Brand new 6-cell only in "fair" condition?

[intelli78]

Hey all,

I recently bought a T43 from Thinkpad World. It was an L-claim, but looked brand new and has otherwise acted its part. They gave me a 9cell with my purchase which was an older battery, and held only about 60% of its original charge. When I spoke with them, they sent me a new 6cell dated April 2006.

However, this battery reads as having about 70% of its original capacity, and seems to only last about 1.5-2 hours with reasonable power settings.

I am not sure whether I have indeed been sent 2 lousy batteries, or if my Thinkpad has some kind of problem. I find it unlikely that the Thinkpad could have such a problem, but I also find it unlikely that a 2 month old unused battery would be only in "fair" condition. Anybody have some advice on this matter? thanks in advance.

[christopher_wolf]

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

You might also want to check the wear level on them; you can do that with NHC. If everything in the Power Manager tells you that a battery only holds 70% of its original capacity, and not a small change like 90% one day and 95% the other, then you can be fairly sure it is a problem with the battery. I have seen relatively "young" batteries lose quite a bit of capacity over a short period of time depending on how they are used and treated. Also check to see how many cycles it has on it as well; that could clue you in on any of its former uses and the condition it might have been in.

HTH

[intelli78]

Thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. I installed NHC, and it reports there is 29% wear on the battery. However, the battery has 11 cycles. Crazy? I think so.

Thinkpad World sent the battery to me in a bag marked April 2006, and it physically appears to be brand new. I don't think they intentionally did anything wrong.

The capacity was reported around 70% of original as soon as I got the battery, so I don't think it's anything I did to it. I don't go very hard on batteries - usually use my notebook for 45 to 60 minutes at a time and then recharge, occasionally using the entire charge. Pretty standard usage pattern.

It just occurred to me that my friend's uncle has a T43. I should pay him a visit and ask if I can pop his battery in my computer... That should clear up whether or not it's the Thinkpad.

[christopher_wolf]

Thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. I installed NHC, and it reports there is 29% wear on the battery. However, the battery has 11 cycles. Crazy? I think so.

Thinkpad World sent the battery to me in a bag marked April 2006, and it physically appears to be brand new. I don't think they intentionally did anything wrong.

The capacity was reported around 70% of original as soon as I got the battery, so I don't think it's anything I did to it. I don't go very hard on batteries - usually use my notebook for 45 to 60 minutes at a time and then recharge, occasionally using the entire charge. Pretty standard usage pattern.

It just occurred to me that my friend's uncle has a T43. I should pay him a visit and ask if I can pop his battery in my computer... That should clear up whether or not it's the Thinkpad.

That would be a good thing, eliminate as many variables as you can; test the batteries across the T43s and see what happens. A wear level of ~30% doesn't sound too hot for a battery that should be new; I know the data was on the bag it came in, but did you check the first used date on the battery as well? You can get that data under Power Manager as well. Under Battery Details under the last tab.

[intelli78]

I will be [censored].. First used 01/2004. Thinkpad World has some nerve. The battery may only have 11 cycles, but what is with putting it in a brand new IBM bag? Not too pleased with this.

[christopher_wolf]

I will be [censored].. First used 01/2004. Thinkpad World has some nerve. The battery may only have 11 cycles, but what is with putting it in a brand new IBM bag? Not too pleased with this.

Hmmmm, I would be more than just dis-pleased. I would give them a call and tell them exactly what you found out. You also have hard proof in the form of a "New" bag.

[intelli78]

The bag itself is long gone. I didn't have the foresight to save it, but I also had no reason to believe they would do something like this.

In any case, I know, and they know what happened, so I will post an update on Monday.

Thanks a lot for your help. My eyes somehow glazed over the "first used" date until you specifically pointed it out.

[davidspalding]

11 cycles ... but first used 1/2004? Bad news. Batteries don't just last forever on the shelf (some recommend leaving LiIon batts at 50% charge before long-term storage). Hope they do right by you. Depending on the price you paid, either you got what you paid for, or were ripped. Without knowing, it's hard to say.

"Reasonable power settings" is likewise open to interpretation. If you use the Power Manager "power source optimized" setting, how long does it estimate the battery will run?

Unsolicited tip: if you haven't, use the battery conditioning feature. (Fully charges a batt, drains it to 3%, then charges up again.) I've done this and squeezed a 1/2 hour or more capacity out of a 2-3 year old batt with 300+ cycles. No kidding.

[intelli78]

11 cycles ... but first used 1/2004? Bad news. Batteries don't just last forever on the shelf (some recommend leaving LiIon batts at 50% charge before long-term storage). Hope they do right by you. Depending on the price you paid, either you got what you paid for, or were ripped. Without knowing, it's hard to say.

"Reasonable power settings" is likewise open to interpretation. If you use the Power Manager "power source optimized" setting, how long does it estimate the battery will run?

Unsolicited tip: if you haven't, use the battery conditioning feature. (Fully charges a batt, drains it to 3%, then charges up again.) I've done this and squeezed a 1/2 hour or more capacity out of a 2-3 year old batt with 300+ cycles. No kidding.

The most conservative power settings yield about 2:05. It's about the same in Ubuntu, even with laptop-mode-tools and cpu governing enabled.

I tried the conditioning feature on the first 9cell I had upon receiving the computer. It went all night and hadn't appeared to change at all. I had to take the Thinkpad with me so I just canceled it. Perhaps I will get a chance to test this again.

Had Thinkpad World simply said "well, we don't guarantee batteries", I would have been less annoyed than them trying to trick me. We shall see what happens.