Get accurate information from an aftermarket battery

[schiesz]

I rolled the dice recently and bought an aftermarket battery off the bay for my X23. It works fine, but it reports all kinds of crazy numbers to windows, TP utilities, and mobmeter.

I have had fully charged capacities listed of: 30 Wh, 595 Wh, 81Wh, and now 313 Wh for my first 4 cycles of the battery.

This is a battery that should have a reading somewhere around 43 Wh if the batteries are good.

I have done full charge/discharge cycles all 4 times now, because the instructions that came with the battery said I needed to do this to properly condition the battery. This doesn't fit in with what I know about Li-ion batteries, but I have read it deals more with conditioning the electronics that read the batteries status than with conditioning the cels themselves.

Has anyone else had this kind of fluctuation (and erroneous readings) with an after-market battery? Maybe I should just try to return this one and start over.

[Robbyrobot]

Just an idea... have you tried installing Battery Maximizer 1.38 from the Lenovo site?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-44226

I just recently happened onto it and find it very useful for evaluating batteries in my T21. Perhaps it would also give you some better information.

[schiesz]

I'm pretty sure I have it on there already, but i'll check the version.

The best information probably comes from mobmeter, then Thinkpad utilities is probably the next best.

Which part of the Battery Maximizer are you using to evaluate T21 batteries?

If you haven't tried it before, look at Mobmeter. http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValle ... mm0310.zip

[Robbyrobot]

Which part of the Battery Maximizer are you using to evaluate T21 batteries?

The "Battery Information" part, then click on "Battery Health". I'm using it to recondition some batteries I bought used, and it appears to do a fair job on that.

Mobmeter is good, too... I already found it and have it running to monitor the CPU frequency and temperature. Thanks for the tip.

[schiesz]

I can't find any way to display the version of Battery Maximizer I am using, but does yours have a button there called "Improve battery Health" ?

My T23 and X23 do not, but my T42 does have this button. I figured that the older machines do not have this capability, but if you are using it on a T21, it must be my software version.

[schiesz]

Ok, I am using 1.38, but there are no options to improve the battery. I thought after two more full cycles on this battery that I had it, last night right before it died it showed 46 Wh full charge capacity. But after charging it all night, it showed 105 Wh full capacity.

Oh well, at least the battery works well. I get at least 5x the life out of this one than I did out of the old one.

I guess i'll just live with it, and hope it slowly gets more accurate.

[Robbyrobot]

I can't find any way to display the version of Battery Maximizer I am using, but does yours have a button there called "Improve battery Health" ?

No, I was looking for this too, but didn't find it. Perhaps the option is not available for my T21. I just switched off all the low battery safety devices (hibernation) in both the Windows and Battery Maximizer Wizard to make sure the battery would discharge completely (right down to 0%) without the computer going into hibernation, and then recharged the battery to 100%. This brought a respectable increase in the battery capacity in every case (I treated three batteries) the first time I completely discharged and then recharged them. The second time sometimes brought a smaller increase, and the third time had no further effect.

[GomJabbar]

I can't find any way to display the version of Battery Maximizer I am using, but does yours have a button there called "Improve battery Health" ?

My T23 and X23 do not, but my T42 does have this button. I figured that the older machines do not have this capability, but if you are using it on a T21, it must be my software version.

If you launch the Battery MaxiMiser Wizard, the first screen has the version on the lower right - at least this is true with the latest version 1.38. Also Software Installer will report the version of Battery MaxiMiser that you are running.

It is true that older ThinkPads than the T42 do not support all the features and menu items of Battery MaxiMiser.

[Robbyrobot]

It is true that older ThinkPads than the T42 do not support all the features and menu items of Battery MaxiMiser.

The situation is even worse than that. This is what IBM/Lenovo writes about Battery Maximiser 1.38:

Summary of supported programs, machines, and operating systems

* ThinkPad Power Property
o Supported on all machines
o Not supported on Windows NT 4.0
* Battery MaxiMiser program
o Not supported on ThinkPad 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, i-1157
o Not supported on Windows 95/NT 4.0
* Battery Information program
o Not supported on ThinkPad 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, i-1157
o Supported on all operating systems
* Fuel-Gauge program
o Supported only on ThinkPad 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, i-1157
o Not supported on Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP ACPI system

Even with BatteryMon (http://www.passmark.com/products/batmon.htm), you can't read off a serial number, manufacture date, or number of cycles of a (Li-ion) battery in a 770E.

I'm just wondering whether this is due to some limitation in the Thinkpad itself, or whether the earlier batteries simply didn't have this kind of information in the electronics they contain. At any rate, I'm trying to recondition a battery in my 770E and will see whether the system will allow me to fully discharge it to do that - I've got everything I can find (suspension, hibernation) shut off and hope that will be sufficient.