Thinkpads Forum

Having just had a battery failure after only 14 months and 77 cycles (seems some of the cells have failed as it now only lasts about 30 mins despite saying condition good and 3 hours to go - 30 mins later at 4% and takes only 30 mins to fully charge) I just bought a new battery and will be paying much closer attention to managing it using the Power Manager tool Battery Maintenance options.

Have read a lot here and elsewhere about batt issues and thresholds for maximising life. Can live with the conflicting advice too, but what I really want to know is this:

If I select the "Optimize for battery lifespan (automatically change for me)" option and check the box that says "Notify me when thresholds change" - is there any way this little app can be persuaded to tell me what the thresholds actually ARE at any time / at the outset?

It is all very well letting it decide what thresholds for charging/discharging to implement but I would like to know what they are and nowhere can I see how to find out what thresholds it has actually set. And I have not yet had a " they've changed" message and have no idea when I might. I know I'm just the poor sap who pays for the batteries but surely I can be allowed to know what, in its wisdom, the Power Manager has deemed appropriate to implement if I give its own way?

Anyone got any experience/clues as to how to track/monitor the automatic levels when these settings selected?

Thanks.

George
PS On a T60 widescreen with Power Manager 1.33

After not getting instant gratification from the auto setting, I just set it manually, according to how I use the battery. Which is almost never, so I put in 20/80.

yeah - I was gonna go with 80 and 20 or 30 if I used manual

But I'd really like to know what the auto settings do - seems kinda dumb to have them but for it not to be able to tell the user what it is doing. It's not that I wouldn't trust it ....

I may have to revert to Lenovo to ask them directly (sigh)

Cheers
George