Please help with Lead-Acid Fast-Charge IC

[gcardinal]

hi!

I have a board with BQ2031 chip on it - datasheet.
It is on a board from: HP 348879-005 4.0 V cached battery for HP servers

I have replacement on order, but since I live in Norway it is a few days away. So Im looking for alternative solution - and it is extremely urgent.

First I have de-soldered all the batteries and connected to a DC supply in order to simulate healthy batteries. It didnt work as the board still was saying it was in a "Fault condition". It wasnt even trying our batteries or drawing any current from the batteries.

In datasheet it says following:
"If the battery voltage is less than the low-voltage threshold, the bq2031 provides trickle-current charging until the voltage rises into the allowed range or an internal timer runs out and places the bq2031 in a Fault condition."

I only need to this battery to work for 30-60 second - give away a "green" signal - in order for the server controller to boot. And I cant replace the batteries them self.

My question is:
If I swap BQ2031 for a brand new BQ2031 chip will it by default start as "green" and boot up even if batteries are low or will it right away without delay enter a "Fault state" again?..
And is there any other way to "trick" this board into thinking it has new batteries?

[rexxar]

If you're sure the batteries are healthy, replacing the IC should fix the problem-- if that is the problem.

I'd try charging the batteries manually, then hooking them back up. I wonder if the system isn't testing the batteries, and your DC supply couldn't handle the load.

If any of the batteries failed short, they could well have fried some internal circuitry. This happened to an old UPS I had, it blew the ass end out of the MOSFETS.