cf-28 flasking red light (again!)

I recently asked on this forum about a flashing red light on my cf-28 and was advised to change the battery. I did that and for a month or so all has been good.

Over the last few days that machine has been on a great deal, on mains power, and has got quite warm. Now the red light is flashing again.

Has overheating trashed my new battery, or is something else going on?

Any advice anyone.....?

Thanks

Tim

 

Heat might have something to do with it. There is a setting in the BIOS for high-temp operation, that from what I recall, limits the battery's charge to 80% of maximum. Of course, here in MI we look at that option and laugh!

 

Its not exactly warm here either - but the lid got closed and *someone* left the mail on top of it!

Tim

 

Well, no... what they're talking about in the "High Temp" operation setting is ambient temps above 110-120 degrees, if I remember... leaving it closed will not matter, as these units don't have an airflow to block. They simply use that great big chunk of magnesium as a heatsink... this includes the battery. I suppose it's possible the insulation factor of a pile of papers could contribute to the oven effect; but it's much more likely you just had a cell in your battery pack fail from normal use.

mnem
Pokey-Dokey!

 

I guess my real concern is that this is kind of history repeating itself - my last new battery also seemed to fail within a few weeks of buying it. I'm not over-joyed at the prospect of forking out another £50/60 on yet another battery if there is a problem with the charging circuit or with over-heating. But I'm not sure how I'm going to know otherwise....

Tim

 

A *new* battery did this? I would think you have a pretty persuasive argument with the manufacturer to replace it, free of charge.

 

Yeah, what he said. I can see getting a battery with one defective cell - it happens. But you should expect full warranty on new product. If your vendor doesn't want to take care of you, call the MFR. If they won't, then call your credit card & start a defective product backcharge proceeding... I guarantee you'll get their attention then.

mnem
Why do we keep electrons in cells? Are they guilty of some crime?

 

One thing to try: the pcb the battery connects to can be removed by taking out the two little screws holding down the silver bracket. If you have a soldering iron, reflow the solder on the major pins on that pcb. If you don't have an iron, just reseat the pcb and see what happens. Sometimes a lot of heat will cause the solder to crack and make the light flash or the battery to not work right.

 

Thanks for that ZeroFlight. I tried reseating the board and then watched carefully. The orange light came on, then after 30 seconds it turned green, went off, then went back to steady orange. It repeated this cycle about 4 time (with a period of 10-40 seconds), then started to include a quick flash of red before it went off. It then did about 2 or 3 cycles with flash of red, before going to the regularly flashing red with no orange or green.

Returning the battery to the vendor is not going to be possible. He says it was made by IBM and I should try them - however, there is no manufacturers name anywhere on the battery. It is labelled pa-cf48l which suggests its from Batterytech. I'm still not convinced that its not my cf28 thats causing the problem - since the last battery died on a similar timescale. That battery was a different supplier. OK I could have had a dud cell - but it happening twice seems unlucky!

 

The light sequence you mention is not one I've observed on my 28s, dead battery or otherwise. It might perhaps suggest a problem in the computer itself.

 

Usually a problem that affects the battery on a 28 (not being the battery itself) is either that pcb, the mainboard, or sometimes an EC update is necessary. You might be able to bum a pcb from someone else here and you should be able to download the EC update from the net. If it's not those, it's either the battery or the mainboard, either of which sucks.