X32 won't start up on battery

[tdreitlein]

Newbie question here. I bought a used X32, it has worked just fine for a month. The other day I found I was unable to start it up on the battery alone without the ThinkPad being plugged in. Nothing happens at all. Until that point there was no trouble with start up on battery alone, and the battery lasts about four hours. It is completely charged. After the X32 starts up I can remove the AC power and run on the battery for the usual full amount of time. It just won't start up on the battery. I can unplug it immediately after pressing the start up button with no problem, and it continues to boot normally. Any thoughts?

[Ken Fox]

This would be a wild guess, but my first thought is that something is amiss with the electronics in the battery itself. One thing you could do would be to start the machine up on AC, then unplug it from the wall, then go into battery maximizer (click on the green battery tray icon with a percent in it, assuming you have this icon to click on, otherwise open battery maximizer from your start menu). Click on Battery Information.

If the information you get is bizarre or uninterpretable, that would support my idea. Alternatively you might get some information from the Windows battery information application accessible from the control panel, but I don't know how reliable that would be.

If your battery electronics are fried, and if the battery is out of warranty (generally 1 year) then I think you will need to replace the battery if you rely on starting the machine when it is unplugged.

Just to not overlook anything obvious, you should have a look at your bios, be sure it is the latest one (from sometime in 2005, I think), and you might consider loading "setup defaults" just in case something got changed that is interfering with your laptop's ability to communicate with the battery, or that prevents booting up from battery power.

[tdreitlein]

Hi Ken, thanks for your suggestions.

The battery information while running on battery power was normal looking. I updated the BIOS to the latest one, and loaded the setup defaults as you suggested. No change. I am also unable to return from hibernation on battery power alone. Should I just try getting a new battery? The thing lasts four hours, and is reported as healthy. Thanks again.

[Ken Fox]

Hi Ken, thanks for your suggestions.

The battery information while running on battery power was normal looking. I updated the BIOS to the latest one, and loaded the setup defaults as you suggested. No change. I am also unable to return from hibernation on battery power alone. Should I just try getting a new battery? The thing lasts four hours, and is reported as healthy. Thanks again.

My standard X32 batteries do not last 4 hours; is the battery one that was made by/for Lenovo/IBM, or is it a knockoff? If it is a knockoff that happens to have more juice to it, perhaps the electronics are not compatible.

I can't tell you what to do; I have never experienced this sort of problem with my X32, my former X31, nor any other of my Thinkpads. If you knew someone else with an X3x laptop whose battery you could borrow, that would be a free way of evaluating this because if their battery had the same problem as your battery, then I think we could toss the idea of it being the battery itself that was at fault and think more about the problem coming from the laptop itself.

[tdreitlein]

My standard X32 batteries do not last 4 hours; is the battery one that was made by/for Lenovo/IBM, or is it a knockoff? If it is a knockoff that happens to have more juice to it, perhaps the electronics are not compatible.

I can't tell you what to do; I have never experienced this sort of problem with my X32, my former X31, nor any other of my Thinkpads. If you knew someone else with an X3x laptop whose battery you could borrow, that would be a free way of evaluating this because if their battery had the same problem as your battery, then I think we could toss the idea of it being the battery itself that was at fault and think more about the problem coming from the laptop itself.

Thanks again Ken.
The battery does not appear to be a knockoff. The X32 recognizes it as FRU part number IBM-92P1096, cycle count 293, remaining capacity 46.13Wh. I wish I could find somebody with an X3 battery near here, but I'm pretty isolated in the countryside.

I don't have the X3 ultrabase, but I understand you can put an Ultrabay2000 battery in the ultrabase. I do have one of those batteries from my R40, which I know is good. Can I boot from the ultrabay battery in the ultrabase alone, with the main battery removed? If I could do that, that would probably identify the culprit as the X32 battery and not the laptop. I may be able to pick one of those X3 ultrabases up cheaply. Turning into a bit of a mystery. Thanks for all your help.

[x32eje]

I too have just experienced this switch not working on battery scenario. My X32 has worked just fine up until today. The battery provides power to run the laptop after I unplug the AC but will not start while the AC is unplugged. Here is the kicker. I have an ultrabase for it and if I take the battery out of the laptop, put the laptop in the base, and put the battery in the ultrabase, the laptop turns right on without the AC. Put the same battery directly in the laptop and nothing. I don't think it is the battery at all.

[Ken Fox]

This is probably unrelated but might be worth checking. Using System Update I have noticed two instances of the same or similar battery management programs being loaded on my two older design laptops, the X32 and the T43. I ended up with two of those big green battery tray icons as a result and then uninstalled those programs and later reinstalled through system update, ending up with only one instance the 2nd time around.

I think it is unlikely but maybe there is something that effects the battery electronics if you have accepted these programs from system update and ended up with a couple of them. I mention this because this has been a recent change in my system related to downloading the Lenovo software that I then removed. Perhaps if you don't remove the duplicate or similar program you could get a problem such as this?

I just started up my X32 on battery power and it worked just fine.

Another possibility is that we have two people in this thread with defective batteries, a possibility I would not rule out given the age of the laptop in question and the number of machines and this sort of battery that are out there.

[x32eje]

I have always had 2 battery icons in the system tray. One is a Microsoft battery icon and the other is IBM's battery icon. I didn't do any software updates on my laptop right before this issue started. The switch work fine even after the last round of updates that I did a few days ago. I will try to uninstall the 2 battery management items and see what happens.

[tdreitlein]

I bought a new battery from Lenovo and there is no change, same symptoms. I don't think its the batteries. What could it be?

[x32eje]

New battery does not fix the problem for me either.

[teetee]

Maybe you can try:
1. Remove battery
2. Remove AC adapter plug from laptop
3. press power button for a couple of seconds
4. do nothing and wait for about 5 seconds
5. put the battery back
6. press power button for a couple of seconds, and see if the computer powers up.

[mitchellst]

It's your motherboard. I've seen this before.

[Ken Fox]

It's your motherboard. I've seen this before.

merde

[agri]

The X31 I use for GPS and GIS work has a start-up problem exactly the same as tdreitlein's and x32eje's. By all indications my two batteries are both good. My X31, however, will not start with either battery in the laptop alone, even when the battery has a full charge, but it will start in the ultrabase with any charged battery in the ultrabase with no AC connection. It will always start on AC power and will run on battery power if AC is immediately unplugged, even before the boot process is completed. Also, like tdreitlein's my system will not ever recover from hibernation by the start button, it will, however, immediately recover from hibernation when the laptop's lcd is closed and reopened.