T400 won't boot while on battery

Title really sums it up. 3-year-old T400 boots up fine while on AC power, but on battery power, no lights light up or anything when I press the power button. Initially I thought it was the battery, but the brand new 9-cell battery I ordered didn't change anything.
When I open the Power Manager, it says the original 6-cell battery has 0.0 Amps and 11 V. Says the same thing about the 9-cell battery. I'm prepared to bet against Lenovo shipping me a dead battery, but anything's possible. I've tried uninstalling the power manager and reinstalling; same thing. I've tried resetting the CMOS/backup battery. Only thing I haven't tried is a BIOS rollback. Currently using the 3.22 version.
System Specs:
t400 w/ T9400 CPU and switchable graphics
Win7 x64 Pro
Any suggestions would be very helpful. I would call Lenovo support, but most of what I've found on here points to them not being helpful unless you're under warranty (which I'm not).
Thanks.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

hey AndyV,
welcome to the forums.
Either the battery is dead or the terminals on the motherboard is not detecting the batteries at all.
If you have any friends who has a ThinkPad system that uses the same time of batteries of yours, test it out.
another thing you could try is to use this hardware maintenance manual >> http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.page?DocID=UM001058
open your unit, clean up any grime and dust. Put it back together and hopefully you'll be able to use your unit with the battery attached
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ThinkPad T400 won't boot

My ThinkPad T400 was in sleep mode - on battery power and not plugged in - over the long weekend. Yesterday, I noticed the power light was out, so I plugged the laptop in to recharge the battery. This morning, the laptop will not boot. I have light indicators for the device being plugged in and the battery charging, plus another indicator to the right of the hard drive light that looks like a Z (?). When I press the power button, it sounds like the laptop is preparing to boot, but nothing happens. I've never had any problems whatsoever with this laptop, so I'm at a loss what to try.

what is the model number of your T400?
xxxx-xxx
is your T400 a switchable graphics model?
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Won't boot while battery is plugged in

Earlier this week a freak accident (coffee table leg falling off) caused a lot of milk to be spilled on my Pro. I turned it off immediately and disassembled the laptop and removed the battery and cleaned the Pro. After 48 hrs of drying in silica gel and cleaning the logic board with isopropyl. I discovered the HDD was shot, luckily my SSD was fine. I then noticed while setting up for reloading the OS that the battery was staying at "4 green lights" of charge and wasn't doing anything. I removed the battery and then loaded the OS. Upon trying the battery again after a SMC reset I got a boot cycle. removing the battery casued that to stop.
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Your machine is 'busted' - immediately after the spill you should have just powered down and made a beeline for your local Apple Store - which is what you should do now. No telling how much it will cost to get the entire machine repaired - but if it's an older machine you may want to ask about Apple's flat rate repair pricing - after you get an estimate.
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I have used my thinkpad T400 for like a year and recently I hibernated it and it could not boot. I tried the battery reset and it came right on but will not boot to windows (Blue screen after POST). I tried running a new OS instalation but anytime I boot from cd, I get a distorted screen (many colourful strips takes over the screen). I really need help............................from any one.

what is the model number of your T400?
xxxx-xxx
is your T400 a switchable graphics model?
Regards,
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May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

My ThinkPad T400 won't boot!

I honestly have no clue what could have caused this!
I turned it on this morning & it was stuck on the booting screen. It read "ThinkPad" in large letters followed by "To interrupt normal start up, press the blue ThinkVantage button." I waited for about a half hour for it to boot & it never did. I of course pressed the ThinkVantage button & to my dismay...nothing happened. Afterwards, I unplugged it & removed the battery pack. I then plugged it back in & attempted to start it up again. Once again, nothing. I unplugged it again & attached the battery pack. At that point I tried starting it up again and N O T H I N G!
What do I do?!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

have a look at your usb ports, there could be some sort of pins touching, as the result of damaged usb pins.
ADMIN Edit - Link to related tip in our forum KB
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May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

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I kindof did it, and I bet you even a Genius wouldn't have figured this one out!
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