Serious Charging Problem with A31 - Any ideas?

[underclocker]

FYI-

I have an A31 (2652-3CU) that is in perfect condition except for a serious charging problem.

When the adapter is plugged in, the A31 thinks it's on battery power and when it's running on the battery, the A31 thinks it's on the adapter.

Also, when I remove the battery and just use the adapter, sometimes the A31 thinks that a critically low battery is installed, it produces an IBM error and then shuts off. Sometimes the machine boots fine with the adapter, shows no battery installed correctly but will go through cycles where it beeps as if you removed the power and it was on battery. Then it will beep again as if you inserted the adpater power. This is with no battery installed and without touching anything. It just sits there beeping as if someone is unplugging and plugging in the adapter.

I've tried every troubleshooting trick I can think of, but I think I need a new system board (or as IBM like to call them, planar).

I also have an A30, so I can recharge the battery. This is also how I know all the other parts are good, the adpaters and batteries work fine with the A30.

I've done the following:

-newest BIOS
-newest embedded controller (note: both the bios and the embedded controller would only update with the adapter unplugged!!!, as I said, on battery power, the A31 thinks it's plugged in.)
-tried another battery and an ultrabay 2000 battery with the same result
-tried removing peripherals including CDC modem, ethernet, etc.
-tried other memory
-completely disassembled the laptop down to the system board and it still happened with only a keyboard attached (need keyboard to turn on A31)
-reconnected everything and the problem remained

Bottom line, the A31 is mint except for this problem, it is out of warranty and IBM wants about $500 to fix it (that's the estimate from 1-800-IBM-SERV).

Any experience or ideas?

Thank you in advance.

[pphilipko]

its probably a hardware problem...best thing to do, IMHO, is to send it to EasyServe. Remember to ask whether they have the mb ready...you wouldn't want to wait 2-3 months...

[underclocker]

Um...to clarify, any experience or ideas that might fix this without sending it in for service?

For $500 plus what I can get for my A31 as a parts machine, I can buy a new computer. (Which would include USB 2.0, WiFi, etc.)