Ultrabay Batteries : Dying a quick death ...

[systemBuilder]

Hi,

I recently received 3x New Ultrabay batteries. At inception, they had something like 25.6 mAh of capacity, according to my T42's. After 10 discharge/charge cycles, they had less than half of that capacity. Attempting to reset their capacities upped them from about 10 mAh to 14-16 mAh, but still it's pretty awful to lose 40% of your battery in 10 cycles only ... The batteries all have internal meters which say that they were first used in 12/2012.

What is going on? These batteries are IBM OEM equipment as far as I can tell, they came in IBM OEM boxes with all the accountrements, including a lengthy and ridiculous owner's manual in many different languages, from IBM ...

Is this just a case of old cells?

[ajkula66]

Date of manufacture?

If not visible in Power Manager, there's a sticker on the box...

[systemBuilder]

I will check the date of manufacture when I get home tonight. Meanwhile, I am surprised that they could read 25.6 mAh for the first few cycles, then drop, i thought that with old cells, they would be bad from the outset.

Another related question, which I think the earlier thinkpad owners (600, 700, etc.) must have already answered. Has anybody cracked open an ultrabay battery to replace the cells? I don't think these batteries are being made any more, as every one that I have ever owned said "IBM" on the outside, and that's so 2007 (when Lenovo dropped the IBM name from its products). Is it possible to open the pack and replace the cells? I googled for it and looked at photos, but I came up completely empty on that subject.

[systemBuilder]

Wow its a 2003-08-21 battery, even older than my T42p, it sat around for 9.3 years before I finally opened it. When did IBM stop manufacturing ultrabay batteries? Is it a pretty safe bet that ALL NOS ultrabay batteries are "past their expiry date", so probably not worth anything on ebay these days? Thanks.

[ajkula66]

I've recently bought a 2008 NOS battery from a fellow memober here, so far so good...

[systemBuilder]

Is there a conditioning protocol for Ultrabay Batteries? Thanks.

[ajkula66]

I'd just treat it as a regular battery, run it down dead and see how it behaves after a full charge...wouldn't hold my hopes too high, though...