Can you get the rechargeable batteries for T23s or t30s

[stpeters]

Can you get the rechargable batteries for t23s or t30's anymore. Been finding out that some of the ones that were donated to us dont seem to hold a charge anymore.

We had over 100 total donated to us. I am going thru them to get them in shape for the teachers and students.

Plus we dont have enought battery chargers for the number of laptops. where would the best place to go to buy some more?


Of the chargers we got I dont know what went with what. Is there a standard one for the T23 and different one for the t30's. Some of the chargers were longer than others, but the connector was the same.

[rkawakami]

You can generally find T2x/T30 batteries for reasonable prices on eBay. They range from totally dead to brand new (but not normally original IBM ones). I'd stick with the genuine IBM batteries instead of the "generic" brands as they can have some charging issues.

Same goes for the AC adapters (chargers). The normal adapter for the T2x and T30 systems is 72 watt (16 volts, 4.5 amps). As long as you check the label on the adapters and note those numbers on the "Output" specification, you should be fine. There are several different looking 72 watt adapters; length or shape will not matter.

If you have a T23 or T30 laptop with the Battery Maximiser program installed, that will allow you to read the information from the battery's "smart" chip. It tells you the age of the battery, how much charge it can currently hold ("full charge capacity") and how many charging cycles it has seen. That information can be useful in determining how well/long the battery will last.

[smidgley]

I bought a number of used T30 batteries from PC Surplus recently, thinking that if even half of them were good, I would about break even. As it turned out, all but one were close to 80% and that last one was 100%, with only one cycle on it.

They do charge a lot for shipping but shipping is free for orders totaling $100 or more.

[Merlin Witt]

I ran across a place the other day that offers to REPLACE the cells in LI-ON batteries for around $60.00. And if memory serves, they will send you a loaner while they work on yours. I e-mailed the link to a friend and will find it and post it here. It is at least worth a try as my experience is that new batteries are typically more than twice that price.
Merlin

[rkawakami]

If it's BatteryRefill.com, then they have been mentioned several times here. I don't believe that they offer any "loaner" program but they do offer a refill service (you send them your battery, they replace the cells and return it to you; takes a long time), an exchange service (you buy a re-filled battery; when you get it, you send them your old one), or an outright purchase (you keep your old battery).

[Merlin Witt]

Ray:

You are correct. The company name is eBattery Inc. They have several web addresses, but their URL is 216.240.158.164. They are located in Ontario, California and have been in business since 2002. They offer a battery exchange service that I have not seen elsewhere.

I am not associated with the company.

I am new to Thinkpads and this website, so I have not had time to read all of the posts. I found batteryrebuild.com when I was researching the lithium-ion battery packs for the T 2X series laptops. I am still working on my BOD T20.
I am beginning to suspect that the IBM notebook computer does a lot more information exchange and storage (internal to the BIOS) between the IBM proprietary firmware and the on board hardware than I had expected. If the motherboard / battery firmware combination can provide a serial number, a born on date, the state of charge, and the number of charge-re-charge cycles it has completed, it could also do many other things.

Things such as: Make sure that only the factory supplied hardware is installed by checking the embedded serial numbers of the motherboard, keyboard, hard drive etc. before it allows the POST circuitry to operate. Make sure the BIOS remembers the state of charge of all of the chargeable batteries in the unit when the unit is powered down. Make sure the factory supplied operating system is installed. Allow only the original factory supplied version of the operating system to be restored. Set state of charge / discharge limits on the chargeable batteries. Set a maximum number of recharge cycles.
Refuse to POST if the battery thinks it has been mistreated. Tell the BIOS to interrupt the POST circuitry and to not operate from the battery or AC charger until a specified time has elapsed, or until the battery has been removed or replaced. Refuse to POST if the battery has been overcharged.

Regards

Merlin

[RealBlackStuff]

That may be true for some cheapo knock-offs, but there are some very good ones as well.
I have several batteries for my T23:
IBM, by Panasonic, mfg 2002: new 43.20Wh, after 47 cycles: 32.01Wh, cond. GREEN, still holds 2:50 Hrs.
IBM, by Sanyo, mfg 2002: new 43.20, after 120 cycles: 20.95, cond. RED, still holds 1:45 Hrs.
China, made by FLT, mfg 2005: new 47.60, after 199 cycles: 43.57, cond. GREEN, still holds 3:45 Hrs.
China, made by SEA, mfg 2006: new 47.60, after 21 cycles: 58.41, cond. GREEN.
This last SEA battery runs over 4 hours in my T23 with XP/Pro, and is better than anything else I've ever tried.

None of the above have any issues with not working because of BIOS limitations or others.

[paramount]

After BIOS issues with a T20 and an aftermarket battery, I decided to buy old IBM batteries instead. SO a couple of months ago I bought a lot of 5 T2x/T30 batteries from ingman21 on ebay for about $20 including shipping. I got lucky: 4 of the 5 turned out to be brand new, never used IBM batteries (3 Sanyo and 1 Panasonic, I think). They were manufactured around 2001 but are still in great condition. One of them is a 48 W hr battery, the others are 40 W hr. The fifth battery has over 130 cycles but still holds over 30 W hr as well. No guarantees, but there's a chance you could get good batteries from this seller.