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Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:12 pm
by Heisenberg
Hey all,

I have a T430, which I have had for only a month or so. It will randomly go into hibernation, and when I restart it, it says it did so because of a "Critical Battery." The most recent time this happened the battery indicator said I was at 94% battery life. I have had this happen a few times in the past, but at those times the battery was lower (20-30% so I thought it may be falsely thinking the battery is critical). I did a battery reset, through the Lenovo battery manager, but the critical battery hibernation still occurs. The battery manager says the battery is in good condition, so no problems there.

I am stumped as to what the problem may be. There is no apparent reason for the computer to go into hibernation, it just seems to do it at random, regardless of what percentage is displayed on the battery life gauge. It isn't overheating, as I have been monitoring all temps on the computer. So, do any of you have any idea what might be the problem and how I can address it?

Re: Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:46 pm
by Cigarguy
Is this a genuine Lenovo battery or aftermarket? I got an aftermarket battery that will, on occasion, return a "critical battery" error even though the battery is fully charge. A couple of times Power Manager come up with the message that there is no battery installed even though the laptop (X61T) at the time is running on the said battery. Taking the battery out, holding the power button for about 1 minute, and reinserting the battery resets everything.

Re: Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:10 pm
by jayton4
Heisenberg wrote:Hey all,

I have a T430, which I have had for only a month or so. It will randomly go into hibernation, and when I restart it, it says it did so because of a "Critical Battery." The most recent time this happened the battery indicator said I was at 94% battery life. I have had this happen a few times in the past, but at those times the battery was lower (20-30% so I thought it may be falsely thinking the battery is critical). I did a battery reset, through the Lenovo battery manager, but the critical battery hibernation still occurs. The battery manager says the battery is in good condition, so no problems there.

I am stumped as to what the problem may be. There is no apparent reason for the computer to go into hibernation, it just seems to do it at random, regardless of what percentage is displayed on the battery life gauge. It isn't overheating, as I have been monitoring all temps on the computer. So, do any of you have any idea what might be the problem and how I can address it?
Do you use tpfancontrol?

Re: Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:23 pm
by Heisenberg
Is this a genuine Lenovo battery or aftermarket? I got an aftermarket battery that will, on occasion, return a "critical battery" error even though the battery is fully charge. A couple of times Power Manager come up with the message that there is no battery installed even though the laptop (X61T) at the time is running on the said battery. Taking the battery out, holding the power button for about 1 minute, and reinserting the battery resets everything.
It is a genuine Lenovo battery. I may try what you did.

Do you use tpfancontrol?
Yes, I do. 90% of the time I leave the setting on BIOS, but I like to use it to monitor the core temp.

Re: Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:51 am
by jayton4
Heisenberg wrote:Yes, I do. 90% of the time I leave the setting on BIOS, but I like to use it to monitor the core temp.
There is a known bug in tpfancontrol v062 that causes exactly what you are describing, but not typically in BIOS mode. The bug is fixed in the new v063 that was just released a couple weeks ago. I would give that a try first.

Re: Shutd down due to "Critical Battery", even after charging

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 3:58 pm
by Heisenberg
There is a known bug in tpfancontrol v062 that causes exactly what you are describing, but not typically in BIOS mode. The bug is fixed in the new v063 that was just released a couple weeks ago. I would give that a try first.
Hmm, looking into this more, it sounds like this is my issue. I never really paid much attention, but when it would randomly go into standby it may have been in smart mode.(sometimes I forget to change it when I turn my computer on, since it's default is smart mode on startup) I just downloaded v063, and I'll be back if it happens again, but I doubt it will. I appreciate the help!