R40 battery not charging, powers down when AC unplugged

[leonidas]

My Thinkpad is an R40, model 2681 CU-1.

I'm having some problems with my Thinkpad's battery. About a month ago, I bought a new battery off of eBay to replace my original battery, which was no longer holding much charge. It was working fine for a while, and I was able to charge the battery without problems, as well as run the computer off of battery when it was unplugged from the AC. However, a few days ago I started having some problems with the battery.

Some of the symptoms:

1) Can't turn on the computer when it is unplugged from AC.

2) If I unplug from AC while it's on, the computer immediately turns off -- not a Windows shut down, but an instant loss of power, as if I unplugged the computer and there was no battery installed.

3) The Power Meter in the system tray and the battery information from the Maximiser both indicate that the battery is charging. However, the battery never seems to reach full charge. In fact, it seems to slowly be *losing* charge. This morning, I was at 96% battery capacity, and I have been running all day off of AC power, and am currently at 91% capacity.

4) The battery information from the Maximiser:

Status: Charging
Remaining Percentage: 91%
Charge Completion Time: -
Remaining Capacity: 58.69 Wh
Full Charge Capacity: 64.73 Wh
Current: 0.02 A
Voltage: 16.67 V
Wattage: 0.00 W
Temperature: 26 C
Cycle Count: 3

It seems like the computer is able to read status from the battery, but is not able to charge/discharge the battery. Perhaps there is connection problem with the power pins?

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

I'd presume that the "new" battery you're referring to is a Chinese knock-off, and not a genuine IBM one. If that's the case, I'd suspect the battery as the component that is giving you grief, and not the laptop's charging circuitry.

Good luck.

[pipo75]

Very same symptoms here on an x40 and yes I do have a chinese battery bought on ebay... does anyone know if these faulty batteries are usually replaced or if this is a common swindle?

[leonidas]

This is the eBay listing for the battery I purchased:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

If the battery is the problem, where can I get a quality replacement battery?

[ajkula66]

You are not likely to have much luck with these third-party batteries, regardless of source.

Watch this forum's Marketplace as well as eBay for someone offering a NOS (New Old Stock) IBM battery, or one with low cycles/high capacity left.

Good luck.

[RealBlackStuff]

According to that eBay page you have

Warranty: 12 Month replacement warranty.

Worth a shot.
At best you get one that may work, at worst, it's maybe good for another few months, then replace it again, and again, until the warranty runs out...

[leonidas]

According to that eBay page you have Warranty: 12 Month replacement warranty.
Worth a shot.
At best you get one that may work, at worst, it's maybe good for another few months, then replace it again, and again, until the warranty runs out...

Good call, I will check out that option.

The main reason why I bought off of eBay was because they were inexpensive (I paid around $30 for my current apparently-flaky battery). I found some others online, but they were close to $100.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ry&x=0&y=0

Is it worth it to pick up one of these expensive batteries? Are they any more reliable than the cheap ones off of eBay?

[ajkula66]

I'd pass on any non-IBM battery...regardless of price range. My experiences - bar one - for both ThinkPads and ToughBooks have been horrible with third party batteries. YMMV.