Thinkpads Forum

I am interested to preserve the lifespan of my T61 battery (it sits at home most of the time),
so I just discovered the "optimize for battery lifespan" function of Power Manager, and I set it to start charging at 40% and stop at 50%, which, from what I can read, should preserve the life of the battery.

my question is: does this method actually work also when the the laptop is off, preventing the battery to fully charge even if it's connected to the mains?
or is it only something that works when the Operating System is active?


also, on a similar topic: my X61 battery doesn't hold much charge anymore... does it make sense to do a "battery gauge reset" on Li-ions batteries or not??
I found conflicting info on the internet...

Thx

The battery gauge reset should be done to accurately know the condition of the cells, but it isn't something that should be done often.

When your system is shut off, it's best to remove AC power, but if it's working properly, the battery should remember the settings and not charge if you have a custom charge threshold and you have a genuine lenovo battery. As for the settings you selected, they will work ok, but I think I'd select a higher limit, perhaps 40-70% instead of 40-50. I use 70-90 on mine, this way I'll always have at least 70% charge if needed suddenly for lack of power, and under normal use, it can go months without charging. A lower setting will of course mean less wear/tear on the battery, but also will give you less useful time running on battery and the wider range between them, the longer it will go between charges.

Hi Tuus,

thanks for the answer.

I have tested a new battery with the X61, setting it to 40% start 50% stop,
I left it on charge all night and in the morning was still at 50%. so it works

now i have to test if the setting remains in Linux too..

just to report back...

yep, it works even on linux or with any other OS. once a maximum charge level is set on Power Manager it is memorized by the battery. and the battery will keep it even if you put it on another computer or if you remove the OS altogether.

pretty cool! +1 (again) for the Thinkpads : -)