ThinkPad X1 (not Carbon) battery issue (possibly powerboard)

[qbodsyt]

Hello all,

I'm a longtime ThinkPad user (740C, circa 1994?) and I've somehow never joined a ThinkPad forum before! Happy to be here at last.

Anyways, I recently installed an Msata SSD into my T420s WWAN port and I'm using it as my boot sector. Very pleased with the performance and I've been enthusiastically telling my friends about the benefits of an SSD boot sector using Msata while still retaining the main drive bay as conventional HDD storage.

A friend of mine recently purchased an X1 (non Carbon, the first generation) and asked me about my SSD experience. He took the plunge and ordered a Plextor 128GB Msata SSD online and had it shipped to his home. He asked me to come over and do the install for him.

Based off of how easy my install experience was, I agreed quickly. I took a really quick look online and it seemed like the install for his was even easier than my experience with the T420s. Literally three screws out of the bottom, pop out the keyboard and right away you had access to the WWAN port.

The install went as expected, I disconnected the AC adaptor and opened her up, installed the SSD, plugged the adaptor back in and booted up. BIOS recognized the drive and we were ready to get started. While in Windows downloading Macrium Reflect for use cloning the boot sector, I decided to move the laptop to another surface and unplugged the AC.........computer shut off instantly, as if there was no battery present. Tried pressing the power button, no effect.

Plugged power back in, computer booted up, in Windows it reported the battery's presence with cycle information and health, but said it was "96% not charging" repeated experiments have shown that it sees the battery, but upon removal of AC power it cannot boot up or remain powered on.

Prior to my installation attempt this battery was perfectly healthy. I've never dealt with a sealed battery in a ThinkPad before and I'm a little out of my depth.

I did some in-depth research and discovered that I should have disabled the battery in BIOS before attempting to install the SSD. I dearly wish I had, but I still have no clue as to what I could have done in the 30 seconds I was working on the install that could have damaged either the battery or the charging board. Since my install of an Msata SSD in the similar era T420s I own required no battery deactivation and was a considerably more involved install, I never would have suspected I could do such damage with so simple an action.

I'm not claiming to be a qualified technician, but I've been working on ThinkPads for years (including a screen replacement on that venerable 740C I mentioned earlier) and I've never run into an issue like this that seems to be torn between hardware and software (since Windows still recognizes the battery)

I found information on the reset switch in the pinhole by the rubber foot, but that method has not yielded any result at all.

Would anyone be able to share some information that I've missed in my online research? I don't think the battery itself is faulty and I'd hate to buy a new one and still have the same problem....I've also reinstalled the ACPI module in Windows, updated the BIOS and updated the Power Management utility.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Michael

[qbodsyt]

Bump? This is a really difficult issue to diagnose, I've disassembled the laptop to the point of removing the battery pack, the computer detects the removal and reinstallation of the battery but continues to say "Plugged in, not charging" and dies the second I remove power. On the off chance it was a software issue I've reinstalled the operating system from scratch and reinstalled the Lenovo drivers....no help.


Any support from the ThinkPad community?

[EvilH]

You probably already have tried this but on the off chance you did not; did you go in the BIOS, disable and re-enable the battery? I had this same issue when I installed my mSATA. Toggling this BIOS option fixed it for me.

[qbodsyt]

Hello!

Thanks for replying, my X1 has been delegated to the desk all this time.

Thanks for offering the suggestion, however to disable the battery I need it to function first of all. I should have done this before trying to install the MSATA drive but didn't realize it was necessary. Now when I try to disable it it tells me I need to remove the power cord, which naturally kills the whole system.

Any other ideas? Thanks for posting!