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I am trying to fix a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 2 (2014) that had been discarded. The main battery will not charge, and reads as having 100% charge on the Lenovo battery meter when it actually has 0% (dies immediately if unplugged). Lenovo Vantage was unable to read any information from the original battery, such as age, number of recharge cycles, etc. It just drew a blank. I also tried replacing the original battery with a new aftermarket one, which the machine accepted but which also did not charge.

The machine came to me with the original SSD removed. I installed a new SSD and located an original Lenovo AC adapter. I performed a clean install of Windows 10 and then installed Lenovo Vantage. The machine boots and operates fine when plugged in (with one exception, see below). It is currently running BIOS version GRET58WW (1.35), which cannot be updated because that requires a fully-charged battery.

During startup, it is clear that the CMOS battery on the machine is dead. Nearly every boot the machine needs to have the date and time re-set. I am wondering if it is possible that the dead CMOS battery could be related to the rechargeable battery failing to charge? It's a pain to replace the CMOS battery but not expensive, so I'm up for that. I am willing to try anything that doesn't involve taking the machine in for service to Lenovo because it's so long out of warrantee.

Any suggestions at all would be appreciated.

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    It sounds to me like the chargong circuitry on the laptop is stuffed.
    – davidgo
    Commented Nov 12, 2022 at 5:19
  • Thanks for the direct and not condescending feedback.
    – dko44
    Commented Nov 13, 2022 at 2:21
  • Sigh, "condescending" is your interpretation, not my intention. Text has to be read with a mindset that is suitable, your mindset seems to be to find bad intentions.
    – Hannu
    Commented Nov 13, 2022 at 8:54

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First; This is unlikely to be a software related problem.

Among all the other things on a motherboard, you have components that are

  • responsible for charging
  • responsible for charge level sensing
  • responsible for 'delivering' to those (e.g. connectors)
  • responsible for 'delivering' from those (e.g. PCB traces and via:s)

You need to

  • find them,
  • determine how they are interconnected
  • determine how they're intended to interact
  • find which one (or more) is broken
  • replace those.

You need knowledge about

  • soldering
  • desoldering
  • electronics/PCB repair work on top of the above
  • intimate component functionality
  • best also: schematics of the motherboard

Now, assuming being a novice[1] without the proper knowledge about any of the above; how likely are you to succeed?

[1] Anyone with the correct (required) knowledge would not ask this question.

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  • Are you here to help, or satisfy you own ego? It would have been adequate for you to say that you thought this was a hardware problem, and beyond my capabilities. I could easily have accepted that.
    – dko44
    Commented Nov 13, 2022 at 2:25
  • The above answer is not only for YOU - skip all personal stuff please. This is meant to be a guide for anyone in a similar situation, e.g. having no knowledge about how complex it is to repair electronics. My EGO has nothing to do with it.
    – Hannu
    Commented Nov 13, 2022 at 8:52

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