NEW Battery Tip - Applicable to some T, X, R ThinkPad models and batteries

[jkellen]

Same issue with the R61, but my battery, 42T4544, didn't make the list of crappy batteries.  My power manager shows a first used date of 1988-01.  How many time do you think this battery has been repackaged.

[Arne_be]

Just now this error happened here too with my Thinkpad T60.  My battery was already in bad shape and as the serial is listed in the replacement program, I ran the battery diagnostic tool already earlier.  No replacement it said back then, buy a new one.

I haven't done that, and kept using the battery.  Except for the loss of capacity, it worked fine.  Yesterday I installed the new Power Manager to run some Resets for keeping it as much in shape as possible and during the first reset the battery suddenly dies.   And the diagnostic tool gives an "unable to contact to server. Check your internet connection . Program version 1.5" error.  I run the tool as administrator with firewall and AVG disabled on a windows 7 32 bit professional.

As it seems there's something wrong with the software of the Power Manager, based on the fact that there are too many comments about this problem in this short period of time and that a battery just doesn't die like this.  Words spoken from an electronic engineer by the way.

Is there any official comment of Lenovo yet?

edit:

Battery:

FRU P/N: 92P1141

ASM P/N: 92P1142

Laptop:

Product ID: 2007W41

Type: 2007-CTO

S/N:  L3-xxxxx 06/05

Moderator Note; s/n edited for members own protection

[Arne_be]

Just called to the warranty and repair service and got nothing more than the machine is out of warranty (which I knew), buy a new battery.  Nothing, nada on the power manager thing and that the FRU of the battery is listed for giving these errors.

By now the cause of these symptoms should at least be known?  And a moderator can change my previous post (thanks for that), but not give any more comment on the problem?

[Arne_be]

Fine, next laptop won't be a Lenovo, nor will I recommend it anymore.  Great support job, keep it up.

[uflash]

Careful ATT you may loose your number one position as WORST CUSTOMER service provider! LENOVO is making a run for it! see Twitter, and FACEBOOK...the word is coming out! 

I'll give you 2 years to join Gateway Computers. Once an all mighty corporate go to maker, today? Well...probably most reading this post don't even know who they are!

Thank you so much for NOT resolving my Battery problem! 

[dan79]

Well lets review the item on the website, this might make them run faster!  They should at least tell us buy a new battery it should not happen again, or we are working on a solution.  I uninstalled the power management 3.5 and reinstalling it, that did not work.  Has anybody used the blue key to see if reinstalling everything to original condition of the laptop will work?

[uflash]

Hey!

What happen to the post indicating the system detected the battery being 20+ years old? if you are out there please post it again with a nice PIC. It reminded me the Y2K, maybe Lenovo had its own Y2K with the batteries. This is very simple to be created if a software error reset the clock of the internal chip. Example. There is an IC use a lot for single wire communications with a technology called I^2C. These are nice devices for battery monitoring since they allow you to implement serial communication, monitor the battery voltage, and they include memory. If for some reason Lenovo stamps these devices with the wrong date, the system will immediately obsolete the battery (hence the Y2K similarities).

Please post the date recorded and screen capture.

Thanks,

Joseph

[nithincherian]

Hi Mark,

I have been using my R60 Thinkpad since September 2006. It was working perfectly till last day when it suddenly died without giving any clue. I am looking for a solution or suggestion whether to buy a new battery to replace the current one or not. But it seems like there are many people with the same problem.

I have always appreciated Thinkpad laptops for teir productivity. I hope that i get a satisfactory response from the customer care sooner than later.

My laptop information are as follows:

Laptop Model: R60

Model Type: 9457-A59

Battery Manufacturer's name: Panasonic

FRU part number: 92P1139

Regards,

NC

[uflash]

Hello, I had pics but cant figure out even if possible to post them. After months of failures of convincing LENOVO to provide me with an answer of why my perfectly running battery just die overnight. I decided to perform a mini-failure analysis of at least the cells. I said mini because we are not dealing with temperature, humidity, etc. I basically broke open the battery pack (PLEASE DO NOT TRY IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! LITHIUM BATTERIES CAN GO BOOM! ) and

a) Performed a visual inspection looking for evidence of burned circuit, even tested a few diodes. (NOTHING)

b) In circuit reading of each battery yielded the following: (Note: Batteries are SANYO UR18650F)

Batt A (3.79 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal)

Batt B (3.77 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal)

Batt C (2.18 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal) BELOW NOMINAL!

Batt D (3.66 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal)

Batt E (3.69 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal)

Batt F (3.69 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal)

Batt G (2.76 V, Spec 3.7V Nominal) BELOW NOMINAL!

Notice Batt C and G are too low. Now, this could mean they are DEAD or discharge. I have to say that C is a bit too low for my taste.

So, I decided to recharge both batteries using a constant current of 100mA (3.7 V) for about 1.5 Hr. After the quick charge these are the readings:

Friday 8, 2010 Batt C: 3.533V Batt G: 3.637V

Monday 11, 2010 Batt C: 3.511V Batt G: 3.599V

No conclusions yet, but BAD cell don't hold charge this well. But lets give them a few more days. Like my useless governor will say "I'LL BE BACK"

NOTE: My external monitor output is dead too now hehe! so much for quality LENOVO! maybe I'm wrong but the screen shows reddish so I'm assuming is missing a color. Yes! the LCD is perfect, thanks 

[oldVermonter]

  My Thinkpad ROR must be a very similar machine to yours: model 9457-SKU.   I can't recall any serious problems ever since buying and receiving it in the first week of October 2006.  No problems, that is, until the past three or four days when the "battery error" message showed up, soon followed by 'fatal error, unable to charge battery' - and then the Power Manager declared "No battery is installed".  Soon after that, the taskbar icon showing the outline of a battery was replaced by the outline of an AC plug - which I took to mean "this machine REALLY thinks it has no battery."

  But that's not entirely true:  in Control Panel/ThinkpadConfiguration/PowerManager, the Power Meter tab correctly shows that there is a fully charged battery present, and even reads out the manufacturer.  It's only the Power Manager tab that persists in claiming "No battery is installed."

  And if I remove the battery and check its voltage, it appears to be fully charged (slightly more than 12 volts.)

  I bought a new battery, plugged it in, charged it for 10 hours - PowerManager still says "No battery is installed", despite -again - the Power Meter showing a 100% charge.

 Mark_Lenovo, are you still there?  This seems to happen with batteries from more than one manufacturer.  Is this actually a software problem, i.e.. with a new "upgrade" of the PowerManager module????

  If not, what's the procedure to to make the PowerManager "notice" a newly plugged-in battery???

Thanks,

   Irv in Vermont  (retired engineer & software developer)