Thinkpad R40 Battery

[jleach42]

Hi everyone. I have a Thinkpad R40. The problem is the battery will charge one time, and the next time it will, and the next time it won't. Is there any tests I can do. Thanks

[TTA]

Hi everyone. I have a Thinkpad R40. The problem is the battery will charge one time, and the next time it will, and the next time it won't. Is there any tests I can do. Thanks

cal_batt.com is a Compaq utility that will disable power management and drain and recharge a battery, it might help.
(I don't think it's against forum rules. It can be found searching the Compaq site so I don't think redistributing it would be any form of copy-write infringement)
It will work on any laptop, it's not Compaq specific.
http://krif.com/cpq/

PS
it must be run from a DOS bootdisk.

[jleach42]

Does anyone know how I can test this? I used Battery Mximiser and it says battery health is good. Looking at the bar graphs, when I plug the adapter in the graph shows charging for a little while then shows nothing. Thanks

[Terrahawk]

Exactly what kind of power adapter are you using?

[jleach42]

The one that is made for the R40. I just wondered if there is a test I can do to determine if it is the battery, ac adapter, or the charging unit itself. When I have it shut down and let it sit overnight it usually charges the battery.

[Terrahawk]

I have had two different situations from when I had my R40 - one was when I used a 35W IBM power supply, and it would charge but when I turned the computer on, charging would stop because the power supply could not supply enough power. The second situation came when the power supply (the standard 72W one that came with the R40) attached to my port replicator died. Well, it started off working fine for a few minutes and then charging would stop, and then it would actually start running off battery.

An underpowered, or not-quote-working power supply would cause what you are seeing. I tested mine by plugging in another one I had and it worked fine then.

[jleach42]

Thanks, I will probably try a different one to see if it is the power supply.