I have a 5 y/o Compaq NC600c that has spent most of it's like
plugged-in and is used daily.

It froze in-use and on reboot via the big switch, it would flash some
lights and start the boot sequence but never get to the poing of
spinning up the hard disk. It would then go dark and do it again,
seemingly forever. It does this, plugged in or not.

Eventually, I tried the laptop w/o the battery and it works fine.

Is this a dead battery? A dead inverter that is killing the system?






--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

In news:fvhkq4$jao$1@panix5.panix.com,
Al Dykes typed on 3 May 2008 08:11:48 -0400:
Yes it does sound like a dead battery. Although here are many things
that can cause this too. What happens if you put the battery in after it
boots up? Does the machine shutdown or what? When it is plugged in and
off, does the battery indicator show it is charging?

Does this 5 year old laptop still have the original battery? And you
don't need a battery if you always plug it into AC anyway. If you are
worried about the AC failing, then plug it into an UPS (Uninterruptible
Power Supply). They can be had for $30 or less.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninter...e_power_supply

--
Bill

In article <481c7182$0$6431$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere.com> ,
BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote:
I think that the power light is off when the machine is off and
plugged in. I take this to be a failed internal charger circuit.

I'll try hot-pluging the battery. If the PC doesn't crash, what does
that tell me?


--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

In news:fvhs9i$j5h$1@panix5.panix.com,
Al Dykes typed on 3 May 2008 10:19:30 -0400:
Well the power light should be off. But virtually all laptops also have
a charge light as well. Usually a two color LED. Red or orange steady in
color means it is charging. But a flashing one means there is a problem.
And a steady green or blue means that battery is fully charged. You will
only see the charging light when there is AC applied.

Well the laptop fails POST (power-on self test) when the battery is
connected. Again this can mean a few things too. Laptops draw a lot of
current when first turned on. And weak batteries draw a lot of current
too. So the AC adapter is maxing all its power to power the laptop and
to charge the battery at the same time. Which could be too much for it.

The next test if you insert the battery while it is running and it stays
running, is to remove the AC power. If the battery is faulty or the
charging circuit is, the laptop will turn off instantly. If it keeps
running, let it sit there and see if you can get more than 10 minutes
running on the battery. And 10 minutes or less, the battery is too far
gone and I wouldn't leave it in the laptop. As to will only create more
heat which isn't good for either the battery or the laptop.

--
Bill

In article <481c7b50$0$6430$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere.com> ,
BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote:

You are right, but it fails so soon that it doesn't give a beep code
or show anything on the screen.


Good points, all.

Thanks.

--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

In news:fvhuoj$6st$1@panix5.panix.com,
Al Dykes typed on 3 May 2008 11:01:39 -0400:
That is okay. As the laptop kills the power to itself for some reason.
As maybe one step of the POST is to switch to battery power for a second
if it detects a battery. And of course, if the battery can't keep the
laptop running, you lose power and it can't beep or anything.

--
Bill

Without starting a new string, I too have a battery problem with an extended
Thinkpad battery (original IBM part, FRU# 93P5030). It's only 22 months old
and will no longer take a charge, constantly reading 2% charged, with the
charging light blinking with the A/C adapter plugged in.

I stuck in the original factory battery, which had not been used it a year.
It started charging immediately and eventually up to 99%, so I believe the
A/C adapter and charging system are fine.

Is it normal for this type of battery to fail in less than 2 years? At over
a $100, they are not cheap. Thanks in advance.

rg


"Al Dykes" <adykes@panix.com> wrote in message
news:fvhkq4$jao$1@panix5.panix.com...

Sharkbait wrote:
manufacturer.
A lot of variables.

In news:2_1Tj.418$Eh7.153@trndny01,
Sharkbait typed on Sat, 03 May 2008 18:16:30 GMT:

Yes this is completely normal. Leaving the battery in the laptop on AC,
they usually last about 18 to 24 months. Although removing them and only
charge them up once or twice a year, they can last 10 years or more. If
you use battery power a lot, well they can last up to 500 recharges.

What some of us do if we mostly use our laptops on AC power and worry
about losing the AC, we buy an UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). The
battery in them usually can last 5 years and you can buy them for 30
bucks or less.

--
Bill

G.G.Willikers <noone@athome.com> wrote

I understand. I run optimized parameters and the machine profile was fairly
new when I bought it, so I suppose the battery manufacturer (Sony possibly)
shipped the battery to Lenovo for just in time delivery but perhaps not.
This series of battery did come up for recall during the first six months
but the serial number never came up as one that was defective but that
probably doesn't account for a short lifespan if indeed this is irregular.

So now I am looking to replace it with a third-party brand, which I think
might yield at least 22 months for quite a discount off the list price of
factory replacement. I wonder if Lenovo's three year warranty I purchased
covers the battery as well? Guess I have to look at the fine print.

rg

Al Dykes wrote:
I've had two older notebooks with the same problem: dead battery
prevents booting. I have come to believe that this is deliberate in
order to prevent a dead or failed battery from possible explosive or
flammable effects from charging current. I *think* it is a combination
of safety circuitry in the battery itself that is interlinked to the
BIOS so that no booting is possible if the battery electronics indicate
that the battery is in a possible unsafe condition.

Both notebooks are Sony from 2002-2003. It is interesting that both
notebooks predate the Sony-manufactured battery meltdowns that were a
plague in 2005-2006. New, third-party batteries solved the booting
problems in both cases.

Q

In article <drSdnbaUofsAgoDVnZ2dnUVZ_rWtnZ2d@comcast.com>,
Quaoar <quaoar@marcabfleet.net> wrote:

That sounds possible.

As an update for my original post, I kept the batter out for 24 hours
and then hot-plugged it. OK. Then I rebooted with the battery in and
it works fine. It runs on battery, at least for the few seconds I've
tested it.

I have to look in the manual to see what lights I should be seeing.


--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail

Al Dykes wrote:
If the battery explodes you might be seeing a large variety of lights!

When a discharged battery is installed, with the computer shut down, you
should see a single blinking light in (usually) red or orange. When the
battery is charged, with the computer shut down, that light should be
solid green or off.

Q