Is This The Battery?

[yeti]

Hi,

I use a 5 years old Laptop, A22m by IBM, running Windows 2000.

Until today it was very stable.

This afternoon while surfing on the net it just froze (Ctrl+Alt+Del had no effect, mouse not moving, etc.). It was not really hot (it has been running a lot hotter than that before without problems).

Did a hard reset, it froze before the booting was over. Took 3 or 4 hard reset before completing the boot and being able to use it again.

Checked the harddrive with the Windows utility, did not find any problem.

Few hours later, it did the same, except that this time I did not manage to complete a boot. Tried to boot with the W2K CD and an Ubuntu Live CD, always froze before completing. And the more I tried, the sooner it froze. I even tried to enter in the BIOS, it froze just after entering.

Decided I'd open the notebook to clean it, and maybe I could see something wrong. Removed the battery, could remove the caps to access the backup battery and the RAM, but not the one to access the motherboard and the harddrive, one of the screw being stuck.

Then I tried to restart the computer without the battery, and it started Ok. Restarted several times already, it seems Ok.

Should I conclude it comes from the battery, and just change it? (it would be the good news).

Or is it just a coincidence that it worked again after removing the battery, and it is more probably something else, like the harddrive beginning to let me down?

Is there a tool to check the harddrive for problems more toroughly than the one embedded in Windows?

Thanks

Yeti

[youngkiwi]

It is very unlikely that the problem you have been experiencing is caused by your CMOS battery. A flat CMOS battery will cause a BIOS error to be displayed upon bootup, and typically your CMOS values will be reset and you need to re-configure your CMOS settings. The problem you experience is not indicative of that, and is likely to be caused by one of the following three things:

1. Faulty RAM

2. Faulty motherboard

3. System requires re-load

[endure]

I think the OP is talking about the battery that powers his laptop rather than the BIOS battery.

[endure]

Does the laptop fail to boot if you try and use the battery again? When you start the laptop with the battery inserted is it plugged into mains power or running off the battery alone?

[sbk]

I'm with endure, try to eliminate the battery by testing it

1) with battery in, not plugged in to the mains

2)with battery in, plugged in to the mains

3) without battery in, plugged in to the mains

Then, if it only works without the battery and plugged into the mains you can try getting a new battery. You could try taking it to a computer shop and ask them if you can test it with one of their new batteries.

[waldwolf]

yeti - I'm not clear as to whether, when the problem first occured, you were running on battery only or on a mains adapter, with battery installed.

The "freeze" you experienced may, as you suspected, be related to chip (CPU, etc.) internal heat problems. Unless one can measure the exact internal temperature of these chips, it is difficult to determine whether they are exceeding their design specifications, just by "touch". If the notebook has an internal fan, I would try to determine if it is actually running.

I use a 5 years old Laptop......

Is this the original battery? If so, it is probably a NiCd (Nickel Cadmium). NiCd's can develop a "memory effect" if not fully charged and occasionally fully discharged, or if they are overcharged . Basically this "memory effect" prohibits the battery from becoming fully charged. In recent years, NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydrate) and LiOn (Lithium Ion) batteries solved many of these problems as well as offering longer battery useage. As sbk suggests, try replacing the battery with a "loaner", to see if the problem goes away.

Checked the harddrive with the Windows utility, did not find any problem.

The Windows built in "ScanDisk" isn't capable of determing whether or not a harddrive is "dying".

Is there a tool to check the harddrive for problems more toroughly than the one embedded in Windows?....

Would suggest you take a look at Steve Gibson's SpinRite, which is highly praised by many professionals. You can also download two (2) videos which show how SpinRite works, HERE

waldwolf

[yeti]

Thxs for your answers.

To clarify few things, I was indeed referring to the main battery, which powers the computer.

It is still the original battery, Li-Ion. So 5 years old it can power the computer for 10 minutes max., which is Ok as it gives me time to switch off the comp in case the main power is cut off.

When the freezings happenned the battery was in, main power connected.

I did not try switching on the computer with the battery inserted, as I was scared it could harm the system. I'm going to try this.

And also going to try Spinrite, but on Wednesday as I have to leave this afternoon.

Can I get find an IBM battery at Panthip, or will I have to contact IBM service center?

Thxs again everybody

[Farma]

I’ve had a similar intermittent problem appear on my pc over the past week. I don’t know if it’s the same as yeti but the symptoms are similar.

I am inclined to think I’ll need to reinstall my XP windows. My other thought is it may be an overheat problem. The computer is 4 months old.

It usually occurs when opening an extra web page. The screen just locks up. The mouse works sometimes and other times the computer decides the mouse and keyboard aren’t connected.

At the times when the mouse is still working I can open Ctrl+Alt+Del. I’ve noticed the cpu usage is over 20%. It drops down to 1% soon after I open Ctrl+Alt+Del and everything works OK again.

I run defrag and disk cleanup regularly. The problem disappears on reboot.

I’ll be interested on how your laptop problem is solved.

[Gary A]

I doubt that it is the battery. My old Thinkpad has an old battery that won't hold a charge but it will give me time to shut down if the power fails. The computer works off the charger just fine whether the battery is in the machine or not.

It did have some major problems after I loaned it to a friend of mine. He took it to a shop to be repaired and was quoted a ridiculous price. I told him to forget it and took it back. It wouldn't boot either. I re-formatted the hard drive, installed Windows XP Pro and it has run fine ever since.

It was interesting that I was told the computer wasn't powerful enough for XP. It is only a Pentium 300 mgz with 128 meg of ram. The machine must not have know it couldn't use XP because it runs just fine.

[yeti]

Well, guess what it just booted with the battery inside.

Will run more tests on Wednesday...

[yeti]

Ok, for an update on the situation:

- I did not encounter the problem again, using the laptop with the battery & connected to the main

- I tested the harddrive with HD Tune, and although the 'health' reported by the harddrive is good, there are 4 damaged blocks, so it may be the harddrive.

I'll test it with SpinRite soon.

[james512]

Sounds like a HDD problem to me. I remember we had a Toshiba laptop that wouldn't run due to a bad hard disk. It would boot up after it was left to cool down for a while (or the HD put in the freezer), managed to recover most files but quite a lot was still unreadable.

Your problem sounds a little different but could still be related to overheating.

[ZZZ]

Guess you already done it but if not back up your hard disk before doing anything else.

I have had 2 HD go bad after about 5 years, started with small problems like yours but crashed completely shortly after that.

BACK UP ANYTHING YOU MAY NEED

[yeti]

Backing up important files was the 1st thing I did after being able to boot the 1st time this happenned

[yeti]

First I'd like to thank waldwolf for his link to Spinrite, this software is really good.

It says that my hardrive is in good shape, and many tests allow me to be sure that the problem occurs only when the battery is inserted.

So for now I run it on main power, and I'll look for the price of a replacement battery.

Thxs to all who posted.

Cheers

--

Yeti

Edited October 29, 2006 by yeti