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

[Mark_Lenovo]

A limited number of ThinkPad users have reported the following symptoms:

• Irreparable damage or battery cannot be charged error message from Power Manager or Message Center
  OR
• Low battery capacity, as indicated by short battery run time or sudden drops in the battery fuel gauge

Only the following ThinkPad Models and battery FRU part numbers are affected by this issue:

ThinkPad	Battery FRU part number
R60, R61, T60, T61	42T4546, 42T4566, 92P1141
X60, X61	42T4550, 42T4567, 42T4568, 92P1169, 92P1173, 93P5028, 93P5030

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

[IBMweMissU]

Its amazing. Last week, the battery on my X61 7676-A24 suddenly stopped working, after 95 cycles, and less than an year of use. I came to the forum to try & find an answer, and saw Mark's message. I followed the instructions, downloaded the tool, was delighted that I was eligible for the replacement, filled in my address. An hour later, a UPS tracking number was emailed to me. 4 days later (which to me is incredible - I live in a small city in India), my replacement battery arrived, almost as if out of thin air. I am using it right now!

This is the BEST customer service I have EVER received, in over 20 years of using computers, for ANY kind of problem, from ANY hardware vendor, period. Lenovo, Mark, all of you rock. A few months ago, I was really unhappy (and said so) when TVSU was pulled - it was restored a few days later. And now this .... way to go Lenovo.

Just also like to add - I have owned quite a few laptops over the years, but the X61 is quite easily the best machine ever. Also, I was about to buy a few more laptops for my company - guess which brand I'm gonna buy now :-)

Mark, if it is at all possible, please do pass on my heartfelt gratitude to all who were involved in setting up this recall procedure, which was so smooth and painless.

Now, if somebody could issue a BiOS fix to enable 300 mbps on the X61

[seanzha]

You are just lucky

I bought my laptop on Sept.2007

And my battery's FRU Number is not listed

What can I do? buy a new LENOVO battery? forget it!

I just need something that can repair the battery for free. I hate to buy a new battery since I have paid much more money that other brand for the ThinkPad laptop than other brand.

Message Edited by seanzha on 08-14-2009 12:21 AM

Message Edited by seanzha on 08-14-2009 12:21 AM

[lead_org]

what is the FRU of the battery, brand, first use date and number of charge cycles?

Also is it the 4 cell or 8 cell battery? 

[bryanrong]

Mark,

I have a question here, my x61s battery ( bought Jan 2008) suddenly cant hold no longer than 15 mins since last month. 

I noticed there is a recall going on, however the diagnose program say i am not eligible. I double checked my battery FRU which is qualified. I believe it is a battery quality problem. please advise there is anything i can do to get a replacement for free.

thanks   

[seanzha]

lead_org,

Thanks for your replay. My english is so so, and I have corrected the mistake in my post.

My battery is original battery from Lenovo.

MY FRU Number, 42T4505, is not listed on the recall page. And the battery has been used for less than 2yrs.

According to Lenovo, they won't recall any battery which has been used for more than 1 year(warranty) and a half(extension).

But the problem is the quality of battery.

Now the battery is completely dead. Can't charge, can't discharge. Is that normal on any other brand laptop?

Sean

Message Edited by seanzha on 08-14-2009 12:35 AM

[seanzha]

Bryan,

Read the following t/c

page1, http://download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/batt/082009/LandingPage.html?lang=en

In order to qualify for a replacement battery you must meet the following criteria:

• The battery must have already failed due to the Irreparable Damage or Battery cannot be charged errors or have low battery capacity as indicated by short battery run time or sudden drops in the battery fuel gauge.
• The battery FRU part number must be on the list shown in the model/part list on this page.

page2, http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67765#qna

(using the Battery Verification Tool, it will direct to that page)

In order to qualify for a replacement battery you must meet the following criteria:

• The battery must have already failed due to the Irreparable Damage error.
• The battery FRU part number must be on the list support by the extended warranty shown in the model/part list on this page.
• The age of the battery must be no more than 6 months past the expiration date of the battery warranty.

Different page, different criteria. According to page1, you still have the chance. But I DO think Lenovo will say, it's outdated criteria, we have updated it.

But, anyway, it's still on Lenovo's web site, try your chance

[rembrandt]

Dear LENOVO Team:

It is nice that you provide a WINDOWS application but I DO NOT USE OR RUN Windows and still think I am affected. I own a 8-cell battery and it has enought power for like 70 Minutes (even the CPU is throtteled down and co) on my x61s. The battery is not that old yet thus I think I am affected by your battery recall.

You do have a Website where you even promote that LINUX runs on the x61s (you name a lot other OSs too) thus might it be able to you can make a test which boots either from a own small LINUX or FreeDOS except of providing a binary file I can not use (and still I am a customer and owner of a Thinkpad.... but I bought it without Windows).

How should people without windows proceedure now? Should we simply give the tech-support a call and tell them we where not able to test anything but "assume" that we're affected?

It would be very nice if you can clarify this for me and other users and owners of Thinkpads not using Windows.

I also noticed that my battery is not fully rechargeable:

$ apm
Battery state: high, 98% remaining, unknown life estimate
A/C adapter state: connected
Performance adjustment mode: cool running (800 MHz)
$

and if I unplug the power cable:

$ apm
Battery state: high, 98% remaining, 61 minutes life estimate
A/C adapter state: not connected
Performance adjustment mode: cool running (800 MHz)
$

So it's **bleep** kind of nothing for 8 cell.

My FRU is 92P1227 and it is NOT listed at the lists I saw.

But I can not check because I am not able to run your windows file at my OS.

Kind regards,

Rembrandt

p.s.

Somehow your CD-ISO for the BIOS flashing aint working too btw.!

It boots but is not able to read any further data (I assume because I use a USB-CD-ROM Device and you have no USB-Drivers thus making the FreeDOS unable to load any BIOS files. I tested serval different USB-CD/DVD-Drives and all failed thus it is a bug in your CD-ISO. Just in case nobody reported it. I created a bootable USB-Stick and solved it this way :-) )

There is a LINUX application you might should consider to support.

The application is called FlashROM and is from the CoreBoot guys. Making it possible to flash serval BIOS from serval vendors already from one small bootable linux CD.

www.coreboot.org but currently it's down for me.

[nowindows]

I second the message of rembrandt on the need for a solution for people who use Linux. My X61 is of type 7673 C26, made for Lenovo Singapore Pte Ltd. It came without OS. So it is reasonable to say that using Microsoft Windows is not a requirement.

My X61's battery developed the same symptoms described on http://download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/batt/082009/LandingPage.html : sudden drops in the battery fuel gauge. Its part number is on the list: 93P5028

I have been running Linux (Ubuntu) on this machine since the day I received it. I've tried using Wine to run the Windows program LenovoBatteryDiagnosticTool.exe provided by Lenovo on my machine, but it displayed an error: An internal program error was encountered. Please contact Lenovo (battery@lenovo.com) for help. Reference error code: -2147479279

My wish is that Lenovo provides an equivalent program for the Linux environment. Thank you.

[rta_x60s]

Hi Mark,

Any reason the ThinkPad X60s model was excluded from this recall? I have an X60s, model 1702, who's battery exhibits the behaviour described by you (i.e. shows "A battery error has occured. The battery cannot be charged .." message and doesn't hold a charge at all) but apparently it doesn't qualify for the replacement.

Thanks