A22M ThinkPad dies Immediately once AC pwer is turned off

[TonyV]

Brand new battery was installed and after 2 hours it was fully charged.
Green Battery Light lit.

Problem is as soon I unplug the AC adpater the laptop dies immediately.
I've done some searching here but didn't help.

I have a A22M running XP Home.

Can someone help?
Thanks

[rkawakami]

Is this a relatively recent problem or one that has existed for some time? If the system was working perfectly before, do you remember if there was a particular incident which might have caused some problem? For example, plugging in the wrong AC adapter or the system being dropped/subjected to some physical stress.

My initial thought is that the main fuse in line with the battery has blown. If the laptop can run off of the AC adapter by itself (no battery installed) and appears to charge the battery (green LED lit), it's possible that the battery is being charged though one of the other three terminals on the battery. According to the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM), there's five terminals. One is ground (pin 5). Another one appears to be the main voltage output (pin 1; ~12V). There's three other terminals which are on the battery, at least one of which can be tested with an ohmmeter.

You can also have a problem of a bent or broken "blade" on the laptop's battery terminals. Take a close look and verify that there are five metal terminals sticking out from the motherboard inside the battery bay. Make sure that they all appear to be clean and shiny. If not, they can be cleaned with a cotton swab dipped in a small amount of rubbing alcohol. Be careful that you don't drip any excess liquid down into the system. Although if that happens, don't worry too much as the alcohol will evaporate in a minute or two.

If the battery terminals on the laptop appear to be in good shape, then I'm afraid that something on the motherboard is probably the problem. It is possible to take the system apart and test to see if the fuse is blown. You would need the HMM, some small screwdrivers and a multimeter. Odds are that the fuse is very close to the battery terminals and looks like this:

http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_t2x/main_fuses.jpg

The white block with the silver end caps is what I've found on a T23 motherboard. It's a 10amp fuse and costs about $2 from digikey.com or mouser.com. A similar fuse is probably on your A22M. Using the multimeter, if it reads anything other than zero ohms, then it has blown. Assuming we can find one that matches yours, you then have to unsolder the old one and install the new one. Or you can pay a repair shop to do all of the dirty work .

There's a couple of other things you can do if you have access to the equipment:

- try the newly charged battery in another A2x system
- try another battery in your system

[TonyV]

I bought the A22M off of Ebay about 3 weeks ago with NO battery. I've been running off the AC adpater without any issues.
So I bought a Genuie IBM battery from Ebay and had it charging for approx 2 hours to a full charge.

I've had the A22M completly apart already so taking it apart is no big deal.
I'll check out the HMM and see what the other pins are for and also I'll check out the fuse.
I hope its something fixable.

Thanks for your help!

[ryengineer]

snip.........So I bought a Genuie IBM battery from Ebay and had it charging for approx 2 hours to a full charge.........snip

I don't ebay much but still I don't think you can find genuine battery on ebay apart from private sellers. So, very chances are that's the generic, 3rd party you bought and it's not able to provide wattage needed to handle the high power load of the machine, very typical for batteries from such source.

One easy way to identify genuine battery from IBM is, they bear IBM/lenovo trademark/logo which others can't.

Another possibility is; the motherboard circuitry itself could've short/open circuited, which rkawakami has also pointed out.

[TonyV]

Well no luck.

I took the A22m apart pretty much down to the motherboard.
Check the fuse (had excat same numbers as the one in the picture)
and it read good.
I also followed the instructions in HMM on how to test the battery and reading were within spec. The blades look good also.

I noticed that in the DVD tray area there were blades just like the ones the battery terminals side into. Are these blades used for a second battery?

I was going to try wiring the battery terminals to the one in the DVD tray and see if that make any difference.

Anyone else with any suggestions?

[rkawakami]

Yes, those blades at the back of the Ultrabay are for the secondary batteries. Not sure if you can safely jumper them together with the main battery terminals. I'd say you are venturing into uncharted territory there.

If you can't put your new battery into another system to see if it works there, or can't try another battery in your system, then it's still hard to say if there's a problem with your battery or motherboard.

[TonyV]

Anyone in the Toronto area (westend preferably) that is willing to test my battery in thier system or is willing to let me try thier battery in my system?

Thanks

BTW, thanks for your help Ray