Z60m charge failure

[coolsa]

Hi Don't know if this has been asked before but i have a problem with a Z60m. My son took the battery out of the computer and it stayed out for a couple days before i realized that. however after reinserting it the charge light just flashes and doesn't charge. The battery was fine up untill that point and ran the computer for over an hour. please help.

Could the battery be damaged?
Could the charging circuit be damaged from running without a load?
If the Charge circuit is damaged can the battery be charged externally and which pins have to be used? although the battery should actually be charged up.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

From the sound of it, it appears to simply be a worn-out battery. I'm assuming that it's the original one that shipped from the factory? If so, then it's been in use for several years and it has finally gone to silicon heaven. If you have the Battery Maximiser utility installed on the system (battery icon in the System Tray), you can get some important information from the battery. Like when it was first used, the number of charging cycles it has seen and the full charge capacity. From that, you can usually determine if the battery is kaput.

While it's not recommended, I've plugged and unplugged batteries from an operating system (i.e., powered up with an AC adapter) and have only had one instance where something went wrong (I blew a fuse on the motherboard). As long as you install or replace the battery with the system off, there's should be no problems. You can also run the laptop without any battery connected and it will not harm the charging circuit as long as you don't accidentally short out the battery terminals. There is an external battery charger that you can use (requires a standard AC adapter). The FRU (part number) is 40Y7625 or 40Y7626. You can sometimes find them on eBay for under $30.

[coolsa]

I installed what i think is the battery maximizer software and it says the charge is at 88 percent.
Remaining capacity 31.88Wh
Full Charge Capacity 36.25 Wh
cycle count 288
Design Capacity 56.16Wh




windows reports battery installed 88 percent remaining not charging its been going down slowly for the past couple days.

[coolsa]

Also says no activity for status

[rkawakami]

Design Capacity = the amount of charge that it should provide when new
Full Charge Capacity = the amount of charge that it currently can provide

When the Full Charge is taken as a percentage of the Design Charge, you're looking at a battery that is about 57% through its life. 288 charge cycles seems appropriate for a battery that has that much life taken out of it. My suggestion would be to get a new battery or borrow a known good one and see how it charges. The Battery Maximiser utility will usually flag a battery as not usable if and when it determines that it can no longer be charged. Installing a different battery should answer the question of whether or not there's a problem with the charging circuit in the Z60m.

[coolsa]

After doing some research i opened the battery pack and measured the voltages. Each cell is reading between 3.94 and 3.99 with a total voltage of just under 12volts.

I shorted the battery positive directly to the output positive with a 12 volt computer power supply fan attached and it came on. unfortunately it didn't stay on as suggested in an online video.

i attached the battery back to the computer said a short prayer, shorted the output diret to the battery pack positive and pulled out the ac adapter.

The computer beeped to let me know the ac was off and stayed on. after a while i reactached the ac it beeped to let me know ac was back on and i removed the short.

Battery now reports 87% available plugged in not charging.

If i pull the ac adapter it dies instantly. and there is no voltage going to the battery from the computer