T500 battery not charging nor providing power to system.

[sergio037]

Hello,

I am new to this board and I thank everyone for your time and any recommendations you give me regarding this issue.

I have a Thinkpad T500 laptop that originally had a broken LCD. Prior to this issue the laptop worked great and the battery charged and worked normally on Vista 64bit. Removed covers and replaced LCD with a T500 LCD complete panel and that was it. LCD worked great, no issues. I decided to upgrade system to Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit) before testing or checking to see if system was working fine using battery only. I have performed all the updates available from Lenovo and Windows that apply to this system including bios upgrades.

The system detects the original lenovo battery (6cell) 95% battery life at 97% charge all information indicates that the battery is good and still has plenty of cycles to go before becoming useless. Battery would not charge either under bios, under Ubuntu or under Windows. I bought a new 3rd party battery to test if it was a bad battery. New 9cell battery get detected all information is as expected and the battery charge is at 55% charge and 99% life. I performed the same test to try to charge it, no luck.

Another issue is that the batteries have some charge in them but when I uplug the power supply the system just shuts down. I have removed the batteries with power on and reset them (everything behaves normal, like what you would expect). I have tried to turn on the system with just the battery but it does not work. The battery icon does not even come on. It is like the battery is not there. It only gets detected while plugged in. I even have tried removing the cmos battery to see if that worked. I have also tried uninstalling the Lenovo's Power Manager software and let Windows take over. I have also deleted Microsoft's ACPI - Compliant Control Method Battery as posted on other posts.

Does anybody know how to test the battery leads to the motherboard or has any other suggestions for this issue. It is a great machine and it would be a shame to not be able to use it as it was intended.

I thank you beforehand for your help and advice.

Sincerely,

Sergio037

[Serge1410]

hey sergio037,

welcome to the forums,

since you mention Ubuntu and Windows, i'm guessing your unit is under a dual-boot system.

would it be possible for you to have Windows only installed and then try again ?

try with and without the Power Manager installed.

[sergio037]

Thank You Serge1410 for your response.

Sorry for not clarifying the part about Ubuntu. On one of the forums somebody suggested running Ubuntu from the CD to see if the Operating System (Win7) in this case was to blame. I ran Ubuntu from CD but did not install on the system. I let it run for one day and monitored the battery for any signs of it charging, but it did not work.

I have also tried without the Power Manager installed and it is a no go.

Thank you again for your time and suggestion(s).

Sincerely,

Sergio037

[Mornsgrans]

Following possibilities can lead to your problem:

• non-functional power supply (even the voltage is 20V but under load the power supply breaks down) - try annother power supply
• two faulty batteries (replacement batteries have a high failure rate - i read about a dozend threads the last quarter year, where two batteries - original and new replacement - were faulty) - try to replace with a borrowed original battery
• while replacing the display "someting" went wrong (a connected power-source, static load etc.) - measure the fuses on the system board (resistance = 0 --> OK)
• the controller chip for managing battery load is blasted - check all small chips between/near  DC-in and the battery connector whether they are undamaged.

[richk]

I have seen 2 T500 mother boards with similar problems.  I have one setting in a pile on my bench so I can try to diagnose.  My guess is that the mosfets (power transistors) related to battery input are trashed.  I wil try to get to trying to fix it next week.

[hcommin]

Did you ever get to the bottom of this?

I'm having exactly the same problem after removing a broken touch panel from my X200 tablet. Although it's still under warranty, screen damage apparently wasn't covered, so I pulled out the cracked panel just so I could view the LCD screen properly... and now neither of my batteries are providing power.

Unfortunately the laptop belongs to my employers, so I'm under some pressure to repair it urgently!

[Bernard86]

Hello hcommin,

I'd really like to know how you fixed it? Could you do it yourself or did you have to send it back?

The reason I want to know is I'm experiencing the same problem and I thought I first ask it here before I do something crazy

Regards,

Bernard

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doorlopend krediet

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

@Bernard86, check whether your Thinkvantage Power Manager recognises the battery, and see whether there is any battery error on it.

[tripplec]

I read on another thread about a firmware update for the batteries from someone from Lenovo. I have never heard of firmware in a battery before. I have been around as well. That was a new one. I did not see that listed anywhere though.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

Lenovo battery do have firmware, but usually don't need updating.