9 cell battery only lasts 2 hours

[demerson3]

Hi there,

This is a new refurbished T42, with a new battery from the factory, but it only lasts about 2 hours instead of 6-7.

CPU frequency scaling is set up, so I am usually running at 600 MHz, and the LCD is near the minimum brightness.

The battery is reporting that its last "full" capacity was only about 31000 mWh instead of the designed full capacity of about 71000 mWh.

Someone told me that the battery maximiser software has a special feature that very slowly discharges, and then very slowly recharges the battery, in order to claim the full capacity.

Does anyone have any experience with this program fixing such battery problems?

I'm running linux, so I guess I would need to either reinstall windows or find a friend with a thinkpad who can run the software for me

Thanks,
David

[singularity2006]

The last time I tried Linux, I had a horrible time with any kind of power management at all.  Even with CPU scaling on, my battery seemed to drain for no reason.  I think if I had a better idea of how to recompile the kernel with the necessary ACPI modules, I might still be using Linux - but I honestly have no clue. 

In anycase, you might want to try the battery learning feature that should be built into the BIOS - is this option available to you?

And all else.... back to Windows... a big *SIGH*. 

[Yajiv]

I don't think so Linux have this kind of features. Anyway what version of Linux your using?

[demerson3]

I'm not asking about features on Linux.

I'm asking if anyone has used the Windows Battery MaxiMiser to solve this type of problem with a battery not charging fully.

The battery reports:

design capacity: 71280 mWh
last full capacity: 31550 mWh

So the battery is not being fully charged! I was told by someone that the Battery MaxiMiser has a utility that can drain and slowly recharge a battery, in such a way that it will subsequently be easily charged to its full capacity.

Does anyone have any experience using the Battery MaxiMiser to solve charging problems?

Thanks!
~David.

[billbolton Community Moderator]

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demerson3 wrote:
Hi there,

This is a new refurbished T42, with a new battery from the factory, but it only lasts about 2 hours instead of 6-7.

---

I've never seen a T4x with a 9 cell battery run for 6-7 hours under any circumstances, so your expectation is somewhat unrealistic in that respect, IMO.

However something is clearly not right about the battery if it is supposedly new and only accepting a ~50% charge.  You can certainly do a battery refresh cycle using the ThinkPad Power Manager utility under Windows XP/Vista, but whether this would fix the problem or not is unclear until you actually do it.

Cheers,

Bill

Message Edited by billbolton on 12-15-2007 11:57 AM

[mkohut_Lenovo]

Someone told me that the battery maximiser software has a special feature that very slowly discharges, and then very slowly recharges the battery, in order to claim the full capacity.

This utility doesn't work under Linux (but you knew that).  What it does is fully charge the battery, drain the battery completely and then recharge the battery fully.  The advantage of using the utility is that it prevents power management from kicking in while the battery is discharging so that it fully discharges vs. going into suspend/hibernate.

I'd be very interested in seeing what TP Power Manager has to say about your battery in the "battery information" tab.  What you're describing does not sound normal at all.