new battery reconditioning

[Purcy]

I just bought a new battery and am in the process of reconditioning it as the shipper suggested; they said to do the process 3 or 4 times.The battery now has 3 cycles on it (there was already one on there when I installed it??) and it seems that my windows battery icon and the Battery Maximser icon read about the same thing - however, when I was discharging it both times to get it completely drained I noticed that both windows and BM icons read 4% remaining (time 5 minutes) for well over 15 minutes. I guess there is more juice in there than they are reporting. Is there a way to get either of these utilities to report more accurately. It also seems that my full charge capacity is reading 36.24Wh and the design capacity is shown as 38.95Wh; will reconditioning this a few more times get it any closer to the design capacity. I probably shouldn't be so picky about this as I hardly ever use this on battery, but I just want the best for my laptop

[vlyne]

I'm no expert on battery issues but I'm sure there must be a lot of discussion on what's best. My understanding is that even if the battery has never been used it does age just by sitting on the shelf. "Reconditioning" a new battery is not something I would be tempted to do. I may however be tempted to alter the threshold at which the A/C starts recharging the battery. If you set it low enough (say at 5% level) this is equivalent to reconditioning the battery. I have heard of those who have tried unsuccessfully to recondition their battery. But you are right in asking what is best for a new battery.

As for the extended life at 4%, it may be that a whole range of tasks are automatically slowed down or cut off. You'll need to check the current draw.

So now that you have a new battery, that only leaves the memory and HD upgrade to come.
Cheers

[Musti]

when I was discharging it both times to get it completely drained I noticed that both windows and BM icons read 4% remaining (time 5 minutes) for well over 15 minutes. I guess there is more juice in there than they are reporting.

That is completely normal. The first discharge will show you x minutes left, but it will go on for y>x. Sometimes twice or thrice as much, even.

When I got this one, the seller told me to recondition it by disabling all the alarms and automatic threshold actions (you know, disable sleep, etc). I let it run until Windows XP shut down on me. I saw the exact same thing as you did. Then I charged it overnight. The next gauge and time left estimation was on spot. What you do basically is you force the internal chip in the battery and your ThinkPad's battery controller to talk on the same channel by conditoning. You reset the counter.

Note that you will need to do this once every month: disable or automatic shut-offs and alarms, unplug it and run on battery until it drains completely that the OS shuts down on you. Then plug the AC and charge it fully.

This is an excellent site for all things battery. Here's the part that concerns us the most, LiIon battery:

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

cheers.

[Purcy]

thank you both for your replies. Yes, I did disable all shut off timers, my Battery Maximiser has that option; I let the thing run down until it went into sleep mode, then plugged in and recharged. As far as setting my recharging system, I'm not sure where or how to do that. I notice that my charger kicks on when my battery is at 95% full, is that too high? I've done two drain/charge cycles now, I'll do one more tonight; I do know when I first popped this new battery in and checked the status chart inside Battery Maximser, it showed that the design was 38.75 and the full charge was 38.75, even though it was drained down when I got it. Now since my recycles, the full charge is showing at 36.24; weirdly enough when it was charging and reached 100% level my little green battery icon on my hinge was still flashing (charging) for over 15 more minutes.

[Musti]

thank you both for your replies. Yes, I did disable all shut off timers, my Battery Maximiser has that option; I let the thing run down until it went into sleep mode, then plugged in and recharged. As far as setting my recharging system, I'm not sure where or how to do that. I notice that my charger kicks on when my battery is at 95% full, is that too high? I've done two drain/charge cycles now, I'll do one more tonight; I do know when I first popped this new battery in and checked the status chart inside Battery Maximser, it showed that the design was 38.75 and the full charge was 38.75, even though it was drained down when I got it. Now since my recycles, the full charge is showing at 36.24; weirdly enough when it was charging and reached 100% level my little green battery icon on my hinge was still flashing (charging) for over 15 more minutes.

That is normal as well (the last portion of charge taking a bit more to fully reach battery's 100%).

I think you can stop the process. Usually it is done once with a new battery, and once every month thereafter. You've done it like three times now, no? Remember these batteries have a charge-discharge life cycle (the above link will tell you everything you don't even want to know)

[Purcy]

thanks Musti, I will stop now. I have done two complete recycles and will set up to do it once a month (my email calendar with reminders is great for this) again, thank you for your help.

[Purcy]

after all these questions, I am sending this battery back for a refund and buying an IBM battery. I bought a so called IBM replacement battery and I am having problems with it; it keeps "getting lost" so to say in regards to my battery icon on the hinge. Sometimes when I put my laptop to sleep the battery icon turns yellow flashing and I have to end up powering down, taking the battery out and putting it back in to reset everything. Stupid! I have a 14 day period to return it for a full refund. Plus it bothers me that after recycling it 3 times it is already showing a 7% wear.

Anyway, I put my old tired 57% worn out IBM battery back in and after a week it was still at 99% full.

A strange observation after checking so many replacement battery websites, a lot of them show my thinkpad model of 2647-8EU as a T21 instead of a T22. That sort of scared me.