a20m battery woes?

[turbotoes]

Hello there all.
I've just been given an A20M that wont boot.
Should the thing boot without the battery in the bay? (Plugged into mains of course)
this one is as dead as a dodo without the battery, and not much better with
Symptoms are " error 0910 critical low battery" system shuts down.
would a dead cmos battery cause this?

thanks

turbotoes

[tfflivemb2]

According to your Hardware Maintenance Manual, the 0190 error refers to your regular battery pack, not the CMOS.

If your system is not booting without the battery then there might be a power problem with your system. Possibly indicating the the systemboard is going bad.

I recommend reading through the HMM listed above to see if you can find some more information.

One last thing...do you have the Battery Maximizer program running on your system?

[turbotoes]

thanks for the reply, all I've got is the laptop and its mains adapter. I realise the error applies to the main battery but just wondered with the total lack of life without the battery, perhaps it could the cmos battery after all.
The thing is totally dead with out the battery in place, but there is power coming through the mains adapter. I dont want to spend over 100 quid of the owners money on a battery if the problem lies else where, as now looks likely. hey ho

turbotoes

[tfflivemb2]

When you say that all that you've got it the laptop and the mains adapter, does that mean that you don't have a hard drive with an OS installed?

The reason that I ask is that I had a few TP600Es that wouldn't turn on with the battery attached. Installing the Battery Maximizer program solved the problem. Though, I find that strange that a software program could cause the hardware to not function PRIOR to the OS being loaded, but apparently the software program communicates with the BIOS or something because it solved the problem.

[turbotoes]

No, no, when I say "Just the laptop" I mean an entire "was working" now it's not, laptop. I can't say for sure if the battery maximiser thingy was installed or not, and as I don't get anywhere near a boot I won't find out anytime soon ( sad smile)

As soon as the Press F1 for set up message comes, theres a whurr, whurr, and then I get the erro 0910 and it just turns off, thats with the battery and power cord plugged (both ends) and if I remove the battery, it's as active as a flat black rock?
All the other lappys I've played about with have been fine to start without batteries, so I was not sure if this was just a foible of the IBM or a sign of some thing more sinister ( big sigh)

still lost

turbotoes