Aftermarket battery powers off at 7%?

[Mark_Venture]

I needed a new battery for my aging T61. With the Lenovo batteries topping $100, I took a chance on a Anker battery for about half or even less than half of that I seen Lenovo batteries. I've had great luck with Anker in the past using their external battery packs for Cell Phones/USB devices, as wells as USB chargers and cables.

From what I can tell, I have the latest Lenovo software and drivers installed. Its running Win 7 32bit, with the latest Windows Update. Bios is 2.29-1.08 (I know current is 2.30-1.08). Thinkpad PowerManager v3.30 is set for Low Battery alarm at 10%, Reserve Power at 7%, and Sleep at 3%.

I've been working with their support, but I'm on my 3rd battery. Each one powers the laptop off at 7% remaining. IT just shuts off, it doesn't properly shut windows down, doesn't hibernate, doesn't suspend.

Is this really an issue with aftermarket (non-Lenovo) batteries? Or is it something with my laptop?

[dr_st]

What is this "Reserve Power" thing? I cannot find this setting on my Power Manager (version 3.31, Windows 7, T410, genuine Lenovo battery).

I would suspect it may have something to do with it. The fact that it's at 7%, and this is exactly when you experience power down suggest it may be related.

Can you change the "Reserve power" percentage to some other number to confirm/disprove this hypothesis?

It is possible, theoretically, that it's a special command that aftermarket batteries don't support, which confuses them and causes instant shutdown. If so, you may just be able to disable it.

[Mark_Venture]

Reserve power is under Alarms in the power scheme.

I thought of that possibly being it after posing, so I set reserver power to 0%. it still acted the same, power off at 7%.

I also found out that while my Lenovo Power Manger driver is v1.67.09.03, which is current, the Power Manager app is now apparently up to 6.67.2. So I'm trying to upgrade that now.

[brchan]

I had a similar situation as you. I got a 9 cell Banker battery for my t61 and it would randomly power off. They sent me a 2nd one, which did the same, even in my t60. Will not be going back to anker.

[Mark_Venture]

I had a similar situation as you. I got a 9 cell Banker battery for my t61 and it would randomly power off. They sent me a 2nd one, which did the same, even in my t60. Will not be going back to anker.

These Ankers have only cut out at 7%. never before. never randomly.

In any case, what battery did you end up with then?

[brchan]

I bought a new genuine 9 cell for 60 USD on eBay. Works flawlessly.

[theterminator93]

I bought an aftermarket 9 cell for my T61p back in 2009. Never worked quite right - but it did report its charge correctly until recently. Out of nowhere it started dying at 95%, 98%; no warning at all.

You can always try running a battery gauge reset from Power Manager. If that doesn't fix the problem (it didn't for me, but dying at 98% with no warning is a little more extreme than dying at 7% IMO), the next best thing I can think of would be to adjust the warning thresholds in Windows such that you get a warning when you're 10% above whatever reported percent remaining the battery dies at, this way you have ample time to locate A/C or shut down.

[Mark_Venture]

Adjusting the thresholds is going to be my final step.

With this latest go around with support, Anker replaced the 6600mAh 71Wh battery I purchased with a 7800mAh 84Wh. (I think they are trying to get me up to a 5 star review on their Amazon listing). So changing the thresholds, it will still last longer than what I originally purchased, and their support has been TRYING to resolve my issue.

EDIT: Anker changed their amazon listing... now its the 7800mAh 84Wh battery they are selling. (even when i look at my orders it shows the 7800mAh 84W rather than the 6600)

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

That's because in some webshop software it keeps track of past orders by just the article number and then just looks up the current name. Can be very confusing.

You wouldn't believe the nonsense some web developers put into web shops...

I knew of one where it was possible to order -2 HDD's or 3.5 CPU's. It adjusted the total price in the basket accordingly.

As for the 3rd party battery batteries:
I think they fit in the same category as 3rd party printer supplies: AVOID

But given the sometimes ridiculous prices of the genuine products I get why people go to 3rd party suppliers.

[brchan]

One issue I have found with 3rd party batteries, at least the ones I have used, is that they randomly throttle the cpu speeds to 800mhz for some unkown reason (at least under linux). A restart fixes the issue, but it will eventually reappear. This causes performance issues when running more intensive tasks, or even simpler ones, if you are using a T4x series and older (the pentium m is still very usable, but your best off when it is running at its fastest). Happens on my T43 and T60 with non-genuine batteries installed.

[Mark_Venture]

Anker is refunding my money once I sent the battery back.

I'll try and find a reasonably priced real Lenovo battery.

This T61 does everything I *need* it to do, my desktop does the rest. And to be honest, I''m not sure what I would get to replace it. I love the track point setup, and the size and resolution of the screen. So a replacement battery still seems to be the best option.

[brchan]

Lenovo is supposedly going to release a 4:3 ratio thinkpad this week, but I will believe it when I see it. Also, the superfish issue makes me not want to buy from Lenovo again.

[Unknown_K]

I took a chance with a 9 cell battery for my T60/T61's and it seems to work (68.89Wh $20 shipped new SONY cell manufactured 5/6/2014).

What I hate are aftermarket batteries that T60's don't recognize so they don't charge them but worked fine when charged up. I also had a battery for my T43p that would work fine under XP but for some reason the keyboard would freeze in Win 7.

[Mark_Venture]

Just wanted to follow up...

I ended up getting a Lenovo battery from Amazon, from seller AlienFactory... It was on sale and had prime shipping, so I only paid about $12 more than the Anker battery. Checking Amazon now, clicking "by again" has it from different sellers, for a higher price and no prime shipping.

While it was listed as NEW OEM Lenovo battery... The battery arrived in a plain brown box that wasn't sealed, however my T61 sees it as a real Lenovo battery. The static bag it was is in was sealed. It has an older Manufacture date of 2012-09-09 but the cycle count was 0, and Designed and Full Charge capacities matched at 84Wh.

This replacement battery, even after 15 charging cycles, is still showing a Full Charge Capacity of 84.04Wh.

And the laptop does properly suspend, and does not go dead if left in suspend/sleep mode over night.

I'm happy.

[precip9]

Is this really an issue with aftermarket (non-Lenovo) batteries? Or is it something with my laptop?

Apparently, it is, with Anker batteries. But it should not be generalized to "aftermarket." China has a lot of battery makers.

I have three W500, and one T400. Between them, one uses the same type of battery as your T61. I've never had the issue with the 3rd party batteries I've bought. But I have never bought an Anker battery.

Anker's power supplies are very good.