Inaccurate battery meter

[antickpix]

Hi,

I bought my Thinkpad Edge 14 a couple of weeks ago, and have been encountering a couple of persistent problems with the battery and power management system.

Firstly, in spite of running in the Energy Star mode, I get barely two hours of battery life from my six cell battery.

Secondly (and more worrying), is that when the computer is running on battery, the battery life shown remaining varies wildly. When it reaches around 19% battery remaining, the computer prompts to switch to AC power or hibernate. When I do plug the power in, the life remaining drops to 6%, and it starts charging.

While the poor battery life is an issue, my main problem is that I can't tell how much battery life I do have left.

I've updated my BIOS, but it doesn't seem to have solved the issue.

Help, please.

[synergetic]

I'm too facing the same issue. I got my Edge 14 from Best Buy 0578-26U. Lenovo has introduced a firmware for the batteries, but mine is not supported. I've got 42T4751. I hope Lenovo does listen to our problem and put a fix for our FRU batteries as well.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-70811

try the battery firmware update. 

[antickpix]

Thanks for the response.

The update says that my firmware is up to date. Yet the problem persists.

[Ken · Accepted solution]

Start with a battery gauge reset to get Power Manager in sync with the battery pack. Then see what condition Power Manager reports the battery is in (good,fair,poor).

The other issue that is address with the battery FW upgrade is different than the issue you are reporting. The FW was released for all batteries that had that issue.

[Leighton]

Hi,

Please also have a look if you are running in maximum lifespan mode. This option does not allow your battery to charge fully as charging to 100% the whole time does reduce battery life.

So even if your gauge says 100% it wont be at 100% more like 80% or 90% but it varies the charge.

If this is the case in the battery manager, under maintenance set it to always charge from 96%. You will see your guage change automatically to its true charge.

Many Thanks,

Leighton

[antickpix]

After I performed the battery gauge reset, it does appear to reflect its true (or as true as can be) charge.

Thanks a lot.

[RonanHK]

Hi, I bought a Thinkpad Edge 14 a couple of weeks back, and have found that my battery won't charge at all.  It is a 42T4848, and is a genuine Lenovo battery (it was in the box with the laptop).  I have installed the battery firmware update (was told it was already installed).  I have the AC adaptor permanently in now, because as soon as I take it out, the laptop dies - ie my battery is holding zero charge.  I have tried everything I can find on the system, but no joy.

Any idea what I have to do to get it to start taking a charge?