From: "Douglas Simmons" Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 9:57
AM

> when under load it's voltage rapidly drops to a low value.
> I've never had any luck in reviving one with these
symptoms.
> Unfortunately the batteries are very expensive, even the
> after-market brands.

At 10/2/2001 11:15 AM, Mary Wolden wrote:

This is a brand new battery (my though it might be
defective) but when I start the computer back up and check
the battery charge it shows about 98%.  Is there any other
way to check to see if the battery is defective?  I do not
have a ThinkPad that old.  By the time the troop had brought
it to me to check it, I was told that they don't think they
can return it anymore.

Seeing a 98 % or greater charge when it has been freshly
charged is usually for a bad laptop battery.  The problem is
not that the battery won't take a charge, but that it's
capacity (amount of charge it will hold) is way low.  I've
had batteries brought to me that were purchased new that had
the same problem so a bad one out of the box is not unusual.
Just in case the troop may be considering buying a "used"
one, tell them not to.  I've had friends bring me batteries
that they've gotten from Ebay that will only hold a 15 -20
minute charge.

The way that I test batteries is to put a 10 ohm power
resister (50 watt) across the terminals and measure the
voltage with a voltmeter periodically over an hour.  The
voltage should stay above approximately 8 volts for the full
hour.  I don't know of another method if you don't have
another laptop to try it in.

Sorry that I couldn't help any more.

Doug

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