CF-29 Battery Charger Problems

HI All,
My new/used CF-29 has decided to not charge batteries properly and I may be the cause. I need your expertise. Up till now the charger and the indicators worked exactly as expected both with the main and aux batteries.

A couple of days ago I noticed that both chage indicators by the handle were not illuminated. The timing roughly corresponds to when I plugged in the aux battery to top off the charge. I did this while the computer was still powered up. This may be a no-no but the documentation I have does not seem to indicate that it is or I missed the warning.

With either the main or both batteries installed, the computer works both when plugged into the AC adaptor or under battery power but the charge indicators are off in all cases. The power indicatior and power switch works normally. If I bring up the power options screen it indicates that the main battery seems fully charged but the aux battery is in a discharging state and it continues to sag. I think the main battery is getting charged in spite of what the indicator is telling me.

Does anybody have any ideas? Did I blow something up when I plugged in the aux battery? Is there a fuse or breaker that could be involved?

I have the bottom off the machine but without schematics and documentation I'm working blind.

Thanks for your help, Sparky

 

HI All,
After the events of last night, I should remove this thread from the queue. My CF-29 is now working. All it took was a wave of a magic wand (Harry Potter model) and a liberal sprinkle of magic dust (Tinkle Bell Family Size pouch). Shazzzaaammm!! Problem fixed!!

Other than removing the bottom panel and giving a high mag examination of everything I could see, I did NOTHING (other than the magical devices noted above ). I left the computer unplugged from the AC adaptor with the batteries removed for the day. I came home from work and reassembled the computer, installed the main battery, plugged in the AC adaptor and the charge indicator came on. Great start.

I let the main battery fully charge, shut the machine down and installed the aux battery. Its charge indicator came on. The battery was down to about 50% so it took a while to fully charge, but fully charged it became. Success?? It sure looked like it.

I have no idea what caused the original problem. I wish I did because now I don't know whether I should trust the machine. I will continue to test and watch.

I am writing this post under battery power.

BTW, after it looked like the problem was fixed I installed 512 megs of KIngston RAM. This had nothing to do with the problem.

Everyone have a wonderful Thankgiving. Go Cowboy's.

Sparky

 

A lot of 29's have a problem with the battery/hdd connector circuit/cable for some reason. It can cause some strange problems including yours though I wouldn't put it past something related to the battery.

 

Zero... Do you work for Heartland??? You and Toto live in the same state!

 

Once upon a time I did and even have a lot of the part numbers and manuals buried somewhere for the 27, 28, 29, T2, W2, Y2, T4, W4, Y4, 18 and a bit for the 30.