[ltp] Further In My R31 Battery Issues

[Ted Frater]

Simon Royal wrote:
> Hi
>
> Brief history: Bought R31 which came with dead battery about two weeks 
> ago. Bought a second hand battery from ebay, reputable seller of 
> laptop parts. Guy said battery lasts about 90 mins.
>
> Today: The replacement battery arrived today and it has been 
> struggling to charge all day.
>
> When I first put it in it did not register. It took about 5 mins 
> before the machine recognised a battery was there.
>
> Earlier today I could only get the battery to charge to 27% and it 
> took about 20 mins to do so. Then it sat there for a while then 
> suddenly charged to 33%. It sat there for a few hours and went up to 
> 35%. I then ran the battery out completely and started charging it 
> again. It charged to 37% and stopped.
>
> If I pull out the adapter in Ubuntu, it will hang the machine - 
> flashing the caps lock and scroll lock lights. The same happens if the 
> battery runs too low - this I have been told is a kernel panic.
>
> This doesnt happen in XP. You can remove the power adapter and put it 
> in and it accepts the AC adapter.
>
> I have noticed something very odd. It charged to 37% according to the 
> Battery Maximiser Gauge. However, I have been running it for about 30 
> mins and the percentage hasnt dropped. The little battery icon in the 
> task bar of XP warned me it was low about 20 mins ago and is sitting 
> with a crossed out battery stating 0% remaining.
>
> So Battery Maximiser Gauge still says 37%, but task bar says 0%.
>
> While it is great that I actually have my ThinkPad running without an 
> AC adapter and running for quite a while, I have no idea how long this 
> battery is going to last and no way of finding out.
>
> What is going on? I cannot trust either meter. Do I need to 
> recalibrate or something. I am not bothered how long the battery lasts 
> but it would be good to know how long it is going to last. I would 
> also like to get this working in Ubuntu.
>
> Can anyone help.
>
> Simon
>
> -- 
> --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal.
>
> --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1
>   
>
>
we had an after market battery in a thinkpad that worked fine till we 
decided to upgrade the bios. Then the lthinkpad wouldnt charge the battery.
 so we then downgraded the bios to the previous version and the battery 
worked fine again.
 so check what version bios you have, The previous owner may have 
upgraded it from the original.
 However downgrading the bios needs a good battery see IBM's notes on 
bios changes,