Catastrophic failure of T61 battery w/property damage

Just want to share the details of a T61 9-cell battery which burst destroying a T61 and a second T61 sitting beside it:

The particular T61 has been packed up in a bag (unused) since 2008. I use these for business and kept a second unit on-hand as a spare.

I pulled out the spare T61 to update some software and, not surprisingly, the battery (9-cell) was identified as "fair" in the power management app. I figured this would be a good time to cycle the battery with the calibration feature. I started the calibration just before going to sleep.

I woke up this morning only to find that the battery being calibrated had burst spilling an oily substance throughout the machine and onto the (wood) desk. The substance spread out onto the desk and underneath the second T61 sitting beside it. The substance is viscous enough that it worked its way into the docking connector on the second T61, despite the "feet" which raise the unit from the surface it's sitting on.

Both notebooks are a complete write-off and the surface of the desk is badly damaged.

Just FYI.

I know I shouldn't have let the battery sit like that, but I don't think it should have burst, either...

Battery FRU is 42T4511 with Toshiba cells (Japan) and assembled in China.

 

Hopefully, you have homeowner's or renter's insurance. If you file a claim, you should be able to pay the deductible and get replacement value for your lost equipment and furniture.

 

That's underway.

Just fortunate that the failure was ruptured cells and not a fire.

 

What's the best way to prevent catastrophic battery failure from happening? Use the battery from time to time or just keep it unplugged from the unit if you don't need to use the battery for a while?

 

do you have a picture? Such thing should not happen and do you have pictures of these damaged cells.

The liquid you are talking about is the electrolyte, which is a gel like substance.

 

pictures ?

 

Gotta see pictures of this one...

 

could it be one of those on the recall list? i know there have a few global recalls on batteries a couple of times

 

I wouldn't mind seeing pictures of this too ... we have a T61 in the office, but it is used almost every day.

Never heard of something like THAT happening....

 

Yuck. Perhaps it was physically damaged?

Besides, I remember reading that nowadays 'battery calibration' is unnecessary nonsense anyway?!

 

lol it should be against the rules putting catastrophic failure thread and no pictures.

I know Dell had a huge battery recall a few years back, did it ever affect Lenovo?

 

Methinks this smiley is applicable to the situation.

Hmm ... I seem to remember there was a T43 battery recall....

 

Lenovo had a recall on some T61 batteries. The first test software they released said mine (gave it to my SO when I got a T400) was okay. the updated test software (which apparently broadened the recall) said it needed to be replaced; a good thing, since that battery lasted about 11 months before being flat dead. Lenovo shipped out a replacement, I got it within less than a week.

EDIT: I should add that the recall was due to problematic cells from Sony, which affected a number of major laptop vendors. It wasn't a falling-down on Lenovo's part.

 

Sony and Sanyo batteries recall affected the entire industry much like nvidia gpu failure.

 

Yep. Only difference being that (IMO) nVidia would have swept their issue under the rug if they could have gotten away with it, something they have done in the past with some of their earlier broken tech. Having owned a Geforce 6800 (broken Rev. 1 PureVideo hardware) and nForce 3 and 4 chipset mainboards with broken hardware firewalls. I experienced it firsthand.

 

Sorry for not providing photographic "proof" of this claim, but I'm not of the Facebook generation and snapping photos in an emergency is not my first reaction to a situation regarding LiOn electrolyte spattered all over my equipment (cleaning up the mess is). My insurance adjusters took care of all of the documentation, and Lenovo has been gracious enough to receive and inspect the equipment irregardless of my warranty period - to include appropriate overnight return packaging sent direct from China suitable for weapons-grade U238.

I provided this information simply as a reminder to respect LiOn power sources, regardless of manufacturer or origin.

I have no agenda against Lenovo and have purchased two new T510's (on my dime for time-being) to replace the T61s. I believe in their product and don't fault them for this (rare) failure mode of the battery (manufactured by a 3rd party). My original post was carefully worded to contain "just the facts" and devoid of any emotion or assignment of blame.

My post was simply informational. Nothing more, noting less. I have no further "proof" to provide. Make of this what you will.

Looking forward to my new T510's...

Jeff

 

lol chill out, it was meant with 100% sarcasm. When I saw the title...I thought your house had burned down or something lol

 

Jeff,

I don't think anyone doubted you. We just wanted to see the carnage is all.

 

I wanted a picture of it, because this is a first time i have heard about burst Li-ion that did not involve sort of explosion or fire. I don't doubt the event, but just like to see what it looks like.

 

+1 me too

 

You may not be from the facebook generation, but surely you are from the financially & legally responsible and knowledgable generation, such that you would have taken a picture of the problem, not for reasons of boasting in social media, but for liability or claims purposes.

Therefore you should have a picture no?

 

Same.

I've had MacBook batteries fail in interesting ways (bulging, smoking), but I've never seen a Li-ion/LiPo battery leak as was described.

Either way, I hope you get it all sorted.

 

and I wanted to see torn apart T61 from the explosion ... I mean cracked CPU, missing resistors on the main board, hard drive partially open trying to spin up and down ... but all that holding inside the beautiful cage of the thinkpad T-series

 

Whatever -- Nothing was "torn apart" (and I never claimed as such, nor claimed an "explosion"), to include the battery. The electrolyte leaked (or vented) through the battery from somewhere near the power connector and into the chassis, with enough pressure that some of the electrolyte managed to emerge between some of the keys on the keyboard (and saturate most of the innards). The electrolyte resembles mineral oil in consistency, viscosity, and order/color (none).

No, and I had no need to, as the adjuster is the only individual I need to "prove" anything to, and he was sufficiently armed with a camera.

I apologize for bringing this to NBRs attention -- disregard.

 

I dont think people are doubting your claim. Rather the community is interested to see the pictures for curiosity's sake.

 

Smellycant said it right, that and nothing else.
Axatax, you looked at our questionaire from the wrong side
Its always interesting to see what abuse or accidents ones gadgets have survived or not, to learn more about them and their potential risks.

 

axatax, I did read what you said happened from your first post, no need to explain it twice (or more times) ... I was just trying to insert some humor into the whole thing as many people said why they wanted to see pictures.

sorry you didn't get it, no disrespect or anything .. hope they fix it for you.

 

Sorry if I was too reactionary - and all parties involved (esp. Lenovo) have been more than accommodating and I'm confident this will be made right.

 

Good to see Lenovo is quickly taking care of this mess. Do you have any additional details (if any) regarding where you stored the battery/laptop and under what conditions, e.g. heat, pressure, etc? Just to educate others under what conditions they can leak like that.

 

The T61 that was my "daily driver" traveled with me for three years from my home in Florida, to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, being charged or plugged into AC on and off almost daily.

The T61 that melted down was stored in my closet (Florida) under ~74F air-condition, and removed to periodically update software and charge the battery (maybe every 8 months or so).

The daily driver received alot more abuse (and looked like a train-wreck), but it seems that the LiOn batteries prefer constant usage as apposed to long periods of storage.

I consider this a freak accident, as I don't think any empirical data can be extrapolated from a sample of two computers. I plan to rotate the new machines into service regularly rather than storing a "spare" machine.