IBM 600X BATTERY PROBLEM

[postysteve]

Hi to everybody my first time on here, i have a IBM 600x laptop which works fine, my problem is the new battery i've just purchased it does not seem to be charging it ? i purchased it to use as a spare my other battery charges ok so i know theres nothing wrong with my laptop, is there something i should be doing for my laptop to recognize the new battery or do you think that the new battery is faulty?

i would be grateful for any help.

Thanks

[BillMorrow]

the battery SHOULD be "plug and play" so to speak..

is it a true blue IBM/lenovo spare..?
if so, and it does not charge where the older battery DOES charge, get your money back or get a replacement..

and if it is NOT a true blue IBM/lenovo spare get your money back and get a true blue battery..

ray, one of the mods here, has extensive experience with the 600 series..

welcome to the planetwide thinkpad community..

[postysteve]

Hi , Thanks for you reply, i suppose thats what i get for buying on ebay from hong kong, it said it was compatible with the 600x and is brand new.

Regards

[rkawakami]

Hi! I'm the "Ray" that Bill was referring to . There's a couple of other mods here that probably have more experience with the 600 systems than I do so you may want to hang around in case I totally mess it up...

I haven't played around with the 600X for some time but I have purchased "after-market" 600 series batteries off of eBay and they have worked fine so far. They are labeled "PLATO PTIB-600" and are supposed to be 5000mAh capacity. While I'm slightly skeptical about that figure, the batteries do charge and run the system for a couple of hours. Additional details about them are here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 756#354756

When you say that the battery doesn't charge, what is the power LED on the left hinge of the 600X doing? Is it blinking, steady and what color is it? How long are you letting the battery charge and are you running the laptop during charging?

Before going the product return route, you could try this:

- assuming that the battery has enough of a charge to run the system, discharge the battery by leaving the 600X on until it shuts off by itself. The easiest way to safely do this is to grab a copy of PC Doctor for DOS for the 600X and execute the Battery Rundown test. Details about getting this program is available here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30115

- the Perform Battery Rundown test is in the Utility section of the program. It essentially executes various system and motherboard tests while keeping a track of the time that has elapsed. When the battery is depleted, the laptop will shut off.

- with the system off, plug in the AC adapter and allow at least two or three hours for it to charge. Make a note of what the power LED is doing during this time. If/when the battery is recharged, the LED should be a steady green.

- boot PC Doctor, select the Battery Rundown option, but run the "Show last execution time" test. This will give you the time that the system ran during the previous discharge. Make a note of that time and repeat the Perform Battery Rundown test.

- do this discharge/charge sequence at least three times and see if your run times are improving.

[postysteve]

Hi Ray, the light on the hinge is flashing orange there is no charge what so ever in the battery as i said it's brand new so there would not be any but i cant understand why its not charging it ?

the plug icon in the bottom right hand tray is also not showing the "electric bolt" across the plug like it usually does when the battery is charging ?

i will have a look at that pc doctor and try the battery test ? i'll let you know how i get on.

thanks

[postysteve]

Hi Ray, downloaded pc doctor on to a floppy put it in restarted but all i got was a black screen with a little flashing bar in the top left hand corner nothing else happed

i check the file on the floppy before hand and there was 9 files in program

[u.mac]

Hi Ray, downloaded pc doctor on to a floppy put it in restarted but all i got was a black screen with a little flashing bar in the top left hand corner nothing else happed

i check the file on the floppy before hand and there was 9 files in program

You have to download the exe-file to hdd, start the *.exe from hdd... this 'automatically' expands the files to floppy - then boot from floppy.

[postysteve]

sorry i should have given more detail i did download to hdd before i put it on floppy? it shows 9 files on the floppy

it's still the same black screen with flashing bar doing nothing

[pkiff]

the light on the hinge is flashing orange there is no charge what so ever in the battery as i said it's brand new so there would not be any but i cant understand why its not charging it?

Usually the flashing orange light stops flashing and turns solid when you plug it in. If you can't get the orange light to go solid and your laptop works fine with your old, dead battery, then the problem is likely either a bad connection or a bad (new) battery. I have found that sometimes just pulling out the battery and re-inserting it can fix a poor connection (rusty/dusty/loose contacts).

Phil.

[postysteve]

Hi well i've left the laptop power adapter swichted on with the laptop off for a few hours to see if it charges?

all that time it was on the light has and still is flashing orange i disconnected the power adapter and switched the laptop on well it has charged the battery but it is not registering a charge if you go into power options then power meter it says running on battery and says total battery power remaining : Unknown

then under that it shows that battery but its blank showing 0 %

so it is charging the battery just not registering or showing it

i have wrote this message while on battery and it is showing a blue battery in the right hand tray but when you put the mouse cursor on the battery it says unknown remaing.

i have told the person i got it from in hong kong that it is faulty but they dont know that it IS charging?
They have asked me to send it back and they will replace it free of charge so what should i do send it back and hope that the replacement is better than this and take the risk that it does not go missing in the post or just keep it ? so what should i do ?

[rkawakami]

Hmmm, difficult decision it is...

It's possible that the circuit board inside the replacement battery pack is bad or incompatible with your system. Here's what I found a couple of years ago:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 732#191732

If you can manage to get the PC Doctor program going then it would make things easier, but you can still rundown the battery yourself. I'd do that and re-charge the battery for a few hours at least two more times and then see if your laptop still reports "unknown". Who knows, maybe after a couple of discharge/charge cycles the smarts inside the battery pack might start working right.

If your old battery charges fine and the new one charges despite the blinking orange LED, then there should be nothing wrong with your 600X. Could continuing to use and charge the new battery cause any damage to your 600X or to the battery? Don't know, but it would be operating in a non-standard way.

If you decide that you don't want to keep the new battery and since you are probably looking at a fair amount of money to ship it back to Hong Kong (and insure it for loss if you are worried about it getting there), I'd think hard about asking for a replacement (which could also be incompatible) instead of a refund.

If it were me, I'd ask for a full refund of the original purchase price (including the shipping charge) and negotiate to cover half of the cost to return the battery to them. Since they've already told you that they would send another one out at no cost to you, it would potentially save them some money. That way you'll both be out a couple of $$$ (or €€€) and they would probably get a positive feedback from you. Of course you'd still be stuck with trying to find another replacement battery but it least you know what to avoid. Speaking of which, what, if any, are the part number and manufacturer's name on the battery?