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T430s - battery vs. charger

T430-T490, T530-T590 Series
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Branflakes
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Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2021 4:41 pm
Location: Waterloo, Canada

T430s - battery vs. charger

#1 Post by Branflakes » Wed Jun 09, 2021 5:22 pm

Hi, Forum!

I've just acquired a new-to-me T430s, which came with a dead (Panasonic internals, as identified by Linux) battery. The machine boots fine on AC power, shows itself as charging (but only at 6V), but never actually accumulates any charge. Maybe one of the cells has gone bad?

Assuming the problem might just be a fully dead battery, I purchased a brand-new old-stock battery (which appears genuine). On DC power only, the machine boots and runs fine, and Linux identifies the battery as having Sanyo internals. Not concerned about that, since both Panasonic and Sanyo made Lenovo batteries.

On AC power though with the new battery, the machine will only power up for a few seconds (5-6 seconds at most, and then power down). The battery indicator light flashes green three times ('the charger has been plugged in'), will slowly flash 2 or 3 times ('the battery is between 20-80% and charging'), then flashes green three times again (like the charger has been disconnected and reconnected). There is no obvious problem with the charger, as the machine has successfully run for hours on the charger and no battery (i.e. not a bad connector), and I've tried it with two legitimate Lenovo chargers with the same behavior, and it's not with the DC connector itself (happens on a dock too).

What do you folks think? Have I had the bad luck to get two failed batteries, but failing in different and exciting ways? Do I have some kind of problem with the charging circuits? On the T430s, is that charging circuitry on the system board itself or on the separate DC jack board I've seen photos of online?

It also sounds like it could be vaguely similar to a problem reported by another user on this forum a few months ago.

mikemex
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Re: T430s - battery vs. charger

#2 Post by mikemex » Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:58 am

I suspect there may be something wrong with the motherboard. In the end, you've never seen it work properly under battery, right?
X301: SU9600 | 8GB | 1TB | WXGA+
X1C5: 7600U | 16GB | 1TB | FHD
X1C9: 1145G7 | 16GB | 1TB | WUXGA | WWAN
X1Y8: 1365U | 32GB | 1TB | WUXGA
P14s G1 AMD: 4750U | 32GB | 1TB | PG FHD Touch
T14 G2: 1145G7 | 32GB | 1TB | FHD

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