T60 battery suddenly failed [ Edited ]

[Battery-Error]

I'll give it a try. Though... my battery is 100%, it always was charging, never any charging problem but since yesterday - it just SAYS it doesnt charge. Though at 100% if I deplug the power cable, the notebook turns down.

Message Edited by Battery-Error on 01-28-2009 12:03 PM

[rbell]

Actually, when these batteries act like this with that message there is no hope. The battery has failed completely and irrevocably. Something has died within the battery. As mentioned earlier in the thread, there are a couple Lenovo web pages with battery recalls that you can check to see if your battery is covered. I'm not sure if they are still active or not though...

Rob

[Battery-Error]

"not eligible" unfortunatly.

[rbell]

Not that this is great consolation for dealing with a premature battery failure, but right now the Lenovo Outlet has some great deals on 'scratch & dent' batteries. See http://stores.channeladvisor.com/LenovoOutlet. T-series batteries new for as low as $31.99 depending on model. Several folks on the ThinkPad mailing list have purchased these recently and they appear to be brand new. Not sure what qualifies them as 'scratch & dent'.

Rob

[xjessie007]

My guess would be that they could be refurbished? Someone return bad battery, they replace the guts and sell the battery as "scratch & dent". $32 is not a bad deal!

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Message Edited by xjessie007 on 02-04-2009 02:21 PM

Message Edited by xjessie007 on 02-04-2009 02:22 PM

[tw0611]

I bought this T60 on Feb. 2007, today , Feb. 17,2009, the battery suddenly died.. the customer service refuses to do anything for me and treated me like an idiot.

They explained it is most likely a software issue ... I am an engineer. I'm not an idiot. Why will LENOVO treat me like one?

The name of customer representive  is Kary P. 

Note from Moderator: Removed Lenovo employee identifying information per the forum rules.

Message Edited by JaneL on 02-17-2009 10:01 PM

[yilmaz101]

I have 2 T60s I use at the office, a T61 of my own and my dad has a R61. On both T60's the batteries have died with about a month interval between them. When the first  one died I was able to apply for a replacement as part of the recall. When the other one went bad a month later the recall had been stopped and there was nothing I could do. The computers were a part of 180 unit shipment purchased by the organization where I work, and even though  both batteries and laptops had consequtive serial numbers lenovo preferred to treat them differently. When the first battery went bad I ran the applet that checks the batteries and it popped up an order form which I filled and got a new battery in a week. I ran the same applet on the other T60, on which the battery was working at that time and was informed that it was not a part of the recall. That battery went bad about a month later and by that tim the recall was limited to x60s. Here I have two T60s bought on the same day, whose batteries failed within a month of each other and while one was covered in the recall the other was not.. Anyway about 2-3 months after that my T61 battery fails, and I am like what the heck. Anyway it is now in the service depot, awaiting a replacement since it is in its first year of warranty. My dad's R61 has two batteries that have yet to have any problem. Oh by the way all of the T60 and R61 batteries are SANYO's which are supposed to be ones prone to failure. The T61 has a SONY unit. What gets me is that the Sanyo's failed after 2 years of use with about 300 or so cycles in them while the Sony failed with less than 30 cycles on it.

Having ranted about my story here is what lenovo has to know.....

The recall on the sanyo bataries were ended prematurely, it is not like you got all the defective units out there, heck I have one sitting in my drawer. I want to know what the decision tho end the recall was based on, did lenovo actually get back all the defective sanyo units out there?

[Saiboogu]

---

yilmaz101 wrote:

The recall on the sanyo bataries were ended prematurely, it is not like you got all the defective units out there, heck I have one sitting in my drawer. I want to know what the decision tho end the recall was based on, did lenovo actually get back all the defective sanyo units out there?

---

Agreed. I just encountered the same problem on a Sanyo battery in a Z61m. According to the Power Manager the battery is only just over two years old (manufacture date) though only in use about 18 months. And only 283 cycles. I accept that I'd have some capacity loss in that period, but to have the battery suddenly die without warning and find out that there was a recall that I've missed.. That's ridiculous. Heck, the power manager was "smart" enough to tell me I'd lost a few percent of capacity a few months ago, and I sure should buy a new $200 battery from them to replace it. Never even realized until now that the new one they were pitching was higher capacity anyway.. No wonder it could give me 10% more life. 

Anyway, it just seems sneaky that Lenovo clearly has the technology in place to know what battery I have and give me a sales pitch about upgrading, yet they made no effort to let me know that my battery was under a recall for sudden failures. And here I am with a two year old battery with an already expired recall.. How's that work? Was it a month long, or something ridiculously short? I'm dissapointed in Lenovo - I bought this machine because I heard the hardware was good and they were good to their customers. 

[ljmartin]

I would like to raise another possibility....

Background: I encountered this issue a week ago - T60 will not power up without AC power, will shut off immediately when unplugged, flashing amber battery light, and battery charged to 100%.  Message "Irreparable damage to the battery has been detected.  Replace the battery with a new one" shows in the battery gauge.

I've ordered a new battery, but, in the meantime asked our Deskside folks if they would have a battery I could borrow until it comes in.  This battery worked for 1 cycle, then it has started to do the same thing!   Note - this 2nd battery has not had any issues reported with it.

Could this issue be caused by the machine, instead of a defective battery?!  Has anyone had the issue happen with two batteries on the same laptop?  I guess my only recourse is to wait for the new battery to arrive, and we'll see what happens then.

Thank you!

Note from Moderator:  Please don't post the same message in multiple boards/threads as it splinters the discussion.  Duplicate(s) removed.

Message Edited by JaneL on 05-14-2009 05:45 PM

[rbell]

After replacing the failed battery in our T60 the system has worked without issue for almost a year.  I've also never heard of repeated failures being mentioned elsewhere (such as the ThinkPad mailing list that I'm a member of).  It is certainly possible your system has a different issue that is frying batteries...  all I can say though is that your situation isn't typical. 

Rob