Hi, after dropping my thinkpad, the battery got slightly messed up. I have to move a battery pin to have it fit in the slot, the battery charging status is often not read by Linux, and sometimes power won’t be received even without the battery. I’m hoping the solution would just be figuring out how to remove the pin stuck in the motherboard slot (attempts so far have evaded me) and getting a new battery, but what does it look like to you? Thanks!

  • Jumuta
    3·
    1 month ago

    wdym by the pin stuck in the motherboard slot?

    at least on my T430 the pinout is:
    | + | + | |SCL|SDA|unkn|GND|

    so the broken pin on yours should just be the positive terminal which is duplicated and shouldn’t matter

    • universalmarbles@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      1 month ago

      What I meant by that is the plastic piece sticking out on the motherboard side of the connection. I should have looked up a picture of the connection first to see that it’s normally there; I don’t know much about this and assumed it came off from the battery haha.

      So if the motherboard side looks alright, then does replacing the battery seem like the right fix to you? It seems like there’s a chance something else is wrong besides the battery, though, because I experienced the computer being somewhat finicky about charging even with the battery removed, but maybe it’s nothing…

      • Jumuta
        2·
        1 month ago

        uh probably yes, but I think it’s probably just the connector’s contact on the bms (battery management system) or motherboard that are bad. You could try seeing if they wiggle and solder them back in place if they are broken.

        taking apart lenovo batteries are notoriously hard though, so it’s probably better to just get a new one

      • Jumuta
        2·
        1 month ago

        actually it might also be the charging cable/adaptor/port, does the connector feel wiggler than before?

        • universalmarbles@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          1 month ago

          Nothing does feel loose to me, but I found the charging issue (w/o battery) is weird but consistent: the OEM charger stopped working, but a 3rd party one does work consistently. I’m not sure what to make of both the OEM charger and the battery breaking simultaneously given that the OEM charger was not involved in the laptop dropping, but perhaps the charging port shifted in a way imperceptible to me. Either way, I’ve ordered a new battery, and I’ll try sticking with that and the 3rd party charger from now on. Thanks for the help!

          • universalmarbles@lemmy.worldOP
            1·
            16 days ago

            A new battery has fixed the issues. I found the battery pins were pushed in, which messed up the connection. I’m still not sure why the OEM charger does not work, but at least a 3rd party one does.