Battery: sudden drop from approx. 2,5 hrs to zero.

[zoowalk0815]

Dear all,

The battery of my x61 (less than a year old) gives me a working time of approx. 6 - 7 hours.

However, since recently - at the same time my palm rest started to get uncomfortably warm - the battery drops when reaching approx. 2,5 hrs remaining working time suddendly to zero and I have to plug the computer on. Basically I can't rely anymore on the time stated by the energy manager. The battery is still in a "good" shape. Could that be related to the heat issue? Has anybody experienced something similar?

See also my entry at http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X61-second-fan-working-properly-How-to-check/t...

Many thanks for all your inputs!

Best.

[bananaman]

Hi zoowalk0815!

First check this post to see if your battery is affected.

Second your battery is still under warranty (one year) - call it in and get it replaced.

[zoowalk0815]

many thanks - i'll do so!

[zoowalk0815]

Dear all - apologies if this was already somewhere posted. My battery (about 1,5 year old) drops from approx. 50 % to zero.What is very annoying since I can't rely anymore on the the information provided by the battery display.

I checked the battery diagnosis tool - but it's not listed for replacement. Where can I find the FRU of my battery (sorry, that must be a beginner's questions)?  Any help?

Any feedback would very much appreciated.

Best

[zoowalk0815]

Hi - 

I have a FRU 42T4568 battery, my battery drops suddenly from approx. 50  % to zero, but still the battery testing programme of lenovo says that I am not eligible for a replacement. Is there something wrong with this programme. How can that be? Did anybody experience something similar? Many thanks.

[gosen211]

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zoowalk0815 wrote:

Hi - 

I have a FRU 42T4568 battery, my battery drops suddenly from approx. 50  % to zero, but still the battery testing programme of lenovo says that I am not eligible for a replacement. Is there something wrong with this programme. How can that be? Did anybody experience something similar? Many thanks.

---

do u have the symptoms as stated in the the notice by Mark, such as 'poor battery', or the error messgae pop up?

A tip for u to try out. Browse to Power Manager > Battery > Battery Maintenance > Battery Gauge Reset > Perform Reset.

later, try to run the diagnosis tool again and see what it says.

[zoowalk0815]

Thx - I did the recalibration (reset gauge) function. then a little bubble appeared saying my battery is in poor condition.

However, the battery symbol in the engergy manager is still green and says it's in good condition. very confusing.

[gosen211]

try restart the system and see if the power manage will show ur battery is in poor condition. Run the diagnosis tool and see whether eligible or not.

do u stil remember the battery capacity(in Wh) before and after the gauge reset?

[zoowalk0815]

Thanks for the reply. I ran the battery testing tool again after the battery gauge reset
- still it says the battery is not eligible for replacement.

The gauge reset resulted in a decrease of the batteries capacity from 74 to 52 Wh.

Power management says the battery is in a good condition.

But even now, the battery suddenly falls from approx. 50 % to 0 % within seconds.

This is not what i understand under  "good" condition.

Honestly, I really wonder why I should pay a considerable higher price for a lenovo

laptop if I've to bother with things like this.

The hotline told me the battery can't be replaced. Not happy at all.

[AGoodSolution]

The PCDoctor Diag CD has a Battery Rundown utility to correct the sudden battery drop issue and it was fairly well documented at thinkwiki.org:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Maintenance

They link to Lenovo's bootable CD version of the ut and it should fir your X.

Download the Lenovo ISO here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-56222

We had a dead X41t large cap battery which failed to charge past 52% and would die if taken off AC and solved it using the run down utility instead of chucking a $150 batt.