T61p Battery and docking station issue

Hello. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced the following scenario?

I've had my T61p for just over a year now, the cycle count is 285 but the 6 cell battery has suddenly stopped working.

In short, I have a docking station at my desk and dock the machine on a daily basis. Today mylaptop shut down right after undocking. The second I hit the prong release button and pulled the machine up from the docking station it switched off.

I pressed the power button a number of times but it wouldn't power back on until I plugged the power adapter in. As soon as I plugged in the power cord the battery icon under the screen started flashing orange. I groaned, since this isn't my first Thinkpad and I know what that little blinky means. After my system restarted I noticed that the Lenovo Power Manager was giving me a standard "A battery error has occurred" message; however, the remaining capacity is at 100% (64.23 Wh) but the current is at 0.00A and Wattage is blank (just a -).

I only know a bit about electronics but this sounds like some sort of surge from the docking station. Maybe? I've had no power/capacity loss over time with this battery over the past year. It's been brilliant except for this...

What I'd like to know is
A) Has any one had this sort of thing happen to them?
B) Do Li-Ion battery's simply die abruptly when compared to older types of laptop battery's, which from my experience would loose power gradually in a slow trickily frustrating way? (Not that this isn't frustrating.)

 

Got the same issue with a 9 cell battery.
All was fine until now when put to sleep the laptop, undocked it, went straight home and coudn't start the laptop until plugging in the power cable.
Just the day before the battery was working just fine.

 

When you guys start your machines while plugged in, does Power Manager show next-to-no battery charge or full charge?

 

I am having the exact same problem with my T61p. The battery life wasn't that great....say a bit over an hour maybe 1-1/2 tops, but one day it just completely died, and now the indicator is flashing orange, only works on AC power, and the Thinkvantage power manager says to replace the battery.

I too, thought that when batteries go bad, they slowly hold less of a charge, but this one literally overnight bombed out.

I ordered a new 6 cell off ebay for $53 shipped. I was going to replace it anyway, so we will see what's up.