Mailing List ecs-t6x@2rosenthals.com Archived Message #562

From:	"Lewis G Rosenthal" <ecs-t6x@2rosenthals.com>	Full Headers Undecoded message
Subject:	Re: [eCS T60/T61] T61 dead battery
Date:	Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:27:12 -0400
To:	eCS ThinkPad T60/61 Mailing List <ecs-t6x@2rosenthals.com>

Hi, Jon. Apologies for the late follow-up; tax appointments and crunching numbers today... On 04/05/10 04:37 pm, Jon thus wrote : Pardon me for the off topic post, I hope someone here can help me out. My T61 has a 9 cell battery, 2 yrs old. One day it's good for 3+ hrs, the next day it is dead, as in won't charge and is good for 0 minutes. Familiar story, sorry to say. It's a lithium ion and after doing some research I find that this type of battery should not be allowed to run down. This weekend I ran it to about 5% on the meter and then shut down. I didn't charge it because it doesn't take that long to charge and I didn't want to leave it charging all night. This was probably a fatal mistake. When I plugged it in I got a rapid flashing battery light. I have never had major issues with fully discharging and then leaving discharged Li-ion overnight (storing these without charge is never recommended, because the discharge protection circuit in the battery will likely cause the charging circuit in the laptop to refuse to charge it, reporting it as a dead (0v) unit). You may be able to revive it by letting it sit at rest for a few hours & trying again. A good link for you: http://batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm By booting into XP I find that it is detected as a dead battery. I also discovered that there is a power option app that allows the user to perform maintenance tasks on the battery to help it maintain a longer life. Oh well, I guess I have to pay now for not using Windows! LOL! Indeed, the ThinkVantage power manager app is pretty good. I find that shop.lenovo has a 9 day lead time on replacements @ $179!! A bit rich in my opinion. Yep. Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative to Lenovo? There is a lot of alternatives on the web but I have heard of bad deals on batteries and some of the prices are so low as to be suspicious. Some sites offer Lenovo batteries but don't specifically say they are new (or used). Perhaps someone knows of a trusted vendor? I've never been overly pleased with aftermarket batteries. The one I'm using on my T43 right now is okay (2hrs+ runtime, with Wi-Fi & minimal DVD & hard drive activity), however, it drains to about 4% and then the system just shuts off dead (no 3%, 2%, etc.). So, when I see that I'm down to about 6 or 7%, it's time to start scrambling for the AC adapter (this is also a 9-cell, BTW). The price was right, however (~$50). One of the better suppliers I've used for batteries has been atbatt (http://www.atbatt.com), and have had some level of success with their aftermarket pieces. Even batteries.com has some decent ones (and a good discount on the Lenovo-branded batteries. I really shy away from purchasing batteries on eBay, even when they are advertised as being the genuine article and brand new. I can't tell you how many I've fought with to send a battery back when they came in unsealed boxes ("oh, but we do that to test them..."), and then there was the time I ordered a battery for my mother's A22m which was supposedly brand new, and yet the stamping on the bottom of it (grooved, to match the rest of that side of the underside of the machine) was damaged - again, "testing" was to blame). While there are only a handful of manufacturers of the various cells (Sanyo, SONY, Panasonic, Hitachi?, and a couple more which escape me, now), the electronics in the battery are really the only difference between the branded ones and the aftermarket ones, AFAIK. -- Lewis ------------------------------------------------------------- Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA, CLP, CLE Rosenthal & Rosenthal, LLC www.2rosenthals.com Need a managed Wi-Fi hotspot? www.hautspot.com visit my IT blog www.2rosenthals.net/wordpress -------------------------------------------------------------

Subscribe: Feed, Digest, Index.
Unsubscribe
Mail to ListMaster