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Topic: Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working. (Read 1124 times) previous topic - next topic
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Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working.

I have a Thinkpad X230 which I aquired relatively recently (runit, by the way). The battery that came with it was a bit iffy, so I bought a new one which is supposedly compatible with the X230. The old one is 10.8V 5.13Ah, and the new one is 11.1V 5.16Ah. Both are labelled 44+. I wasn't aware of the difference in voltage when I bought the battery, but surely this wouldn't be a problem, seeing as the AC chord is 20V anyway?

When I insert the new battery, it seems to be detected, as the /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0 directory appears. Information about the battery is even detected, contained in corresponding files, and summarised in the file uevent:
Code: [Select]
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_TYPE=Battery
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=10800000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_POWER_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=45N1172
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=SANYO
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=[REDACTED]
Notably capacity is missing. So essentially the battery is detected, but can't give or take power. When I unplug the charging cable, the computer turns off (crashes) immediately. I have a warranty on the battery, so if the battery is the problem then I'll just take it back, but I thought I might as well get it working on my end.

One thing that might be of interest: I used tpacpi-bat to set charging thresholds on the old battery. This seems to have automatically transferred over to the new battery, creating the files charge_control_end_threshold, charge_control_start_threshold, charge_start_threshold, and charge_stop_threshold. These files persist even after I disable tpacpi-bat and switch between the batteries. (I read somewhere that the threshold info is stored in the BIOS). I doubt that this is the issue but who knows.

Re: Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working.

Reply #1 –
The charging thresholds are stored directly in the battery and not in the BIOS. If you remove the battery for a minute, it resets itself to the factory settings. As far as I know, the battery is then immediately recharged below 96%.

It seems that your replica battery is not accepted by your X230.I don't know if the 30 series is affected, but I know that Lenovo has done something about it via a BIOS update. If no one here knows more, I recommend the Thinkpad forum for further research.

Re: Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working.

Reply #2 –
I put a new toner cartridge in a Brother printer but it wasn't recognized as being a new one until I booted into MS Vista and printed something from there, using the installed Brother software, then I could use it in Linux as before. I wouldn't suggest installing Windows especially to try this but if you had it already you could try booting it to see if it resets anything. Sometimes you get faulty batteries though, I got one for a phone once that just didn't charge or work. I've used aftermarket batteries (in Dell laptops) without problems (using one now in fact) but at least one (old 32 bit CPx / C840 type) was a bit different re charge state compared to the originals, iirc it would only ever charge to ~90%.

Re: Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working.

Reply #3 –
Your battery is not fully recognized by the system. Power off the system, wait for some time and power on. Charge the battery for some time. If uevent reports the same. Look into BIOS settings to see if you can find anything related the battert/power-supply.
 

Re: Thinkpad X230 new battery detected but not working.

Reply #4 –
I would like to add something to @calvinh 's tip....
Power off, disconnect the power supply and remove the battery. Then press the power button for about 30-60 seconds to discharge the capacitors. Then reconnect the power supply, insert the battery, start the x230 and pray it will accept  the battery.