Is my T61's battery toast? Getting "plugged in, not charging" message in Vista.

I've had my 14" ThinkPad T61 unplugged for a couple of months while using a different laptop, and I powered it on today to be greeted by a nasty surprise: the battery (which had run down, as expected) won't charge back up. It's sitting at 2%, the battery LED on the laptop is blinking yellow-orange, and though the machine works just fine with the AC adapter plugged into it, the battery isn't recharging.

I've googled the crap out of the issue (found many, many results for HP laptops but none of the fixes worked), and I'm stuck. Here's what I know so far:

• ThinkVantage Power Manager shows the battery's condition as "Good," and it's not covered by or exhibiting symptoms of the battery recall.
  
  
• ThinkVantage Power Manager shows "full charge capacity" at 47.46 Wh and "remaining capacity" at 0.85 Wh.
  
  
• Popping the battery out and back in with and without the system turned on didn't work, restarting several times didn't work, powering down and plugging the system in for a couple hours didn't work, and powering on and entering the BIOS leaving the machine plugged in didn't work.
  
  
• Popped the battery in my buddy's T61, and it showed the same thing in Vista. "Plugged in, not charging." Problem appears to be specific to the battery, and not my machine.
  
  
• I bought the machine in mid-'07 with only a 1-year warranty, so there's not going to be any help from Lenovo.

Do you guys think I can save this thing? It worked perfectly the last time I turned the machine on a few months ago, but if it's dead then those are just the breaks.

If it is dead, does anyone have any cost-effective suggestions for a replacement T61 battery? Looks like eBay's going to be my best bet, but if there's a better suggestion I'm definitely open.

Thanks so much!

 

unlpug your machine and remove the battery and hold down the power button for 10 sec and then put the battery back in and see if it will boot up

 

Thanks for the reply. Just gave this a shot two times, but no dice -- it came back the first time (with the AC adapter reconnected) but still showed a blinking yellow-orange LED indicator light and the dreaded "not charging" message in Vista, and the second time I just tried to boot it on the battery but it didn't have enough juice to get me into the OS.

Looking grim, heh.

 

did you check your charge thresholds in power mgr?

 

Maybe you could try battery maintenance in the power manager app, but more than likely you'll have to get a new battery. One thing to check on is if your laptop is effected by the battery recall just issued by Lenovo. Go to lenovo's site and download their little app and it will tell you what to do. Should be a link on the main page.

Otherwise, just going to have to buy a new battery and don't let it discharge and have it sit for a long time. That is more than likely killed the battery.

 

Did you tried 'Perform reset' button located at the Battery Maintenance button in the Battery Information tab of Power Manager?

 

Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I've had no luck reviving it.. and after arguing with lenovo for several days, they wouldnt budge.. so I ended up ordering a new generic battery. What's the FRU # of your battery btw? Mine is 42T5262. I'm convinced that there was a bad batch of these batteries.

 

Hey all, thanks for the replies. I powered off my ThinkPad last night and left it on the charger all night and all morning (~10 hours). To my delight, I discovered that the battery light changed from flashing yelllow-orange to solid green, and the system had 46% battery when I booted into Windows. Unfortunately, I'm still seeing the "plugged in, not charging" message. I'm going to power it off again and leave it for a bit -- does my battery sound saveable at this point, or is this behavior typical for a screwed battery?

Going down the list of feedback:

-- Not sure where the "charge thresholds" are listed in Power Manager. Full charge and remaining capacities are listed in the OP.
-- Battery isn't covered by recall, as mentioned in OP.
-- Tried battery maintenance's "perform reset" option last night, but it didn't appear to be doing anything. I only let the laptop sit on that for about two hours -- maybe it needs 24-48?
-- My T61 battery's FRU is 42T5229.

Thanks again everyone!

 

Not sure if anyone's still watching this thread, but I believe I successfully "jump-started" my T61's battery. After getting it to charge to 46%, I powered the machine off and left it to charge for about 36 hours. When I came back to it, it was still at 46% and was still showing "not charging" in Windows.

I powered it down again, and this time I pulled the cord out, then popped the battery out, and then plugged the cord back in with the battery still out. I put the battery back in and waited for the LED to come on, and then left the machine for three days to charge. When I came back to it and powered it on, I held my breath -- it was charged to 100%, it discharges properly, and it recharges properly as well. I get the same battery life I used to, and I'm using the machine happily now.

Upgrading to Win7 tonight. Good times! I really, really wish it were possible to get a backlit keyboard for this beautiful machine. I'm probably going to sell it and get a Latitude E6400.