ThinkPad T61 (6459-CTO) Battery failure with only 48 cycles.

[Sieze]

Well as the subject states. Battery will not charge. And its only been fully charge and discharged 48 times based on the power manager statistics. 

Here's more info on the battery:

Full Charge Capacity: 28.90 Wh

Voltage: 5.62 V

Cycle Count: 48

Manufacture name: SANYO

Manufacture date: 2008-03-10

First used date: 2008-03

Part number(FRU): 42T4504

Device Tech: li-ion

Design capacity 56.16 Wh

Design voltage: 10.80 V

And now some info on the actual system:

Machine name: TP-W7

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120330-1504)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: LENOVO
System Model: 6459CTO
BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBLx
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 2014MB RAM
Page File: 1505MB used, 2523MB available

Ok so I recently acquired this laptop that I'm on now from a friend when I got the battery wouldn't charge I figured it was just flat dead. But after installing power manager the program reports "The battery has failed do to normal wear. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery."

now I really don't have the money to buy a $140 replacement battery for this laptop. And I'm not going to risk buying a cheap battery off eBay or Amazon. Is there any way I can override the program to see if I can get some charge into the cells? Or do I have to continue being stuck to a tether with the AC adapter.

Any help is VERY MUCH appreciated as it kind of ruins the point of having a laptop if you have to keep it plugged in everywhere you go.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

its first use date is more than 4 years ago, it probably failed due to the age of the battery.

There is no program that i know of to override the battery error, as there is an actual controller chip inside the battery.

[Sieze]

Well that's a very good possibility yes. And as for the chip I'm aware of that its a circuit board actually and its there to make sure the battery doesn't over charge or over dis-charge as both would be very bad with a lithium ion battery. But surely there is a way to bypass the what appears to be a safeguard. I'm sure the battery has some life in it still but the battery is preventing its self from being charged to prevent damage to the device "random shut off do to sudden voltage spike or drop something like that" so before I continue to ramble my point being I don't see a definitive barrier preventing a override to be possible except of course for legal reasons. 

So I  Sieze Declare that all damages if they come to my device or to my person or persons around me do to the battery or the device exploding or failing catastrophicly take soul and entire responsibility for the incident(s) if they occur. And in no way is anyone other than my self, Sieze. At fault for my doing...... Yea I'm no legal expert or anything but basically I'm saying I'm not going to sue anyone if I blow off my finger or something and that's for various reasons.

Don't think I needed to lay out the statement but hey all I want is to get my battery charging to atleast some point to where I can atleast have it off the AC adapter for a minute or two for transport to another outlet.

[TuuS]

You can fix this...  but at your own risk. I'm not going to post a link in the public forum, but I know of a chinese company that has original controller boards for these batteries. If I recall they cost about $9, but if you have a defective cell, you might fry the new controller and I don't know of a conclusive way to test each cell before rebuilding the batteries. You can test them for voltage and get an idea, but it would be nice to be able to test their full charge and amp under load as well as their temp when charging. These controllers contain a thermal fuse that melts at a certain temp. Others have tried to buy replacements for this device to repair the controllers, but the manufacturer won't sell them unless you're a bulk buyer (thousands or more). They don't want to encourage people to do something risky and perhaps burn their house down, which is a real risk if you're not careful. 

If you want the contact info for the chinese company you can send me a PM and I'll try to get it for you, but I think you'd be better off getting a new or used genuine battery, or a generic that is made by a legitmate manufacture, not one that has been imported illegally like those often sold on ebay and other websites.

Regarding the cause fo the failure, the cycle count can be meaningless. Many people don't cycle the batteries. If you use them on ac power all the time they still get wear n tear but never get cycled. If you want to prevent this you can set the charge threshold so charging doesn't occur until the battery is below a preset level. I have mine set so it won't charge until it reaches 50%, then it stops at 90%. My cycle count is 1 and I've used the battery for a couple years. Yours probably had a good long life and failed because of an overheated condition of failed logic circuits. 

[Sieze]

OH nice . But however that would require I muck up my battery and I'm not the best at soldering so id probably fry out the circuit board soldering the wrong wire somewhere x_x. I REALLY appreciate the help its very useful information to know but however I'm going to have to think about weather or not I Will be willing to break out my tools to seemingly attempt a tedious repair.