thinkpads.com Support Community Forum Index Bill Morrow's thinkpads.com Open Forum - The Original Thinkpad Support Forum
Follow ThinkpadsForum on Twitter
eCoupons
Save with Lenovo ThinkPad eCoupons
Exclusive 4% CASH BACK from eCoupons.com
Support this forum, shop at newmodeus.com
 
It is currently Sun May 19, 2013 12:48 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 3:29 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:54 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Columbus, Ohio
I am trying to set low and high threshold charging levels on my new X120e.

If I set the low end at 40% and the upper level at 80%, for example, and the current charge happens to be at 51% at the time, the battery charge
somehow manages to stay at 51% indefinitely. The charging icon says it is not charging, and the battery icon indeed says that "Charging will start
when below 40% and stop at 80%.

Any combination of numbers results in the same behavior. The existing charge that is on the battery currently, will remain there … FOREVER!! So
the charger has to be charging the battery just enough to maintain the level it happens to be at.

Been thru this with Lenovo, they says something wrong inside. I was able to return to vendor for brand new one. The new one behaves exactly the same.

Any ideas? I think everyone is missing something, including me.

Again, if I let my battery drain down to 60%, for example, and set low charging level to 20% and high level to 90%, the battery charge will remain at 60%.
If I use the computer for a week, and check the battery level every minute, it will always read 60%.

Thanks, Jim


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:30 pm 
Offline
Freshman Member

Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2011 11:35 pm
Posts: 114
Location: Fort Myers, FL
This sounds normal to me. so if you have it set to charge when below 40% and stop at 80%, if you discharge the battery to 39% and plug it in, it will charge to 80%. if you discharge to 40% and plug in, it won't charge since it's not below 40% like you set it to.

_________________
W500 - T9600 | FireGL V5700 | 8GB DDR3 | Momentus XT 500GB | WUXGA | 7 Ult
X61t - L7500 | X3100 | 4GB DDR2 | C300 64GB | SXGA+ | 7 Pro
SL410, R60, T41p, T60 x4, T60p x3, T61 x4, T61p, T400, X60t, X61t x∞, Z60t Ti x2, Z60m Ti


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:28 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:54 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Like I said before, if the charge happens to be at 51% for example, it DOES NOT charge to 80%. It stays at 51%. It does not discharge, it does not charge ( at least according to the computer ) , but
obviously it must be charging intermittently to maintain a 51% charge. Why doesn't it charge back up to 80%, or conversely, why isn't the battery allowed to discharge down to 40%, and then charge back up to 80%

That is the issue.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:32 pm 
Offline
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder

Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:20 am
Posts: 4944
Location: Israel
Sounds like you just don't understand how this feature is supposed to work.

You set the battery to start charging when its <40% and to stop charging when it's at 80%, right?

Therefore if the current charge is anywhere between 40% and 80%, and it's connected to AC, it will stay there. The battery won't charge and won't discharge, the computer will use AC power.

Once you use the battery and it goes down below 40%, it will start charging the next time you connect to AC. And it will stop at 80%.

I don't see any issue here.

_________________
Current: T410 2537-R46, T60 1952-F76, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X61 7673-V2V
Collectibles: X32 w/ IPS Screen, A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
Past: Z61t 9440-A23, T60 2623-D3U, X32 2884-M5U


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:38 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:54 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Columbus, Ohio
That simply is not true. I don't make statements lightly. I do my research. The Full Charge Capacity of my battery is 58.55 Wh. When I don't use the Custom charge threshold, the battery discharges at a rate of about 0.01 Wh per hour - maybe closer to 1% every 2 1/2 days. This is just a shelf-life issue, as all batteries discharge ever so slightly over time. I set up a video camera that allowed me to record the Remaining Capacity over a 24 hour period, and record the current level at the same time.

When the threshold option is used, I could see the current level go from 0.00 to a couple amps for a few minutes, basically trickle charging the battery to keep it exactly at it's current Wh level. It only happens every few hours, but the only way to capture it was to replay the video ( at fast speed, of course )

So the battery does discharge without the Threshold option, but stays exactly the same with the Threshold option.

That is what I was getting at.

Jim


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:58 pm 
Offline
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder

Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:20 am
Posts: 4944
Location: Israel
That's an interesting observation and it shows that one of the statements I made is apparently not true, but it still does not mean that the general battery behavior you observe is anything but normal. :??:

_________________
Current: T410 2537-R46, T60 1952-F76, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X61 7673-V2V
Collectibles: X32 w/ IPS Screen, A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
Past: Z61t 9440-A23, T60 2623-D3U, X32 2884-M5U


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:35 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:54 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Still not sure what you mean. The laptop is not supposed to start charging until the battery discharges to 40%, but it keeps charging it every few hours to maintain
the current setting ( in this case, 51% ) It should take about 3 to 4 weeks to discharge this amount.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:08 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:54 pm
Posts: 8
Location: Columbus, Ohio
The general battery behavior was never an issue. I never thought the battery was behaving in an unusual manner. It was purely the behavior of the Threshold option.
The battery just does what it's told to do, either the laptop is charging it or it is not.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Crazy Battery Charging Threshold behavior - Help
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:31 pm 
Offline
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder

Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:20 am
Posts: 4944
Location: Israel
Okay, I think I _finally_ understand what you mean...

Yes, come to think of it, it is a bit different from what I'm used to. Usually my thresholds are 94% and 98% and even though I do find the battery at 97% most of the time, eventually it does seem to drop below 94% and charge back to 98%. Like you said, it can take a really long time.

Not sure why one would care though. If the goal is to reduce battery charging cycles, then you get just as much by charging a little bit every once in a while to maintain a fix level, as you do by letting it run down below the low threshold and then charging all the way to the high threshold in a single session.

_________________
Current: T410 2537-R46, T60 1952-F76, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X61 7673-V2V
Collectibles: X32 w/ IPS Screen, A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad
Past: Z61t 9440-A23, T60 2623-D3U, X32 2884-M5U


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group