Power Problem A31

[wnnbenoob]

I have a Thinkpad A31 which I acquired used. I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro and installed all the drivers. When I unplugged it from the power windows thinks its still on ac power, which turns off the computer without me knowing. I did a clean install of Windows 2000 due to sluggish performance in XP, and I still have the ac problem, and usually in XP the battery worked for about 1h 30m, in 2000 when you unplug the power it lasts for 5 minutes then dies.

Help appreciated,

wnnbenoob

[vanaya]

Welcome to the forum!! Sounds like the last leg of your battery just went kaput. Download the battery maximiser program from lenovo.com and check the battery health. It will tell how much remaining capacity versus your full capacity charge.

To install program download from site, then run the installer from the folder it extracts to. Usually in this address C:\DRIVERS\WIN\BMMPM

[wnnbenoob]

Thanks for the reply,

I installed battery maxi miser, which showed that the main battery has been heavily used at 182 cycles, and the Ultra Bay battery going through 871 cycles. The tool also indicates that both the batteries are in a red health condition (it also suggest that I should purchase a new battery for it). also it looks like the main battery stops charging at 98%, and the ultra bay battery doesnt charge at all, leaving the percentage stuck at 91%. When I have the ultra bay battery inserted, and unplug the power the computer instantly dies. I assume that the ultra bay battery is dead.

[vanaya]

Yes the ultrabay sounds pretty dead... I would judge by the capacity amounts instead. I would recommend deep cycling them (discharging then charging overnight) separately and see if your capacity increases. I still think that the power issue is the batteries not holding any charge and therefore the lappy thinks its only on ac.