Got a pretty good deal on T4x / R5x batteries

[Menneisyys]

I’ve finished testing the two IBM Thinkpad T4x / R5x batteries I’ve purchased from THIS http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0335732441 eBay seller for £24,99 (now with the U.K. pound being very weak, about 27 euros) + £8 s&h (to Europe; +£5 for all additional items).

Both batteries indeed seem to be indeed genuine IBM-manufactured:
- They have the IBM logo on the battery itself and IBM stickers on the (sealed) box they’ve come (each had, of course, a box)
- The LED doesn’t blink every second (or two) when the batteries are full. Neither do they switch to blinking quickly in amber (showing they’re completely empty) after about 10 hours of being constantly connected to AC. Finally, they don’t force my t42p to quickly hibernate and power down at around 40% of charge level – that is, they, electrically, behave exactly like genuine IBM batteries. The two third-party batteries I’ve purchased for the t42p and the a31p did all of these.

Note that both batteries came at 11% wear level and were completely empty when they arrived. (Doh! What an excellent way to quickly deteriorate Li-Ion batteries!) They were manufactured in Oct. 2006; that is, they are not very new. Nevertheless, I think they’re a very good buy if you’re European or, even better, in the U.K. (to keep the s&h fees down) – the other battery sources I’ve checked demanded a much higher price point.

Note that I’m in no way associated with the particular shop – just posting this as a “heads up” for Europeans wanting to get some additional batteries.

Some shots:

Screenshot of NHC: http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/ibmt40battery.png

Sticker: http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/IMG_8616.JPG

Seal: http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/IMG_8617.JPG

Battery from up: http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/IMG_8618.JPG

And from down: http://winmobiletech.com/kuvat/IMG_8619.JPG

[Menneisyys]

In the meantime, one of the batteries has turned out to be only chargeable up until 85% (and not 100%). Not even full power cycles seem to help this (I've discharged the battery to about 5% by running the notebook almost-idle).

That is, generally, you may be lucky (as with my other battery) or not that much.

(Nevertheless, even with these problems, these batteries fare far better than the third-party one I've bought...)