Battery life on T520

[memilavi]

Hi,

Yesterday I've got my new shiny T520, with 9 cell battery.

According to the spec  sheet, this battery should be good for 12-14 hrs.

Today, after charging the battery to 100%, I've disconnected the AC only to find out that according to the battery meter I have ~5.5 hours left, with a 100% battery.

How is that possible? Why is the battery time so low? Is there any specific action I need to take in order to allow for longer battery life?

Thanks!

[ColonelONeill]

Most people are getting around 9 hours out of the battery, instead of the advertised 12-14. Even then, 5.5 hours seems very poor.

Set it to Maximum Battery Life in Power Manager and see what happens.

Do you have the integrated only model, or the Optimus one?
What kind of programs have you installed?

[eneka]

I have the the one with optimus and with light use I can get 5 hours on the 6-cell battery. Are you running graphic intensive programs? I know that when it fires up the graphics card it drops to around 2.5 hours.

[JDay]

In Power Manager switch to advanced view, click on the battery tab, select 'Battery Maintenance' and reset the guage. This will ensure that your battery is calibrated.

[ColonelONeill]

A new Lenovo battery should be properly calibrated...

[memilavi]

I've tried to set it to the Maximum Battery Life in Power Manager. The meter displayed 7:30 hours, but the screen became so dark I couldn't work with it. When I set the brightness to a more normal level, the power meter displayed 5.5 hrs again.

How can I know if I have the integrated or the optimus model? What's the difference between them?

Programs installed (though low meter is displaying when nothing is running):

Office 2010

Visual Studio 2010

Omea Reader

Tweetdeck

[ColonelONeill]

Go into the Battery tab of Power Manager and post the design capacity and full charge capacity of your battery.

[memilavi]

Design Capacity: 93.96 Wh

Full Charge Capacity: 93.85 Wh

[ColonelONeill]

Yeah... You should definitely be seeing 9 hours at least at idle.

Try updating everything using System Update...

I don't suppose you're willing to do a total restore?

[memilavi]

No, I really don't want to do a total restore on a brand new machine...

I'll try to perform System Update, and let you know if it helps.

Thanks!