YOGA C630 WOS Battery Replacement

The battery in my YOGA C630 WOS was acting weird. The maximum charge was varying every single time, and sometimes it just would not charge to 100%. I thought it might be a software/firmware problem that should get fixed, but updates came and the problems persisted. It was time to replace the battery.

The problem

Because my problems did not go away with updates, I was getting worried it might be a hardware problem. Because my unit had only warranty in the US, I could not get it serviced here in Europe.

As I could see it, there were two possibilities:

• it is either the battery itself, or
• it is a hardware problem with the motherboard / other things inside the notebook

I crossed my fingers, wished it was the battery and ordered a replacement online. I would need to replace the battery myself. It then took almost 10 weeks for the replacement to arrive.

Getting ready

You might have read my other hardware maintenance articles, so you know I prefer tools from iFixit. This occasion was no difference, so I got out a set of trusty tools.

I also consulted the hardware maintenance manual of the YOGA C630 WOS. You can download it from the Lenovo Support Site. I recommend anyone to consult these guides before doing anything with their Lenovo computers.

Let’s open it up

As a first step, I removed all the screws. Then I proceeded to get the back cover off. I followed the guidelines of the hardware maintenance manual: start at the back side.

I used the opening picks, the plastic cards, the opening tools and the spudger to get started. In the end the most useful was the opening picks, which I also left in there to prevent the housing from snapping back together by accident.

Some of the plastic hooks that keep the back cover in place were really nasty to open up. It required bending the sides using the opening picks, applying just the right amount of force / in the right direction. Finally I got the back side opened.

After the back side was complete, I proceeded with the sides, these opened up fairly easily.

Replacing the battery

The next step was to actually replace the battery. The hardware maintenance manual is a little bit vague at this point: it says remove the screws, remove the connector and remove the battery. What it fails to mention is that a lot of cables are running around the edge of the battery.

In fact the battery itself contains the channels for these cables. So they need to be removed from the clips before the battery can be removed. And of course put back in after replacing the battery.

The battery connector was also very hard to disconnect.

To remove the cables from around the battery, I used the halberd spudger, because it has a nice hook on one end. This was perfect for working with the tiny wires.

With the wires removed, I could finally remove the battery and replace it with the new battery. Then came the process of putting the wires back in around the battery before screwing everything back together.

Closing up

Closing up is basically doing these steps in reverse. It took some time to replace the cables in the channels. After that is just screwing things back together. Putting the backplate back in place was far easier than tooking it apart, it clipped together nicely.

Results

With everything closed up, I plugged in power and checked the computer still boots. Then I waited for the battery to charge up.

The notebook charged itself to 100%, and it showed a wear level of -0.5%, meaning that it was above designed capacity. Since then the computer is charging to 100% and the wear level is consistent, not jumping around. It would seam that the problem was indeed a faulty battery (or battery circuits) and replacing the battery solved my problem.

I still like the C630 very much as a secondary / companion device, so I am really happy that it is back to top form. I used it quite a lot in designing my text adventure game that I have worked on in the summer (and that can be played in the 2019 Interactive Fiction Competition – the game is called Bradford Mansion).