Hey Lenovo Forum:

I'm having a battery charging problem that seems slightly different from any on this forum so far. I just acquired a T430 running Windows 7 (64-bit) like a charm. After a few issues with the audio drivers, everything has been running smoothly. 

Abruptly, yesterday, when I plugged it into the wall socket (the same socket that it had sucessfully charged on earlier) it failed to charge. Thinking it was the outlet, I tested it. The outlet and adapter are both working fine (the adapter powers the computer no problem with the battery removed from the system). The lock switch on the battery is in the propper position (i've tried both). The battery is not overheated (it's cool to the touch). I tried removing everything and holding the power button (apparently that discharges some built up charge in the system) then reconnecting the battery and AC adapter, nothing. 

I just downloaded the power manager which (when the laptop is, in fact, running off of AC power (the battery charge indicator hasn't draining in hours of continuous use) reads:

i have also tried reinstalling and updating the "Microsoft ACPI - Compliant Control Method Battery" driver in the Device Manager. Nada. 

In summary, the machine is fully functional when tied to wall power, but the battery won't charge. The only thing I have yet to try is using the Energy Manager to perform a battery gauge reset, which I'll try tonight (but hopes are not high). Am not really looking to replace a battery that's basically brand new and seems to be in otherwise perfect quality. 

On the off-chance that this is a helpful piece of information, I am using the power adapter to standard wall power in India. Don't think that should be an issue - the computer had no issues charing for a few days here and other devices have no issues. 

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

aaron

Moderator note: the thread title edited according to the body

Hi

Is your laptop model T430 or Z400 as in the thread title?

Is the battery new, from official Lenovo store or 3rd party store?

Hey x220forme,

Thanks for your response. Funny, you're right, not sure how that happened in the title. It's a T430. 

I'm not sure about the battery, I bought the laptop (battery included) from a 3rd party refurbisher. If there's any other info from the battery that would be helpful, please let me know.

Cheers,

aaron

Hey x220forme,

Thanks for sticking with this. I checked the battery charge mode in the PM. It was set to optimize battery lifetime (screenshot below). That could have been the issue (it claims the battery is currently at 50%) but upon trying the other settings (including full charge - charge at < 96%) nothing changed (although I only kept the other mode selected for a few minutes). 

Also interesting, when I tried to do a battery gauge reset, I got the message that the AC adapter needed to be plugged in - it was plugged in and functional at the time. 

Below is an image of the battery. I'd be really impressed if this is a knock off, but will absolutely deffer to your expert opinion. Thanks again for the help. 

Cheers,

aaron

Label titles match PM provides, haven't visible attributes of a fake, fortunately.
Battery p/n (FRU) is compatible with laptop:
https://download.lenovo.com/parts/ThinkPad/t430_t430i_fru_bom_20140722.pdf

This battery 70+ series was introduced with Lenovo T430/T530/W530 laptops.

So, the battery seems Lenovo genuin.

The message you've mentioned is usual, it's all right.

What I'd advice:
1. upgrade the BIOS if it's outdated (use package for CD for the safety)
2. select custom charge mode, set the start charge threshold less then current battery charge level for 4% and more (e.g.current= 50%, set 46 or less), save settings, unplug the chardger, plug in again.

I hope charging process will start.

Hey,

I don't have the disc with me - am traveling abroad and not really looking to mess up the BIOS. 

Tried suggestion 2 by itself - nothing, but an interesting idea. 

Thanks for your help!

aaron

Askrupp,

I think x220forme has given great advice here.

You can download the BIOS from our support site directly and update it without disks.

Before you do that, you might also try to just going into BIOS (Press F1 during a cold boot when you see the ThinkPad logo) and selecting "reload bios defaults" then save and exit.   This will re-write values in memory.

Another think you might try is to shut down, remove AC and battery, press and hold the power button several times.  Then put back in the battery and AC and restart.   

See if the battery will start charging after these changes.

at 11%, regardless of charging threshold for lifespan, the battery should be charging when plugged in.

Thanks!

I tried resetting the defaul BIOS from a cold boot: no difference.

I don't have easy access to wrieable CDs in the next few days, so won't update the BIOS version for a bit. If it means anything, the current BIOS version is:

BIOS Version/Date    LENOVO G1ET45WW (1.20 ), 8/7/2012

Thanks for both of your help, will let you know if anything works.

Cheers,

aaron