[ltp] Re: T20 battery not charging or showing up?

[Daniel Pittman]

[... without credit to the original poster, ...]
André Wyrwa <a.wyrwa@gmx.de> writes:

>> I started it up the other day and the battery seemed flat, which
>> didn't worry me unduly. My plan was to transfer all data off it and
>> install ubuntu, which I duly did. I noticed while it was still in XP
>> that the battery didn't seem to have charged at all. Once I had
>> ubuntu up and running the battery indicator says there is no battery
>> present, and unplugging the power brings it to a grinding halt, so
>> there is definitely no battery power getting to the computer.
>
> sounds like your battery went into the afterlife. The symptoms you
> describe indicate that it doesn't hold charge anymore. Why this would
> happen after a year of non-use i have no clue, don't know much about
> the chemical effects within.

Well, the warranty on a new laptop battery from every manufacturer I am
familiar with is exactly one year.  That should give you some idea how
long they are reasonably expected to last. ;)

One problem that has been known to occur is that a completely flat
battery stops supplying any power to the "smart" parts internally --
which respond to this by becoming permanently catatonic.

That would likely also result in the battery being impossible for the
hardware to identify.

> I had bought an X20 off eBay with a battery like that and a lot of
> eBay actions come with batteries having the same issue.
>
> You could try to deep-discharge with a tool you can find on the
> IBM/lenovo support site. If that doesn't help, look into buying a new
> battery.

I suggest buying a "first party" batter as well.  My experiences, so
far, have been uniformly bad when it comes to third party batteries.

Regards,
        Daniel
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