Circle with 'Z' indicator light

[flx00]

I'm new to lenovo/IBM products.. what does that light mean? It's the one between the hardisk and battery light.

I can't find a description for it anywhere.. it's bugging me!

Cheers for any help.

[andyP Community SuperMod]

flx00, welcome to the forum,

it means that your system is turned on.

For example; if you have a screen blanker and hit the On button thinking that your sytem is off, depending on settings you can turn the system off or send it to sleep etc. If you see it is On then you know your screen blanker is also On and should move the pointer or hit "any" key to remove the blanker and resume normal service immediately.

Hope this helps.

[flx00]

I was about to say "isn't that what the battery light is for".. but it makes sense. Since the battery light will stay on if the power is plugged in but laptop is off.

A clever but confusing little light. 

Cheers andyP. 

ps.

I'm only just starting to enjoy this laptop (x200t) since I've had all sorts of problems with it in only two weeks. That'll teach me to purchase a product fresh off the product line. Even the IBM engineer (who came to replace my wireless card) advised me in future to wait 6months before buying any product as this is when the bugs are still being discovered. - heh

Message Edited by flx00 on 11-26-2008 02:43 PM

Message Edited by flx00 on 11-26-2008 02:44 PM

[andyP Community SuperMod]

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flx00 wrote:

A clever but confusing little light. 

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Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that "confusing little light" has been there as long as ThinPads exist. Just like that annoying little red / green / blue / yellow / orange light on your TV or HiFi letting you know it's on, or in standby.

What would we do without them?

[jonlumpkin]

The battery and power light are seperate because they can have different states.

You can turn your machine on without the battery (z light is on, battery light off).

You can charge your battery with the machine off (battery light orange/green, z light is off).

 Also, the battery light has several different states.  It is solid green when charged, or discharging.  Blinking green when it is almost charged. Orange when it is charging or almost out.  This can be a little confusing at first, but once you get used to them you will appreciate having all those little lights.

[intax]

I bought a used T21 with an intermittent blinking orange battery light.  The battery was described as minimal (by which I assume it has a useful charge of about five minutes), so I use AC exclusively, but the blinking light is puzzline.

[Maliha Community Moderator]

Hi and welcome to the forum intax,

The HMM (pg. 45) details following:-

"Blinking orange: The battery needs to be charged when the indicator starts blinking orange, the computer beeps three times."

On ThinkPads, the blinking orange light stays until the battery is charged over 5%, however for you it's not able to go beyond this percentage (even though the Power Manager might say otherwise) is probably because of the age of the battery and notebook.

Hope this helps.