think thats a dead battery or bad charging circuit. Others think a BIOS update is needed but you can't do that with a uncharged battery. Others say the battery need a firmware update, but that can only be done at factory. There is all kinds of problems and solutions. I don't know what to do.

[Pepa]

"irreparable damage" really should be battery only problem, read this http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=90 .

You can try utility for test of bsattery or user-doable things like reinstallion of OS and flashing BIOS. And measure voltage output from your AC adapter, if its ok.

If is your motherboard dead adn notebook is out of warranty, then you notebook is virtually dead too. Motherboard usually cost same price as whole cheaper notebook.

[Jnetty99]

I done the battery test from Lenovo originally. That got Lenovo to send me another battery. Unfortunately Lenovo sent me the wrong battery twice because their computer had the wrong product assigned to the battery model I needed. Finally after getting in touch with a Lenovo representative in North Carolina I sent him some pictures of what I got and what they sent me and they fixed the problem in their system. They went ahead and sent a third battery, but that battery got lost. DHL claims they delivered it, but no package was ever found in my house. At this point Lenovo is off the hook because DHL claims to have delivered it. DHL is still investigating.

In the meantime I went ahead and bought a brand new battery a 9 cell battery unlike my current 6 cell battery. With the Laptop off I put the new battery in and put the AC adapter and right away the amber light started blinking. So it doesn’t sound like an operating system problem.

Up to now what I done is tested the AC adapter to make sure its output is 20v. Used a Multimeter and it showed 20v. I also downloaded a bootable PC doctor application from Lenovo found here http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222

I ran a test with it to check the batteries and it failed with both batteries. Could it be possible that I got another defective battery, I guess so. But until I get the battery replacement from Lenovo, which doesn’t look like it will happen I’m stuck believing that it’s the motherboard.

I’m going to do a reinstall of the operating system and see if that makes a difference. After that I guess laptop goes up on ebay as is.

Update: I did a re-image to factory state on the laptop and still doesn't work.

[Jnetty99]

It looks like i'm going to be able to test a third battery.

Lenovo has sent me another battery since DHL lost the other one.

Coming in today or monday. I hope the problem is the previous batteries and not the laptop.