my X21 suddendly stopped powering up from the battery. Works fine if plugged in but if I will unplug the power supply every thing is gone...

the battery is 3y old (Battery health: red (degraded), cycle count 161, Full charge capacity: 12.10Wh, Design Capacity: 38.88 Wh) but I could get approx 1h+ of power with it.

I'm kind of surprised that the battery is gone suddently. Expecially because the Battery MaxiMiser Gauge still shows the battery as present with 95% charge. Since battery are quite expensive I'm wondering if is a battery problem (a new battery would solve the problem) or other internal problem. The CMOS test of the PC-Doctor was passed.

Any idea?
Thanks

When I got my x20 a week or two ago, it came with a battery in similary condition (had "dead" written on it) and battery maximiser reported it as being in about the same condition as yours, it wouldn't charge or run from the battery. I got a couple of new batteries off ebay and they both work fine, although battery maximiser does come up with some very strange information every now and then.

Appleworm,

Get yourself some jam and butter and pour a cup of tea. Your battery is toast!

A new battery will work fine. Do NOT leave the bad battery in the unit in the interim while on AC, it could cause the DC/DC card to join the battery on the junk heap.

Regards,

James

Update:
no voltage between pin 1 and 4 and between pin 1 and 5 (see manual)
I took the battery pack apart (I've made some pictures, I can mail it if you are interested): the li-ion cell seem to be alive, can't tell the voltage but seems quite a bit. It seems that is the circuit that's gone. I carefully disconnected the circuit and soldered back again (I thought it would be reset) with no results.

JHEM you might be right: that bad battery might put in danger the charging circuit.

I've seen new original IBM batteries for sale with 3600 mAh and other with 4000 mAh. I would say that the 3600 mAh are old stocks and 4000 are new one. Is this correct? and what do you think about compatible not original IBM battery pack?

thanks

The two batteries I've got are both a 3600mah and a 4000mah. The 4000mah battery is in better condition and was made in february last year or so, it obviously charges really well.
I also got a 3600mah battery, which was made in august 2000, and was never charged, it's actually the second, the first one wouldn't charge, but the seller was kind enough to send a second one out to me, this one has been a bit strange. It charges up to 100%, then drops to 4% after reaching 66%, though this improved with a couple of charge cycles so it now does it at 40%. Its fully charged capacity is currently a rather disappointing 31.88wh, but may improve a bit.
My researching on ebay (the best place to get batteries in the UK), has shown that there are quite a few 3600mah batteries of the same age, though if you bought one direct from IBM, it would probably be recently made.

Just go for the 4000mah battery pack if it's not too expensive.
Don't spend too much buying batteries, compatibles work just fine and should work just the same as an IBM original battery.

The internal battery circuit testing as open is usually an indicator that one or more of the cells has overheated at some time.

The damage to the DC/DC card from leaving a bad battery in the unit is a well documented fault.

I don't think much of off-brand replacement batteries, just bite the bullet and order an IBM replacement. Tell us where you're located and we can probably give you a link to a reasonable source.

Regards,

James

Thanks guys!

I'm located in Germany.
On Ebay.de they have a compatible 4000mAh for 99 Euro + shipping
and an original 3600mAh for 95 Euro + shipping
original from IBM is about 180 Euro + shipping.

Do you have any other suggestion?
Thanks.

well, that's adequate, but I personally wouldn't spend that much on a battery. You should look around the auctions, try searching for "02k*" in titles and descriptions, you can find a few IBM parts you wouldn't find otherwise.

I paid £10 (€15) for my 4000mah battery and that turned out to be new