New battery, same old low full charge capacity... :-(

[DaniWurf]

I recently called IBM and told them about my bad Sanyo battery. The sent me a new Sony battery.
I changed the battery while the computer was in hibernation. When I restarted the machine everything looked perfect (high full charge capacity, cycle count 0) so I shipped the old one back to IBM.

Today, a few days later, when I checked the battery info in the "IBM Battery Maximizer" it told me that the full charge capacity was only about 33 WHr, just like my old Sanyo battery. Another strange thing is that the cycle count is only 2, although i have cycled the new battery about 5 times.

It is almost like the machine cant read the full charge capacity value of the battery and instead uses the value from the old battery...

I have done one deep cycling (full discharge and then full recharge) of the new battery but it made no difference.

When I go into:
Battery Maximizer --> Battery Information --> Status Detail
I see this window:

Notice the asterisks (*) behind full charge capacity and cycle count. I dont think I have seen these asterisks before... Do you guys have them there?

Any suggestions to what I should do (besides calling IBM...) ?

[awolfe63]

That's the "Your battery is hosed" asterisk.

It comes on when Battery health shows yellow or red.

[siut]

My Sony replacement battery also show only 33.71Wh as the max capacity. I'm gonna get another replacement.

I think one or more of the cells are dead.

[DaniWurf]

Isnt the voltage supposed to be lower if any of the cells are dead?

I find it very interesting that you have got the exact same full charge capacity as me with the Sony replacement battery... do you also have the two asterisks? When did you get the replacement battery?


I called IBM today and the techie told me that it is fully normal to have yellow battery health... somehow I dont believe him. He suggested that I should do a full cycling of the battery and then check the battery status, so I did the cycling again, but no change. I will phone them again tomorrow... this is really annoying me.

[siut]

Isnt the voltage supposed to be lower if any of the cells are dead?

I find it very interesting that you have got the exact same full charge capacity as me with the Sony replacement battery... do you also have the two asterisks? When did you get the replacement battery?


I called IBM today and the techie told me that it is fully normal to have yellow battery health... somehow I dont believe him. He suggested that I should do a full cycling of the battery and then check the battery status, so I did the cycling again, but no change. I will phone them again tomorrow... this is really annoying me.

I don't think the voltage would be different, otherwise the 9 cell battery would have 50% higher voltage. The cells are probably attached in parallel.

I got mine 2 weeks ago, only have 3 cycles on it. The manufacture date was July 3 in China. About 3 days ago I almost completely discharged the battery during normal usage. The charge capacity dropped to 33.71 ever since. I only have one asterisk next to the charge capacity number.

I tried reconditioning the battery with no help at all. Lucky I still have my original Sanyo battery (I initially got the Sony replacement for fitment issue but the Sony battery was no better).

[awolfe63]

The cells are in sets of 3!

Thats why there are 3 cell, 6 cell, and 9 cell batteries!

(These are 10.8V packs and Lithium cells are nominally 3.6V)

[grantus]

Reading most of the posts on this forum about Full charge capacities seem to indicate that full discharges are NOT recommended. When I first got my T40, i lost 10Wh in one full discharge. I called for a replacement and never performed a full discharge again. If your unhappy with the battery replace it and don't full discharge it again. You will be much happier.

[admsteiner]

I had the same problem with a 9 cell sony, it read 51.11Whr full capacity, with the asterisk. I just got my replacement today, haven't tested it out yet.

--Adam