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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!
     
  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.
     
  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.
     
  4. HankB

    HankB Notebook Geek

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    Thanks for the suggestions. Guess I'll start looking for a battery
     
  5. HankB

    HankB Notebook Geek

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    A replacement battery solved the problem.

    Thanks.
     
  6. Bluebird20

    Bluebird20 Notebook Consultant

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    Great. Where did you get it from?