IBM ThinkPad Users' Group

[gohkhm]

@dasanyuan - So do you mean to say that its ok to leave the battery in the Thinkpad even though the charge is 100%? Will this reduce the lifespan of the battery if so? I always take out my batt whenever it hits 100% - so too bad when there's a power trip...

 

[dasanyuan]

@dasanyuan - So do you mean to say that its ok to leave the battery in the Thinkpad even though the charge is 100%? Will this reduce the lifespan of the battery if so? I always take out my batt whenever it hits 100% - so too bad when there's a power trip...

its ok one. u leave it in when its 100% it wont be drawing power from the batt, cause the charger is there, so the power is from the ac/pwr adapter ma. u know wat i mean?

 

[mikezuper]

its ok one. u leave it in when its 100% it wont be drawing power from the batt, cause the charger is there, so the power is from the ac/pwr adapter ma. u know wat i mean?

So there is an auto-cut-off feature from the hardware/software whenever the battery reach 100%?

My friend told me Sony notebook can put threshold of 80/85% of battery capacity - then dont charge further and use AC Power instead. Can we do that?

 

[dasanyuan]

So there is an auto-cut-off feature from the hardware/software whenever the battery reach 100%?

My friend told me Sony notebook can put threshold of 80/85% of battery capacity - then dont charge further and use AC Power instead. Can we do that?

ok there is this custom charge threshold for our thinkpads,

2 functions - start charging at below % & stop charging at %

 

[arcturuz]

hi guys

i'm planning to get a lenovo for general office work but too confused with the number of models.

was looking at the Edge series but realised there's no optical drive..

any model to recommend for a normal office user?

 

[dasanyuan]

SL410 for low budget.

X301 for high budget.

 

[gohkhm]

hi guys

i'm planning to get a lenovo for general office work but too confused with the number of models.

was looking at the Edge series but realised there's no optical drive..

any model to recommend for a normal office user?

I'll recommend the ever-reliable workhorse T-series. The T410 should be sufficent or T510 if you like a bigger screen. Powerful, yet portable.

 

[Epee]

alright, for this, hows ur battery life? is it ald more than 2yrs? because this issue happens when alot of users overcharge their battery w/o the proper settings. is ur warranty covered for 1yrs or 3yrs? i cant advise u about the baterry wear because i dun wanna say wrong things. but no worries, u can call the technical helpline at 800-6011-343 check with them to see if ur battery is under warranty to do a replacement.

hope to hear from u soon.

the battery in question is 120 cycles and 1 year old. I have already a case ID but it's pending other administrative issue. 1 week liow still no news, think must put some pressure

Let's assume I bring mine down to the service centre at Changi, assuming my warranty is still in force, will IBM replace the battery? I mean is there a policy on battery wear and warranty claim? Just to compare, I have an Acer which I 'abuse' the battery, it's close to 3 years old and I'm sure it has seen more than 300 cycles on it. Battery wear? 40+%.

I take care of my battery, I let Power Manager manage the charge threshold etc. So unless the Power Manager kok up, I believe I'm using IBM's 'best practice' here Or perhaps the charging circuit on the laptop itself is faulty??

In anycase, fellow Thinkpad users, care to report your battery's charge cycle and the % charge it can hold? Battery wear = 100 - %charge it can hold.

 

[ceecookie]

ok there is this custom charge threshold for our thinkpads,

2 functions - start charging at below % & stop charging at %

Do you know what's the lifespan of the thinkpad 6 cell battery 42T4653(used in T61,R61,T400,R400) in terms of cycle count?

My battery is currently a year old, MFU 25/2/09 & first use date 04/09. Battery cycle count is 330. I've set Power Manager to charge only when under 90%, and Battery Bar Pro(i ditched the PM taskbar icon because it's buggy) reports at full charge it's 100%. Overall battery life at full brightness /w discrete graphics card is 2 hr 30 mins.

Is the battery condition good? Cheers.

 

[dasanyuan]

alright, for all of your questions. i'm sorry to say n apologize coz we dont do component break down for parts.

epee, wats ur case id? i'll check it out for u or u can pm me for more details.

ceecookie, i believe ur batt is in a gd condition, 2hrs full brightness.

for me, i usually do the simple task of checking if the batt life is gd or bad by the colours, green is good, yellow - avg, red - bad. cause batt faulty cases usually comes when batt not charging after a period of time or batt cant last as stated on ur taskbar. then we will try to charge it, if batt is charging it could be the charging point that is faulty. we will have to replace the part to see if the batt is responsing to the charging. just to correct myself, if i did mislead anyone by accident. thinkpad batteries have 2 types of warranty, the standard 1 yr or in students or schools warranty scheme, the batt have 3 yrs. it will state clearly when u key in ur machine type n serial number while checking for warranty status, if not stated. its the usual 1 yr warranty.

anymore personal questions, just pm me... thanks. will try as much to help but not to go over the my company's policy. surely i want u guys to be happy with our service centre too....

good night~

 

[ceecookie]

alright, for all of your questions. i'm sorry to say n apologize coz we dont do component break down for parts.

epee, wats ur case id? i'll check it out for u or u can pm me for more details.

ceecookie, i believe ur batt is in a gd condition, 2hrs full brightness.

for me, i usually do the simple task of checking if the batt life is gd or bad by the colours, green is good, yellow - avg, red - bad. cause batt faulty cases usually comes when batt not charging after a period of time or batt cant last as stated on ur taskbar. then we will try to charge it, if batt is charging it could be the charging point that is faulty. we will have to replace the part to see if the batt is responsing to the charging. just to correct myself, if i did mislead anyone by accident. thinkpad batteries have 2 types of warranty, the standard 1 yr or in students or schools warranty scheme, the batt have 3 yrs. it will state clearly when u key in ur machine type n serial number while checking for warranty status, if not stated. its the usual 1 yr warranty.

anymore personal questions, just pm me... thanks. will try as much to help but not to go over the my company's policy. surely i want u guys to be happy with our service centre too....

good night~

Just to ask, is warranty for batteries seperate? I remember seeing somewhere my battery has 1 year only although laptop itself is 3 years.

Cheers.

 

[Epee]

Do you know what's the lifespan of the thinkpad 6 cell battery 42T4653(used in T61,R61,T400,R400) in terms of cycle count?

My battery is currently a year old, MFU 25/2/09 & first use date 04/09. Battery cycle count is 330. I've set Power Manager to charge only when under 90%, and Battery Bar Pro(i ditched the PM taskbar icon because it's buggy) reports at full charge it's 100%. Overall battery life at full brightness /w discrete graphics card is 2 hr 30 mins.

Is the battery condition good? Cheers.

Let me explain a little bit here. There are 3 items which will be of interest. The first is the designed capacity. PM or BatteryBar (I'm using v3.3.3 if we're talking about the same software) will tell you that. For mine, it is 56.16Wh (Watt-hr). This means if my machine draws 10W, a fresh battery can see me through 5.616 hours. If my machine draws 20W, then 2.808 hours, you do the math.

Next item is the current charge capacity. As Li-on batteries age or under-go charge cycles, some parts of it will be irreversibly damaged and will not hold any charge at all. This means that there will be wear and tear and this is normal. So if you look under PM, there is a 'Full Charge Capacity'. For mine, it is currently 36.19 Wh. Approx 36% battery wear (56.16 - 36.19)/56.16 * 100%

Last item is the cycle count. This just tells you how many charge cycles the battery goes through. Your first use date is Apr 2009 but ran through 330 charge cycles, well-done! That's more than once per day. If your battery wear is less than 30%, I'll say your battery is still in very good condition, considering the usage.

Do note that heat, not age or charge cycles, is the #1 killer for batteries. PM will also show you the battery temperature. My observation is that my x200 is able to maintain a temp of between 30-40 while in operation. The reason why pple says take the battery out if you're on AC is because of heat, not because of charge cycles

 

[ceecookie]

Let me explain a little bit here. There are 3 items which will be of interest. The first is the designed capacity. PM or BatteryBar (I'm using v3.3.3 if we're talking about the same software) will tell you that. For mine, it is 56.16Wh (Watt-hr). This means if my machine draws 10W, a fresh battery can see me through 5.616 hours. If my machine draws 20W, then 2.808 hours, you do the math.

Next item is the current charge capacity. As Li-on batteries age or under-go charge cycles, some parts of it will be irreversibly damaged and will not hold any charge at all. This means that there will be wear and tear and this is normal. So if you look under PM, there is a 'Full Charge Capacity'. For mine, it is currently 36.19 Wh. Approx 36% battery wear (56.16 - 36.19)/56.16 * 100%

Last item is the cycle count. This just tells you how many charge cycles the battery goes through. Your first use date is Apr 2009 but ran through 330 charge cycles, well-done! That's more than once per day. If your battery wear is less than 30%, I'll say your battery is still in very good condition, considering the usage.

Do note that heat, not age or charge cycles, is the #1 killer for batteries. PM will also show you the battery temperature. My observation is that my x200 is able to maintain a temp of between 30-40 while in operation. The reason why pple says take the battery out if you're on AC is because of heat, not because of charge cycles

Thanks for the information. On average my laptop is consuming 20W~ per hour; battery's 56.26Wh.

Regarding heat and battery usage, after reading up about the optimal usage guideline i have ensured that it's charged when around 30-40% & temp rarely exceed 45deg.

At the moment, battery bar is reporting full charge capacity to be exactly 56.26W with 0% battery wear - Beats me on why there's no wear&tear though

 

[dasanyuan]

yup warranty for batt is diff. unless stated clearly 3 yrs, its only 1 yr. but ur thinkpad is still 3 yrs lets say if u have 3 yrs warranty for ur thinkpad.

IMPORTANT: software warranty is only 3 months after purchase. PLS REMEMBER

 

[Epee]

Thanks for the information. On average my laptop is consuming 20W~ per hour; battery's 56.26Wh.

Regarding heat and battery usage, after reading up about the optimal usage guideline i have ensured that it's charged when around 30-40% & temp rarely exceed 45deg.

At the moment, battery bar is reporting full charge capacity to be exactly 56.26W with 0% battery wear - Beats me on why there's no wear&tear though

This is usually due to inaccurate battery gauge. Have you actually used the battery till it almost die? If not, some parts of the battery may already be dead, just that PM is not aware If you are running on batteries and you experience symptoms like a sudden drop in battery reported capacity, or your laptop suddenly goes into hibernation, when you still have juice left, this means that your gauge is inaccurate and is in need of calibration. A calibration is done by just draining your battery till it dies and let it charge again. Note that this will actually be harmful so don't do it often.

But if you can really use the 56.26Wh to the last drop, I'll say you have an exceptional battery.

 

[ahtea]

Just to ask, is warranty for batteries seperate? I remember seeing somewhere my battery has 1 year only although laptop itself is 3 years.

Cheers.

Yes, it is a seperate warranty.

Battery is only covered for 1 year.

 

[ceecookie]

This is usually due to inaccurate battery gauge. Have you actually used the battery till it almost die? If not, some parts of the battery may already be dead, just that PM is not aware If you are running on batteries and you experience symptoms like a sudden drop in battery reported capacity, or your laptop suddenly goes into hibernation, when you still have juice left, this means that your gauge is inaccurate and is in need of calibration. A calibration is done by just draining your battery till it dies and let it charge again. Note that this will actually be harmful so don't do it often.

But if you can really use the 56.26Wh to the last drop, I'll say you have an exceptional battery.

By the way, im only using PM's power plan. Reported battery capacity is via BatteryBar Pro.

Very rarely have i used the battery until the very last drop..usually i let the battery go until 20-30% at most(where low battery warning appears) before switching to AC.

I have not done any calibration since day 1, and it's been a year. Advisable to do one now?

 

[Epee]

By the way, im only using PM's power plan. Reported battery capacity is via BatteryBar Pro.

Very rarely have i used the battery until the very last drop..usually i let the battery go until 20-30% at most(where low battery warning appears) before switching to AC.

I have not done any calibration since day 1, and it's been a year. Advisable to do one now?

This is really up to you. Some prefers an accurate gauge so that you can precisely predict how much run-time you have.

 

[dasanyuan]

Yes, it is a seperate warranty.

Battery is only covered for 1 year.

some batt is 3 years. like most of the poly machines. 3 yrs onsite warranty + batt 3 yrs... so buy from school ur warranty more wu hua

 

[ceecookie]

some batt is 3 years. like most of the poly machines. 3 yrs onsite warranty + batt 3 yrs... so buy from school ur warranty more wu hua

Hi. My Thinkpad is purchased from the 2009 poly notebook fair, however i do remember battery warranty is stated as 1 year only.