Help on BBU replacement

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marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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So I ordered a replacement bbu for my ibm raid card cross flashed LSI Bios on to the card to LSI SAS 9260-8i Firmware 2.130.363-1846. This is the item IBM 43W4342 ServeRAID card LSI -25039 SAS WITH BATTERY PACK.

The ebay seller said the bbu had a manu date of 2015. but my mega raid bios is saying otherwise. on top of it the design capacity is like 1/2 the older bbu unit. I msg the seller, but i want to see what others though about this situation. Should i send it back, or is the bios off or something else i need to do for it to register correctly?

This is the second bbu unit so im gettin tired of trying lol.
Capture.JPG

Other card with original bbu
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Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
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The whole BBU replacement headache is one of the reasons why I bought a card with a CacheVault + supercap for the new "server"/NAS I'm building. I went through a number of BBU's on my Dell PERC 5i/6i cards. After a few go around with cheap ones, I found a seller on eBay who was selling fresh batteries. The date code is printed on the label of the Dell BBU's. Of course they were a lot more money...
 

marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
1,532
288
83
Gotha Florida
The whole BBU replacement headache is one of the reasons why I bought a card with a CacheVault + supercap for the new "server"/NAS I'm building. I went through a number of BBU's on my Dell PERC 5i/6i cards. After a few go around with cheap ones, I found a seller on eBay who was selling fresh batteries. The date code is printed on the label of the Dell BBU's. Of course they were a lot more money...
what card are you using? maybe its time to dump these?
 

Stereodude

Active Member
Feb 21, 2016
453
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USA
IBM ServeRAID M5016 with 1gB CacheVault. It's basically a LSI-9265-8i. I crossflashed it to one, but it can't use the last few LSI/Avago firmware revisions because it doesn't like the CacheVault / supercap firmware or HW revision.

Firmware Package: 23.28.0-0015 (MR 5.10 Patch release) is the most recent one that will work on the hardware I have.
 

Twist

Member
Oct 15, 2015
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Send it back, no matter what bios you use the design capacity and date wont change, never seen a battery pack with a 675mAh battery before. Is this 'normal' capacity for ibm battery pack ?

What battery is the storage manager picture belonging to ? ibbu07, 08 or ibm pack ?
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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no, as far as i know it should be like 1530 range. The new battery is also physically smaller in size. I wondering if its definitely a knock off. This is the ebay battery after a learn cycle was completed.
Capture3.JPG

The storage manager picture is the same ibm battery type just on a different card. I own two of these cards, first is in my main pc, second one which had the dead battery is going into a server build.
 

Twist

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Oct 15, 2015
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Design capacity has now changed to the standard capacity of a ibbu07 (1215mAh) and I don't understand why as your eeprom should be sealed and design capacity only has a read option according to datasheet.
Perhaps batterypack just was in sleep state (MegaCli -AdpBbuCmd -BbuMfgSleep) when you got it and unsealed and now has calibrated.

What is the partnumber of your batterypack with 1530mAh capacity ? ibm or lsi ?
Do you have a picture of the new smaller battery ?
 

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marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
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here is original bbu that came with the card. looks like after a learn cycle it might be good? idk looks like per the capacity info it will reach 1215 once charged if im reading this right.
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Twist

Member
Oct 15, 2015
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Never seen the 2.8Wh battery before, strange thing is it's ibm fru number - I also have that fru number but it's the same size as your other battery @ 5.2Wh and also is the same size as the lsi ibbu07. The ebay auction does not specify capacity just fru number, are they fake I don't know - the datecode in eeprom value certainly does not match label.

According to your screenshot usable capacity is 1215mAh and when you took that picture capacity was only 288mAh, most likely it's recharging from your learn cycle and will rise to about 970mAh. Let me know where it stops.

Edit: forgot picture.
 

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marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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Not sure what happened to the battery but its reporting some crazy numbers. I tried changing out the pcb board that the battery is attached too and got the same results. The only other thing was i put the card into a desktop mb over night to reduce noise from server but i dont think that would cause weird issue.

sorry for quality of pic, was taken off monitor with cell vs remote ipmi.
2016-03-21 09.04.33.jpg
 

Twist

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Oct 15, 2015
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Something is seriously wrong, when you switched battery and pcb the eeprom on pcb uses the old battery configuration and that seems to have messed up the readings.

I have been altering hex code for raid battery in this thread and know it's not a dance on roses.
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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Ah i have three pcd boards. the original one that came with the card. alternative from another card i purchased (different card but same battery unit) and finally the new mini battery one. I wonder if i start another learn cycle if it will correct itself?
 

Twist

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Oct 15, 2015
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The datasheet for the charging circuit says that most function will be in a read only mode but it is worth a try, I don't know if the lsi/ibm raid fw will be able to override charging circuit eeprom alterations.
 

marcoi

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Apr 6, 2013
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Being its an IBM card cross flashed with lsi BIOS 124 that might be causing issues. Some other post mentioned newer firmware resolved bbu bug that resulted in dead batteries show good again. I don't recall now but there was a reason I stopped at firmware 124 with the card. Maybe boot time? Ifbi go higher version I would need to review the process and determine if I could revert back once bbu resolved itself.
 

Twist

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Oct 15, 2015
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Being its an IBM card cross flashed with lsi BIOS 124 that might be causing issues. Some other post mentioned newer firmware resolved bbu bug that resulted in dead batteries show good again. I don't recall now but there was a reason I stopped at firmware 124 with the card. Maybe boot time? Ifbi go higher version I would need to review the process and determine if I could revert back once bbu resolved itself.
Thats right, there has been several fw that have corrected battery problems - I have a m5015 and I use fw 0179 which I think is the latest.

Hehe with that capacity you can sell at ebay for any amount.
 

marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
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Gotha Florida
i did the latest LSI Firmware on teh card. Not sure if i should worry about leaving this bbu in place. Any chance it can explode? the ebay seller for the short battery will take it back, at this point im not sure if i should just send it back or keep it?

Capture6.JPG
 

Twist

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Oct 15, 2015
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That fw did not seem to change anything, capacity info is still way off - I don't see why it should explode as voltage in your last screenshot is at 3999mV. Battery code limits the voltage to 4100mV but battery fully charged is made to handle 4200mV.

I would send it back, I dont think paying 77$ for a 2.8Wh battery is cheap. As the date code on battery label is 2015 and date in eeprom is 2011 I would not pay for that.
 

marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
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Gotha Florida
i was able to get 30 refunded for the 2.8 battery. it should hold me until i decide what to do with the card. IE sell it and move on.