X31 Battery Monitor Not Working

[mayhews]

About 2 weeks ago the battery monitor on my X31 stopped working. Battery Information indicates ERROR for the status of the battery, although the battery (while far from fresh) works just fine.

Initially I couldn't use the machine on battery at all because it will hibernate the second it was brought up from standby on battery power. I eventually figured out that I could disable hibernation, and found that I could still get the usual hour or so out of the fully charged battery.

Is this a motherboard problem, a software problem or a battery problem? I don't want to buy a new battery if the motherboard is the problem. IBM was, of course, no help because it's long off warranty.

Any help would be appreciated.