600E Battery LED stays on

[ohthinker]

Hi, I did a search and I *think* I know what this means but I'm hoping someone will say "don't sweat it." :-)

I recently picked up a used 600E in cosmetically nice shape. However, it arrived (unexpectedly, but we won't get into that) with a stone-dead battery. I tried charging it for about 8 hours with no apparent effect.

So I bought a used battery on Ebay (I know, used is a bad idea, but I hadn't yet read the warnings here). The seller said it had the measured AH capacity of a new battery. And indeed it does seem to have plenty of capacity.

The problem is that the 600E's battery LED never goes out, even when I unplug the power puck. When it glows "I'm full" green, I pull the coax plug, and the LED stays on green. A few hours later, it turns amber (remember, this is with the charger disconnected). Plug in the power puck for a while, and the battery LED turns green again. But it's always lit, either green or amber. Never goes out.

This can't be a deliberate feature (find your computer in the dark?) because it would be a waste of the battery charge for it to glow all the time - right?

Is this a DC:DC problem? How serious is it? How tough is the DC:DC board to change? Does it make any sense to try component level work on the DC:DC?

Thanks for any info you can provide. I'm a newbie after some occasional lurking for a few weeks. I hate it when my first post is a request for help, but I hope that I'll be able to help someone here eventually.

[tfflivemb2]

Welcome to the forum!!

The indicator light will always be on as long as there is a battery installed, and the Thinkpad is on.

Green means that it is fully charged, or in the beginning stages of using the charge (roughly 90% or better).
Amber means that it is charging, or using a charge (roughly 90% or less).
Flashing amber means that the battery doesn't hold a charge.

The indicator light remains on, to allow the user to know the status of the battery.

[ohthinker]

> The indicator light will always be on as long as there is a
> battery installed, and the Thinkpad is on.

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry, I should have stated it more clearly. The LED stays on even with the computer turned off.

At first I thought I had just put it into suspend, but it's definitely off. Pressing keys and moving the trackpoint doesn't turn it on. It powers up only with the power switch on the side, as usual.

The battery LED is always on, either green or yellow, any time the battery is in the computer.

[ohthinker]

I just discovered that by removing the battery and replacing it, I can turn off the LED with the power off.

As soon as I plug the power puck back in, though, the LED comes on. And it stays on, even when I unplug the power puck. This is with the computer OFF.

Weird, no?

Thanks again for any suggestions or thoughts.

[tfflivemb2]

OK, if it stays on AFTER removing the AC adapter, and the Thinkpad is off, then there might be a short or something...weird.

[Steph69]

I bought a new battery (from china) recently and it seemed to act weird showing 3hr 10secs later showing 1.35hr then 2hr, then i had the light stay on after i turned the laptop off like yours. The next day i went to pick up the laptop and the battery fell off !

Ahh here is my problem put it back in locked it, plugged charger in but this time no lights at all ?

My problem was resolved by re seating the battery *VERY* firmly while locking it, as aftermarket battery's are not a perfect fit.

[ohthinker]

This one is an original IBM-branded battery, not rebuilt, so fit shouldn't be an issue. But popping it out and snapping it back in does turn off the LED, presumably because it resets something.

However, as soon as I plug the power puck back into the computer the battery LED comes on - as it should - and then when I unplug the adapter from the computer it STAYS on - as it shouldn't.

I'm going to try cycling the battery - that is, running the machine until I get the yellow blink, and charging it back up. Maybe that will shake some sense into it. ;-) If it's still acting up then ... well, I'll be back in the hopes that somebody will have some idea of how to fix this.

Thanks to all who've responded so far!

[tfflivemb2]

If you cycle it, make sure to turn off the timers, so that it completely resets itself.

[rkawakami]

Sounds like it could be a problem with the motherboard... having the power LED on while the system is supposed to be shut off is not normal. From your first description of the power LED first being green and then "hours later", it changes to orange usually means that the battery has drained so much that it requires recharging.

It's almost like the laptop is NEVER really powered off until you pull the battery. To me, this could indicate a problem with the power conditioning circuitry on the motherboard OR you have enabled Windows to put the laptop into "standby" when using the power button. Bear with be for a minute while I enter pseudoanalysis mode...

- How are you shutting the system down? In other words, what is the process you use to turn the system off (Windows Start button or the power switch).

The reason for this strange question is that if Windows has been set to enter "standby mode" when pressing the power button, it can act just like you have described. If the system is put into standby mode you cannot use the trackpoint or any other keyboard key to wake the system up, except for the "Fn" key. You can also wake up the system by pressing down on the lid switch for a second and then releasing it. Pressing the power button, shouldn't do anything, unless perhaps, you hold it for several seconds.

The power LED will remain lit as the system is still partially "on". There should also be the "sleep" power icon lit as well. When you pull the battery out that kills power to the laptop and exits standby mode. Putting the battery back in shouldn't do anything (no LEDs or laptop activity). Plugging the AC adapter back in should cause the battery icon to re-light. But here's where my analysis breaks down: I believe that removing the AC adapter at this time should make the LED go OUT. If I read your description correctly, you said that the power LED remains on, as if the laptop still believes it's "on".

So, if you ARE using the power button to shut down the system, check your Power Option Properties windows. If not, then sorry I wasted your time reading this .

[ohthinker]

If you cycle it, make sure to turn off the timers, so that it completely resets itself.

(Scratches head) I guess I don't know what you mean by "turn off the timers." Sorry. Could you explain in one-syllable words for an ignoramus (me)?

Sounds like it could be a problem with the motherboard ...

Do I hear the strains of "taps" in the distance? :-(

From your first description of the power LED first being green and then "hours later", it changes to orange usually means that the battery has drained so much that it requires recharging.

That's what I thought too. A typical small LED's forward current is, what, maybe 10ma, tops? Eight hours would be only 80mah, about 1/40 of the battery's capacity. So where's the charge going? Or is something fooling the circuit which tries to judge state of charge?

t's almost like the laptop is NEVER really powered off until you pull the battery. To me, this could indicate a problem with the power conditioning circuitry on the motherboard OR you have enabled Windows to put the laptop into "standby" when using the power button.

I could see that, but I don't think it's going into standby. This beastie came with an unactivated copy of XP home (which is going away soon, to be replaced with the OS the machine was born with, 98SE). I always shut it down from the start menu (only OS I know of that you stop with a start button). I get a dialog menu asking if I want to standby, shut down, or something else. I always choose shut down.

The power LED will remain lit as the system is still partially "on". There should also be the "sleep" power icon lit as well.

The sleep LED is not lit - just the battery LED.

[rkawakami]

(Scratches head) I guess I don't know what you mean by "turn off the timers." Sorry. Could you explain in one-syllable words for an ignoramus (me)?

'kay. Turn off all op sys flags for disk spin down and screen time out and sleep modes. How's that?

Multii-syllablic answer:

Open up the Power Management Window and turn off (specify "never") for all events such as display, hard disk spindown and sleep/hibernate mode. That way Windows will stay powered up until the battery is exhausted. You may also have to change BIOS settings to insure that the system fully drains the battery.

I generally do not do this under Windows (even Safe Mode). I use PC Doctor for DOS battery rundown utility to cycle the battery. It's safer because Windows is not running, therefore no disk files are open when the power gets cut off. As a specific version of PC Doctor does not exist for the 600E, you should be able to use the version for the 600X, as long as you only execute the battery rundown utility. If you don't want to fool around with PC Doc, then the best thing to do is boot into Safe Mode and leave the system on.

So where's the charge going? Or is something fooling the circuit which tries to judge state of charge?

If it's only a couple of hours before the battery LED changes to orange, then either the battery is not up to snuff or the laptop is drawing power at a level that it usually does when the system is on. As you indicate that you are shutting it down with "start" and the sleep LED is not lit, then it seems to me like a motherboard issue.

[whizkid]

You might also try running the battery completely down. Find a bootable disk with something taxing on it... like memtest86. Boot that, start it running and unplug it.

Let it run until the machine turns off.

But my hunch is that you've got a board failure. If the battery run down doesn't help, I'd try replacing the sub card, then perhaps the system board.

Get and read your HMM (see the FAQ) and do the power system checkout.

[ohthinker]

I'm tentatively waving the victory flag here.

For a while I thought the old girl was ready for the hospice. I did a full discharge (uh, that's a battery discharge) Saturday night, by running the bios diagnostics until the machine shut down. It didn't take long - just a few minutes.

Then I plugged in the power puck, and things got weird. The battery LED flashed yellow, then glowed steady yellow, turned green, turned yellow. Then it went back to flashing. Then steady yellow again. This lasted a few minutes. Then it went off!

I pulled the power plug and tried again. Same thing, except that this time it alternated between flashing and steady yellow for a while, then went off again. This didn't look good.

I got distracted for a half hour or so. Then I looked over and darn if the battery LED wasn't glowing steady yellow again. A few minutes later it was off again. Eh?

I figured "nothing to lose," so I left the machine plugged in overnight. Sunday morning, the battery LED was a nice, bright, solid green.

So I ran a discharge again. Fired up the bios diagnostics, ran a few of them (it flunks the modem test, btw, but I'll deal with that later). Then I left the machine sitting on the bench and started working on an OS reload on the T20.

Looked over about an hour later and there it was, still ticking along, the battery LED still smiling green. Finally after about an hour and a half, I ran the bios disk test. It got through that OK, but about 10 minutes later the yellow flashing started and I shut it down.

Plugged it in, and things looked much more normal this time. Batt LED flashed yellow, turned green for a second, then went steady yellow and stayed that way. Several hours later, it turned green again.

I fired up Windows, turned off all the timers (thanks to tfflivemb2 ;-), and let the bright colors sit there on the screen. Now and then Mr. Gates would tickle the disk (looking for contraband, I suppose). Once in a while I clicked around a few folders.

Granted, this wasn't a very strenuous test - I'll try rkawakami's suggestion of PC-doctor later - but more than two hours went by and the battery LED was still green. I finally gave up trying to run it dead; it's getting late.

The battery's now charging back up, with a nice steady yellow glow. And lo and behold, when I pull the power plug, the battery LED goes off just the way it's supposed to.

Problem solved? I'm not 100% sure yet, but things are definitely looking up.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. You folks are great! I'll post another update later this week, after I've cycled the battery a few more times.