Battery cycling issue in R60

[bhurley]

My girlfriend's R60 seems to have a functioning battery, but the battery meter has gone haywire: when she boots the computer it shows 0%, then immediately jumps to 100%, then after a minute or two it drops back to 0% and starts charging. This cycle repeats itself endlessly as long as the machine is running. I've tried turning it off, taking out the battery and putting it back in, and checked the battery condition using the battery control panel (it says the battery is in good condition). I tried recalibrating the battery but the machine shuts itself down a minute or two into the process and reboots.

Any suggestions? The machine is only 1.5 years old and the battery was made in late 2006, so it's hard to imagine it's dead already. We had the computer set up to vary the drain and recharge times to maintain the battery life, since she mainly uses her ThinkPad plugged in and rarely runs it on the battery.

[bhurley]

After continually cycling every couple of minutes between 100% and 0% for a couple of days, the battery now appears to be dead...there's a big red X on the battery icon on my desktop, and nothing I do seems to get it to take a charge. So I've ordered a new battery and hope that'll do the trick.

[madkat]

the electronics inside the battery pack has gone bad... hopefully...