NEW Battery Tip - Applicable to some T, X, R models and batteries -- x300 issue

[Charged_up]

I  started having the same kind of error message on my X300 for my auxiliary batteries about a week ago:

<<Battery 2: A battery error has occurred.  The battery cannot be charged.  Replace the battery.>>

I have two 6-cell auxiliaries (FRU 42T4522) and one 3-cell auxiliary (FRU 42T4518).  (I do a lot of work away from outlets.)  When I ran the Lenovo Battery Diagnostic Tool on each of the batteries, the response (at http://download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/batt/082009/Unaffected.html?lang=en) was: 

<<Your battery is not eligible for replacement because it is not one of the affected battery FRU part numbers.>>

It seems unlikely that all three auxiliary batteries failed at once, since they were all fully charged and had never posed problems before.  They do receive reasonably heavy use -- across the three of them, probably 10-20 hours a week.

Battery 1 (the battery screwed into the bay) continues to work fine.

I am running Windows XP.  Any ideas of what could be causing this?  Or are Lenovo batteries like gingko trees, which turn bright yellow and drop all their leaves on the same day?

[x61suser]

This is very frustrating.

What I am most surprised about is that not a single developer has stuck his neck out to either stick up for the job he is doing, or provide technical information for what is occurring. If indeed the batteries are working just as Lenovo intended, it is implying 1 of 2 things:

1) Lenovo employees responsible for fabricating the hardware that can relatively accurately determine remaining charge of a battery have failed  (batteries dropping from 75% to 0)

2) Lenovo employees responsible for creating the high level software that simply interacts with the above hardware have failed.

Either way, this reflects very poorly on a lot of people, and I am quite surprised that no one cares enough about their personal reputation to set the record straight.

On a related topic, has anyone noticed that Microsoft had to publicly respond that Windows 7 has had nothing to do with the weird battery failing behavior many consumers are experiencing today? What in the world is going on??

[chifly]

There is another thread in the Forum on Abnormal Battery Failures that also references the frustration of Lenovo owners relative to improperly manufactured batteries that fail prior to the end of their useful life.  You should also read and comment on that thread - although I would caution you to not just copy and paste your sentiments, but restate the issue.  (The Moderators do not condone mass-produced negative sentiment.)

[JaneL Community SuperMod]

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chifly wrote:

although I would caution you to not just copy and paste your sentiments, but restate the issue.  (The Moderators do not condone mass-produced negative sentiment.)

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The Moderators do not condone mass-produced messages of positive, negative or neutral sentiment since duplicates just clutter up the forum with redundant threads.  Thinly disguising duplicates with a few changed words usually doesn't fool us.  Encouraging others to flout the forum guidelines is... discouraged.

[MKaram]

The purpose of this thread is a simple list of those who are affected by the "sudden battery death" situation which can be identified by a battery suddenly failing to charge. While this may be considered duplicate information, there isn't presently an easily-discoverable thread where a visitor would know to post. I would ask that this not be merged so that others coming here looking for information might add themselves to this list.

There have been voluntary actions on Lenovo's part (not the same as a recall) to replace [b]some[/b] of these batteries. Depending on the FRU of your battery, your opportunity window may have been closed.

Particularly, there have been reports of this sudden failure on the current FRU 93P5032 which is not qualified for replacement at this time.

If you have been affected, please post here with the battery FRU as well as the approximate date of failure and the cycle count (if you know it)

Ex:

FRU 42T5251

October 2009

[hjnormey]

Mine failed aprox a week ago.-

I must say I am aware Lenovo is taking steps to resolve this reasonably as you well say, even with those users not strictly included in the recall, such as in my case, given the FRU below...

FRU 93P5032
Cycles: 630
Manufacture date. 24/08/2007
Serial: 1ZDG278R04S

[kash007]

Battery on my X61 tablet failed suddenly in 10/2009. Battery was manufactured 2/2008 and first used 5/2008 and only had 161 cycles. I was getting 6-7 hours battery life one day, and then suddenly battery error the next day. FRU is 93P5032 and is not being replaced free of charge by Lenovo.

[chifly]

Battery Failure on 11/28/09

FRU 42T4507

CTO6365 XP Pro
4 GB Ram 80G HD

[rabilancia]

Failure in early November 2009 last month.

X60 Tablet PC: 63668KU

battery:

FRU p/n: 42T5206

ASM p/n: 42T5207

Failed with exactly 100 cycles

[RossJohnston]

Failure December 8, 2009.

Worked fine the day before and was dead in hte morning.

X60 Tablet PC 6365

Battery:

FRU p/n: 93P5032

ASM p/n: 42T5209

aq`Failed at 9 cycles