New battery fails, maybe bios and EC

[Irina060]

Hi everyone, some months ago I bought a thinkpad t23 which came with no battery. Last week I ordered a battery and it arrived yesterday. I charged it for a while and it worked fine for around 10 minutes. It went from 70% to 5% in 10 minutes which I thought it was normal cuz maybe it needed to empty itself or something idk. It's been charging all night with a blinking orange light but this morning it still was at 5%.
I read a bit about this in other posts and it seems that the latest bios and embedded controller cause new batteries to not work properly. I've been looking for old versions of the bios and embedded controller without result. I assume old links have been shutdown and the ibm page no longer gives support to this kind of PCs.

EDIT: The bios and EC needed I think would be bios 1.17 and EC 1.05, not really sure tho. Does anyone know where to find those? Thanks
Extra EDIT: My Bios seems to be 1.10 1AET53WW, and my Embedded controller version 1.04, which means I dont know whats going on at all. Help

[RealBlackStuff]

Have a look at this: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=82708&p=544908#p544908
(the ...legend.jpg link works now)

[Irina060]

Alright, I will check the inductor and come back with an update, thanks

[Irina060]

The inductor is giving me -0'20 for a slight second before going to 0. The fuse gives weird numbers. Almost first time using a multimeter and Im not sure which configuration I should be using. I also dont know what I should be seeing

EDIT: The option where the multimeter beeps gives 00.2 in both the inductor and fuse. Does that mean anything?

[RealBlackStuff]

You need to wiggle the inductor a little bit in all directions.
If it is 'moves' even the tiniest little bit, you'll need to completely remove it, clean up any corrosion and resolder it.

[Irina060]

It doesnt move the tiniest bit. Even with a bit of force it is firmly in place. Maybe a faulty battery?

[RealBlackStuff]

There are 2 more here: http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/mobo ... legend.jpg
Locations D9 and E8.

[Irina060]

I just dissasembled everything and tested those inductors too but same 00.2-00.1 result. Not really sure whats wrong... any other component I should test?

[RealBlackStuff]

If you go to the Drivers link at the top of this page, you can download T23 BIOS 1.20 and EC 1.06a.
In my T23 with above BIOS/EC I still use 'older' T23 and 'newer' T30 batteries without any problems.

Do you have any other problems if you run the T23 without battery?
Is the CMOS battery still OK? (measure voltage, should be at least +2.9V).

[Irina060]

The cmos battery is fine, I changed it a few months ago. The T23 doesnt give any issues without the battery, it runs smoothly in both windows and linux, no error messages
I will update the bios and the EC and come with an update

[Irina060]

I have been trying for a while. First tries, the update utility displays and error complaining that battery is too low and I need to charge it... well... yes it is low. I've been doing some research on how to update the bios from a msdos CD but I cant seem to find the IBM bios update tool. I downloaded both floppy and non-floppy files just in case I need them. This is the first time Im updating a BIOS, I read I need an specific tool from the manufacturer. Im not really sure how to proceed now, maybe all IBM bios update tools are the same?

Edit: I read another post where someone charged the battery using another model of laptop, I dont have another model unfortunatly. But this guy also had a memory error, not sure if mine will have that error tho, it has full 1GB of ram

[Irina060]

I cant seem to get the update working. Soooo I ended up buying another battery, this time it is a T30 second hand battery, its probably in rough shape but it might do the trick. Also for the price it is a nice deal, because if that doesnt work I can always swap the internals right?
I think it is an overall good deal... lets see what happens in around a week, lets hope for the best

[Irina060]

I finally got the T30s battery, it works fine, charges good and it lasts for around 30 seconds on lol it is a bit old. I updated the bios and the embedded controller, changed batteries but same problem, only the T30s battery charges properly and works kinda (8% health remaining). I guess I can have its internals changed to new cells but Im not sure if that will make the laptop hate it as it hates the other

[RealBlackStuff]

Inside the battery there is a small chip, which keeps track of the cell-voltages.
If one or more cells get below a certain critical value, it shuts down the possibility of recharging the battery.
So even with many cells still OK, you have a 'dead' battery, which is shown by its constant blinking yellow/orange if you try to charge it.
An expert may be able to reset or replace such a chip, and replace faulty cells, but it is a bit finicky.

Have a look at this: https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=batter ... loc=Madrid
Ignore the car battery places.

[tinue]

Im not sure if that will make the laptop hate it as it hates the other

Hard to say without trying it out. I once sort of rebuilt a battery pack for an A30m laptop, for the sole purpose of updating the BIOS. "Sort of" means that I only added 3 cells in series instead of the 9 that were in the original broken pack. 3 are required to get at the intended voltage, 6 more would just triple the total capacity. In my case it worked fine, and the built-in chip of the battery pack accepted the new cells without issue.

[Irina060]

The other day I went to my local computer store and gave both batteries to see if they can get some kind of frankenstein battery for the T23. I have yet to hear back from them but things are looking good, thats what they said once they saw the cells. I would do this myself but it is a bit too advanced for me atm as Im still practicing the soldering and I dont want to risk making a bad solder on a battery.
Anyways I will keep updating with the results

[Irina060]

The battery finally works and it lasts for over 3 hours at idle and a bit over 1 hour at full load which is admirable in my opinion. This is great!