~Toughbooktalk~

I wound up picking up a Mk2 CF-52 with ATI 3650 to do some playing with. My oldest boy already has a 52 Mk1 with ATI HD2300. Last night he wanted to try it out since the caddy I ordered for the Mk2 hasn't come in yet. He put his battery and hard drive/caddy into the unit. Took a couple of times to boot but it finally came up. One think we noticed is the red light for the battery kept flashing in that unit. It didn't matter that it was a full battery or plugged in. The battery doesn't do that on the other unit, would doing the calibration fix it? Or have they changed up something in the newer 52's where they don't like the older batteries. (CF-29 battery) Everything is back into the Mk1 now and doesn't have a problem like it did before.

Does the battery light flash when plugged in but not booted? Have you tried a different battery?

If you have a different battery, install it and see if it is the same. If it flashes, I would think the batteries are okay, might have a problem with the Mk2.

If the battery light does not flash when the unit is plugged into AC and not booted, but flashes once the OS is/has loaded, I would say that something in the power management software does not play well with the hardware. A proper install w/drivers might solve the problem.

The battery works fine in his Mk1, I got to dig the pile back out since I just got home to finish my work up on the other units. I will get another battery out later today to see what it does on it. What got is that it flashes when the machine is on and when it was off. Even when the battery is fine in another machine. Just got more testing to do now, lol. I will try again when the caddy for it come in and I drop the SSD into it.

Just looking at the wiring connection diagram in service manual for a CF-52EKMxDxM and the battery/power lcd is on a separate pcb. Check the connection at the system board and the power/battery lcd pcb.

If the battery light flashes when the unit is not powered up, to me, that points to the hardware in the laptop. A different known-good battery would help. If it flashes when the unit is not powered up, that indicates the first is probably good and there is a problem with the unit.

Ya, get a permanent OS and the proper drivers in it, then go from there.

I have ran batteries that I got with CF-29's in my Mk2 (no dedicated video card) w/no problems/anomalies .

Panasonic says flashing light = faulty battery. We know that isn't the case here I think.

I vote for a communication problem which to me indicates the battery male connectors in the 52....second choice cable connections.

Picture some yahoo dropping the battery in a few times and what could result.

CF-T5 and a few other models have an ECO mode that limits battery charging to 80%. Good for high temps and/or making batteries last longer. If I put a fully charged battery into a unit with ECO mode set, it will flash green until the battery discharges to the 80% point.

This is similar to the High Temperature mode in many other models. Not sure if CF-52 has that but I think so. You might check the BIOS settings for battery mode and set it to Normal if it has that option.