Reconditioning a battery on a thinkpad.

[kensplace]

WIth a thinkpad when you recondition the battery (in this instance its a g40 I just got on ebay for my other half, but the question is in general for all thinkpad models, unless any have specific problems) do you really have to close all applications and let the battery drain flat..

Or can you just unplug it and carry on using as normal until the battery drains flat.

Does it make a difference to the reconditioning process if you use the laptop whilst the battery is draining?

[ryengineer]

You don't have to manually discharge the battery, have ThinkVantage Battery Maximizer / Power Manger do it for you, that way you don't even have to be in front of your thinkpad to monitor the entire process.

However, if you really want to do it manually then make sure you don't discharge it beyond 4%, your thinkpad G40 uses Li-ion battery and complete deep discharge can cause lithium ion cells to become short that will likely result in a dead battery.