Thinkpads Forum

Just bought myself an old 380D and joined this forum today!

Well, this is my problem;

I received my laptop with no AC adapter and a battery that I don't know the condition of since it was flat when I bought the laptop.
I searched Ebay auctions and found a compatible IBM charger, placed a winning bid and the charger came with the postman today.
With a big smile on my mouth I connected the charger to my 380 and hit the ON button. Nothing happened... Just a short blink from the charging indicator lamp
First of all I disconnected the charger and meassured charging voltage. Result 16V as it should be.
Then I removed the battery, connected the charger and hit the ON button again. Still no reaction....
Then I tried to connect through the port replicator which I bough with the laptop. Same result as before.
What can be wrong? Sure the battery might be old and ready for replacement, but shouldn't it be possible to run this laptop even if the battery is completely dead or even without a battery as long as a charger/AC adapter is connected? Could the charger be defect even if correct voltage is messured but with no actual load?

Harware specs;

Laptop: IBM Thinkpad 380D / 2635-2A0
AC adapter: IBM P/N 08K8206 / FRU 08K8207

All suggestions to what might be wrong will be appreciated.

Sounds like you need a new CMOS (RTC) battery.

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:Sounds like you need a new CMOS (RTC) battery.

Regards,

James

Thanks for your tip James. Would you by any chance know if this battery is easy to locate on a 380D?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your tip James. Would you by any chance know if this battery is easy to locate on a 380D?

Turn the unit over and open the memory access door on the bottom, the battery is right there!

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your tip James. Would you by any chance know if this battery is easy to locate on a 380D?

Turn the unit over and open the memory access door on the bottom, the battery is right there!

Regards,

James

Thanks again James. You made my day.

JHEM wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your tip James. Would you by any chance know if this battery is easy to locate on a 380D?

Turn the unit over and open the memory access door on the bottom, the battery is right there!

Regards,

James

just changed to a new BIOS battery, but with same result...
Shouldn't these laptops start up even if the main battery is completely dead or even without a battery in as long as an AC adapter is connected? (I'm just trying to find out if the carger could be the reason)

Siggy,

Yes, the unit should run on AC without a main battery installed.

Can you get into the BIOS on startup? Is there ANY sign of life on BOOT?

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:Siggy,

Yes, the unit should run on AC without a main battery installed.

Can you get into the BIOS on startup? Is there ANY sign of life on BOOT?

Regards,

James

No, there is no sign at all....nothing happens. No sound, no pic, no BIOS and the charging indicator lamp doesn't light. Only lamp that lights up is if I connect to the port-replicator, a green lamp beside the release button on the port replicator lights up. That's all. So, there must be voltage coming from the charger. Could it be that the charger stops supplying voltage as soon as it meets recistance?

Do you have another AC around? The battery seems completely dead to me, and I think the AC doesn’t provide the sufficient voltage to the TP either. A few weeks ago I had an AC problem with my TransNote. It turned out that the AC carried only about 10 percentage of the total power to the TN. With the new AC it worked just like before.

Regards,
G-Man