Thinkpads Forum

Just thought I'd post this because I've seen it happen on two machines now and the solution was the same for both. You can't run a 60p on AC with a bad battery or no battery in order to economize on batteries. When you do, funny things happen; notably, freezing on mouse input shortly after boot, regardless of operating system, choice of pointing device, presence of UltraNav drivers, etc. Only seen this on 60p's with the Fire video card. Put a healthy battery back in the machine and the problem goes away. Anyone else had this experience?

Mindfulness Quebec wrote: Anyone else had this experience?

Many. *6x series batteries are notorious for this behaviour.

One should never run a ThinkPad with a bad battery because they'll eventually blow the charging circuit.

Yep, henceforth I may use batteries that are losing their capacity in a docked 'Pad, but completely dead batteries are a no-no.

ajkula66 wrote: One should never run a ThinkPad with a bad battery because they'll eventually blow the charging circuit.

One of my three Z61p I run on mains only without a battery connected, because I ruined a battery by leaving it in and charging all the time. Will this harm the charging circuit by not having a battery present all the time?

A bad battery can result in a freezing system like you describe as George has said. A low capacity or worn out working battery should work normally.

I leave the battery installed for the UPS feature and reprogram the power manager to only charge when below say 10% and stop charging at say 90%. This way the battery is almost never being charged. This will only work for you if you don't use the system on battery. In my use 98% of the time I am connected to an A/C adapter.

Brad

Brad, I remember reading somewhere that Lenovo considers it optimal for battery lifespan to begin charging at 40% and cut off at 50%, and all my systems are configured for those parameters. Windows 10 doesn't support the Power Manager, which is one of the more important reasons I won't move to Windows 10 except for one T61 that I keep for occasions when that OS might be required.

If you only charge your battery up to 50%, essentially giving up the other 50% of its capacity, it's obvious you don't actually use your battery. Why then do you care about optimizing battery life span?

You need to have a healthy battery in order for the laptop to function, even if it's always docked as a workstation. The more you burn them out, the more you must replace them.

Not really. They will not burn out. Their full charge capacity will be gradually reduced, but even after 10 and 15 years, most batteries will not die completely. Those that do, do so because they are defective, not because you over- or under-charged them.

dr_st wrote: Their full charge capacity will be gradually reduced, but even after 10 and 15 years, most batteries will not die completely.

Yes. My personal experiences with my work-issued T20 where the original battery (from 2000) still holds some charge as well as with the batch of '02 A3x series batteries that I still own lead me to agree with dr_st on this one.

dr_st wrote:If you only charge your battery up to 50%, essentially giving up the other 50% of its capacity, it's obvious you don't actually use your battery. Why then do you care about optimizing battery life span?

I would rather not have the capacity of my battery dwindle unnecessarily in case I did want to use it at some point. If you were going to take it out of the dock you could change the charge settings and bring it up to 100%. Moreover, a battery whose capacity is greatly reduced doesn't drain linearly and predictably; it goes off a cliff at a certain point.

Mindfulness Quebec wrote: If you were going to take it out of the dock you could change the charge settings and bring it up to 100%

Great idea. Now I have to plan ahead when I actually want to use my battery. As long as I am letting it dictate my schedule, perhaps I should also put it in charge of reporting my taxes.

Some folks just see their batteries as something precious that needs to be guarded and protected rather than something to be used. These discussions repeat time after time again, and I guess there is no remedy.

And some people don't like wasting money by ruining an expensive battery in a laptop that's normally docked. I have things I'd rather do with my hard-earned cash.

Then don't forget to turn the computer off, and never use it. Otherwise it might get ruined.

The key point here is that the people who guard their batteries like they're the holy grail are driven by gross misconceptions regarding the effects of their usage patterns on "ruining their battery". They think they know something about it, but they don't, and when folks with actual experience with dozens, if not hundreds, of laptops and batteries (and there are folks like this on these forums), tell them how things really work, they don't believe them. Or maybe they do, but "it never hurts to be safe, does it?".

You are long on insults and short on facts, my friend. I'm done on this subject.

Mindfulness Quebec wrote:And some people don't like wasting money by ruining an expensive battery in a laptop that's normally docked. I have things I'd rather do with my hard-earned cash.

Then pick up a genuine, well-worn battery for $5 or so and call it a day. If and when it kicks the bucket, repeat the procedure.

Batteries are consumables and should be treated as such IMO. One can try to extend their life by applying the previously discussed rules on charging, but there's no guarantee that they won't wake up the next morning to the battery that has died...

"Then pick up a genuine, well-worn battery for $5 or so and call it a day. If and when it kicks the bucket, repeat the procedure."

Yep, my eBay carcasses are an occasional source of such batteries. On the other hand, I've found dying batteries to be very non-linear in their discharge behavior, which means you can't rely on them at all as actual batteries for portable use.