From: Quantrill, Adam (AQuantrill_at_scigen.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jul 20 2001 - 07:16:59 EDT
This e-mail is subject to the disclaimer set out below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
If all else fails you could try reconditioning some of the
packs electrically.
What you need - a power supply (15VDC), a selection of resistors,
and ammeter. Connect the power supply through a 100 ohm resistor,
and the ammeter to the battery. YOu want to aim for 100ma or
so trickle charge. Pick different resistors if too high or low.
Leave it for 10 hours or so, and if the
pack gets warm then it's getting full of charge so stop.
(Don't forget to connect battery + to power supply +)
Check the voltage at the +/- terminals of the battery and if it looks
OK try it in the thinkpad, and see how long it lasts.
If it seems to hold charge OK then I'd tend to suspect
the power supply sub-board in the thinkpad itself.
- Adam
-----Original Message-----
From: billy_at_MIX.COM [mailto:billy_at_MIX.COM]
Sent: Thursday, 19 July, 2001 4:16 PM
To: THINKPAD_at_cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: 755C battery chrging
"jack_at_jackstuff.com" said -
> Not having an owner's manual, I'm flying blind here. I am under the
> impression that simply installing the battery, making sure the switch is
> set to the "|" position, and plugging the ThinkPad into the wall is all
> that I should have to do.
What operating system(s) are you running? If it's windows try holding
down the Fn key and then pressing F2 to make the battery monitoring
utility visible on the screen. You may have to do this a couple times
and it may take a second or two to respond. You can then use this to
run a discharge/charge cycle which will a) maybe actually recharge the
battery and b) sync up whatever it is that tells you the charge condition
of the battery with how the battery itself is doing.
As you've noted there is a tiny power switch on the batteries themselves,
I think this turns on the logic inside the battery the Thinkpad uses to
tell how charged up it is so be sure it's on before actually inserting
a battery in the machine.
If you only have DOS you can try the 'PS2 DISCHARGE' command which
should do the same thing. 'PS2 ?' will give you a list of all the
stuff this very handy utility can do, 'PS2 ? DISCHARGE' will explain
that command, etc...
On a good battery all this will take a few hours. If you see it go
from nothing to a full charge really fast (as in 20 minutes) you most
likely have a bad one.
And finally, IBM still has good batteries - I just bought one from
them, unfortunately it was $179 though (probably more than the computer
is now worth unless you're really attached to it)... The original one
that came with my 755CE lasted from 1995 until now so I can't complain
about that....
Billy Y..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail message is confidential and for use by the addressee only. If
you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose, copy or
forward this transmission. Please return the message to the sender by
replying to it and then delete the message from your computer. The Generics
Group provides e-mail services for both itself and a number of its
independent spin-out companies. The Generics Group shall not be held liable
to any person resulting from the use of any information contained in this
e-mail and shall not be liable to any person who acts or omits to do
anything in reliance upon it. The Generics Group does not accept
responsibility for changes made to this message after it was sent.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu Jan 23 2003 - 09:57:24 EST