X23 - 2 questions - Battery Life & Thinkpad button

[DPHMIN]

I bought a Thinkpad X23 a few weeks ago, and it is working fine. I get about 2 hours on the battery. How much time could I expect with a new battery?

Also, what does the ThinkPad button do? I've pressed it with no results.

TIA,

Dave Hamilton

[Thinkpaddict]

Hello, and welcome to the forums.

If you are getting 2 hours on your battery, stick with it. That's pretty good. I have seen 4400 mah batteries for the X2x series in eBay, and if I remember correctly they claim 3 hours. That's what they claim anyway.

As for the blue Thinkpad button, what that does in a Thinkpad is start a software help center utility where you can find information about your system, manuals, etc. If you are not getting anything when you press your button that is because you probably don't have the utility installed or configured (common with 2nd hand computers which have had their OS upgraded). What you can do is go to IBM's website and do a search for Software Installer (I think it's now called Thinkvantage System Update or something like that). Using this utility you should be able to download all the newest software and drivers for your Thinkpad, amongst which should be softare utility which comes up when you press that Thinkpad button.

[_erazor_]

other than that, pressing the access ibm during bootup (directly after the IBM splash screen) takes you into the predesktop area where you can rebuild the factory settings (repartition harddrive, reinstall windows like it was at delivery etc.)

not sure if that was already supported on a x23 though.

[DPHMIN]

Thanks for the replies. Two hours was what I got on my first Thinkpad 500 (mono screen) in 1995, the TP701 I first bought in 1997 and the TP240's I've got never got better than that. I was under the inpression that by the time the X series were introduced, 3-4 hours could be expected from a new battery.

I have ThinkVantage on the X23, but it seems that it needs to be set up. I'll try that and see what happens.

Dave Hamilton

[Thinkpaddict]

There is an easy way to guesstimate battery uptime. Just use your computer under normal load and take several samples of the power consumption. Then use that projection and the battery capacity, and you should get an estimate on the uptime. I've never done it, but I suppose it would be fun just to see by how much I would be off.

If you want long battery life, I recommend an IBM Z50. Great if all you want to do is take notes in a word processor, since this is a Handheld PC (and an antiquated one at that, but great nonetheless). You can get 16 hours on that thing with no problem. It also has an adaptor battery case which you can fill with AA batteries, and I think that gives around 4-6 hours.

[vincentfox]

I picked up one of those 4460 batteries off EBay, use it in an X22. I get easily 3 hours out of it. With some conservation efforts around 4 is not difficult. For example I used it on a plane to watch divx tv episodes I had stored on the hard drive. With the window shuttered I could dim the display quite a bit. Turn off WiFi and listening with headphones I got over 4 hours out of it.

[DPHMIN]

I picked up one of those 4460 batteries off EBay, use it in an X22. I get easily 3 hours out of it. With some conservation efforts around 4 is not difficult. For example I used it on a plane to watch divx tv episodes I had stored on the hard drive. With the window shuttered I could dim the display quite a bit. Turn off WiFi and listening with headphones I got over 4 hours out of it.

Thanks for your post. I have been considering getting one of the 4460 batteries before I leave for an overseas trip in a few weeks.

Dave Hamilton

[DPHMIN]

If you want long battery life, I recommend an IBM Z50. Great if all you want to do is take notes in a word processor, since this is a Handheld PC (and an antiquated one at that, but great nonetheless). You can get 16 hours on that thing with no problem. It also has an adaptor battery case which you can fill with AA batteries, and I think that gives around 4-6 hours.[/quote]

Do you know if you can view .jpg files on a CF card on the Z50? If so, it may do all I need to do on some of my trips.

[Thinkpaddict]

Do you know if you can view .jpg files on a CF card on the Z50? If so, it may do all I need to do on some of my trips.

You can view .jpg files in the Z50. And I bet you can read them from a CF card. I should be able to test this by Monday, because I don't have a CF card with me at the moment. I'll report back then.

Regards.