Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks,

Can the battery (specifically, I referring to the 9-cell battery, but I'd imagine this question applies to the 6-cell battery, too) be removed while the laptop is plugged into AC?

In other words, once the battery has charged to 100%, I wish to remove it and run the laptop only on AC. However, I'd rather not have to shutdown the machine to remove it.

So can it just be removed while plugged in? (It is really no great hardship to simply shutdown the machine, remove the battery, and restart the machine on AC only -- this is mainly a "convenience" oriented question).

I've searched for an answer to this question on this board (and elsewhere), but didn't find anything. If it has been answered, my apologies for this redundancy -- and if you could please post a link to the relevant answer.

Thank you fellow TP'ers.

-CupOfJoe

In short: Yes.

Why didn't you just try it? Would have been a lot quicker than writing the post!

It will shorten your battery lifespan. Switch off your computer then take out your battery will be safer. I tried removing the 100% charged battery from the TP while it is still running on AC and after 10 times, the battery become weak. It will only charge up to 90% only. No matter how i discharge and recharge, it will never be 100%. Don't try this unless you intend to buy a new battery.

astro wrote:In short: Yes.

Why didn't you just try it? Would have been a lot quicker than writing the post!

In short, "hot swapping" is far from always being a safe thing to do. Components have been fried, sparks have flown -- I've seen it first hand when done where it wasn't meant to be done -- regretfully.

I hope you never run into that sort of problem -- as "just trying it" can lead you down that road.

Good luck!



-CupOfJoe

NS wrote:It will shorten your battery lifespan. Switch off your computer then take out your battery will be safer. I tried removing the 100% charged battery from the TP while it is still running on AC and after 10 times, the battery become weak. It will only charge up to 90% only. No matter how i discharge and recharge, it will never be 100%. Don't try this unless you intend to buy a new battery.

Wow -- had no idea. I shall heed your advice. Better safe than sorry!

Thanks man,
-CupOfJoe

I had lost 1 battery because of this kind of experiment. Don't try it. You know when you make a magnet from DC during school days? When you want the magnet to lose it's magnetivity, you use AC and while the current is on, you pull the man made magnet out from the coil and the magnetic current is gone. Same theory here.

A late followup, but I notice no one mentioned the right way to do this: Click the battery icon in the taskbar (the long horizontal green one) and there is an item on the menu that says Remove and Replace Battery.

Geary is quite right - just follow the manufacturer's instructions. I regularly switch between 6-cell and 9-cell batteries without problem.

Read also "Tips for Maximizing Battery Lifespan" in Power Manager Help, especially this:

"When you store your battery outside of your computer, store it with a charge of less than 50% to reduce the battery deterioration."

Geary wrote:A late followup, but I notice no one mentioned the right way to do this: Click the battery icon in the taskbar (the long horizontal green one) and there is an item on the menu that says Remove and Replace Battery.

Great Tip! I had not tried simply clicking the battery icon before and was pleasantly surprized. I like the easy access to the power manager that way...

I forgot to mention another related item: If you click the big green battery and use Launch Power Manager..., Battery Information, Battery Maintenance... you will get to a dialog where you can customize the battery charging thresholds (what percent to start and stop charging). There is an option to "Optimize for battery lifespan" which is supposed to set these automatically - I have mine set to that although I seen it change the thresholds yet.

Hi Geary,

I decided to set mine manually, and went for start charging at 75% and stop at 95%.

What I have noticed is that when the TP is turned on it does indeed stop at 95% (once it reaches 95% it will no go beyond that), however when the TP is turned off and plugged into the AC(that is I have shut down Win XP, the TP is not alseep in standby or hibernating), I will find the TP charged at 100%.

Geary wrote:A late followup, but I notice no one mentioned the right way to do this: Click the battery icon in the taskbar (the long horizontal green one) and there is an item on the menu that says Remove and Replace Battery.

Schweeeeet. Good job for pointing out this (seemingly) obvious option which slipped under my radar.

Thanks, and I'll investigate it soon...!

Cheers,
CupOfJoe

Geary wrote:A late followup, but I notice no one mentioned the right way to do this: Click the battery icon in the taskbar (the long horizontal green one) and there is an item on the menu that says Remove and Replace Battery.

I don't see this option on my T60. Does anyone else?

serpico wrote:I don't see this option on my T60. Does anyone else?

Single left click on the bar, if you still don't see it then update your BIOS and Power Manager.

ryengineer wrote:

serpico wrote:I don't see this option on my T60. Does anyone else?

Single left click on the bar, if you still don't see it then update your BIOS and Power Manager.

OK, I see it. But it simply goes into hibernation mode. It doesn't seem to allow hot-removal of the battery.

That's the idea... By hibernating, Power Manager is putting the computer into a state where it's safe to unplug the battery. Perhaps if you had an ultra-bay battery, the system would recognize it, and allow you to hot-swap. Anyone have experience with this?

It seems to me that the idea behind hibernating to swap batteries is a pretty fool-proof way to quickly and safely change out the battery. It protects you from the possible battery damage some report here, and it protects your data, since Power Manager can't assume that you know how important it is for you to keep the power cord plugged in while you swap batteries.

Furthermore, if your "new" battery is in fact dead, then there's no damage done by leaving the laptop in hibernation until you finally do get it connected to a good source of power.

Also, it's good for your HD, as one can reasonably assume that you'll be shifting your computer around a bit as you turn it over and jostle the old battery out and the new one in. This much movement certainly would trigger the Active Protection System, and thus may pose some risk to the HD.