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    T500 battery charging woes

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by HankB, Oct 7, 2013.

  1. HankB

    HankB Notebook Geek

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    Hi folks,
    My grizzled old T500 has developed either a battery or charging problem. The charging state seems to be stuck at 22% with the charger plugged in and the battery icon at the bottom of the screen remains amber and flashing. With the laptop off and plugged into the charger, only the power plug icon is illuminated. (Normally both battery and plug icon illuminate with the laptop off.)

    If I remove the power connection with the system on, it goes 'power off' instantly indicating that there really is not 22% capacity available.

    I think this is a distinct issue fro the loose power connector where I need to frequently wiggle the power connection at the back ot the laptop to retain AC power.

    I'm running Linux and see the following information in the ACPI section of /proc:

    Code: 
    hbarta@cypress:/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0$ cat alarm
alarm:                   1541 mWh
hbarta@cypress:/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0$ cat info
present:                 yes
design capacity:         56160 mWh
last full capacity:      30820 mWh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          10800 mV
design capacity warning: 1541 mWh
design capacity low:     200 mWh
cycle count:		  0
capacity granularity 1:  1 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  1 mWh
model number:            42T4622
serial number:            8619
battery type:            LION
OEM info:                Panasonic
hbarta@cypress:/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0$ cat state
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charged
present rate:            0 mW
remaining capacity:      6630 mWh
present voltage:         11347 mV
hbarta@cypress:/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0$
    I see no obvious indication of the problem but perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me ...

    How can I determine if this is a battery or laptop problem? (Anyone in the Chicago area have a battery we could temporarily swap to test?)

    I have a drive with Win Vista I could put in if it would produce any better diagnostics.

    Many thanks for your help!
     
    HankB, Oct 7, 2013
    #1
  2. iCrazyNoob

    iCrazyNoob Notebook Guru

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    your best bet is try a new battery, seems like some cells are either completely dead or charging circuit have gone south.
     
    iCrazyNoob, Oct 7, 2013
    #2
  3. ajkula66

    ajkula66 Courage and Consequence

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    I'd say that it's most likely a bad battery.

    You're not going to get very far without testing the machine with a *known good* one.

    Good luck.
     
    ajkula66, Oct 7, 2013
    #3
  4. HankB

    HankB Notebook Geek

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    Thanks for the suggestions. Guess I'll start looking for a battery
     
    HankB, Oct 9, 2013
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  5. HankB

    HankB Notebook Geek

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    A replacement battery solved the problem.

    Thanks.
     
    HankB, Oct 14, 2013
    #5
  6. Bluebird20

    Bluebird20 Notebook Consultant

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    Great. Where did you get it from?
     
    Bluebird20, Oct 14, 2013
    #6