Low battery life X41

[Martini82]

Hello

I bought Thinkpad X41 1 month ago. It is great machine, it is not slow like most people think. Everything is great only max. time running with 8 cell battery is no more than 4 hours. I have most up to date software and drivers from lenovo, using power profile Battery maximum life and still no more than 4 hours. I expected about 5 hours, official maximum value is 7.5 hour according to the lenovo web site. I knows that you can

[ryengineer]

Battery new or old? how many cycles? What is your setting in the Battery Maximizer? Power plan?

The time lenovo states on it's website is achieved under a specific strict environment, you might or might not be able replicate it.

[Grey Area]

I see Lenovo's X41 page does indeed state 7.5 hours to be the maximum, but I'm highly sceptical of that. When I bought my X41 two years ago the official maximum with the 8-cell battery was stated to be 5.7 hours (just checked an old tabook). With minimum brightness and wireless off this was indeed feasible, but there is no way it would run 7.5 hours.

I suspect the Lenovo page is in error, they probably just copied&pasted the battery runtimes from the X40's page. The X40 is more energy efficient and it can achieve these runtimes, while one of the criticisms of the X41 was the severe drop of endurance. They certainly shouldn't have the same runtime specifications. On a quick glance I also see other mistakes on the X41 page - wrong graphics card, and a line-in port that isn't in the machine. I wouldn't put much trust into that page, it looks like a copy&paste-mess.

Björn

[Martini82]

I forgot to write that laptop and battery were new. Battery now have 13 cycles count, I'am using Maximum battery life profile. I couldn't achieve more than 4 hours battery life from the beginning. Thanks for tips.

[pianowizard]

What's the operating system? If you're using Vista, the short battery life doesn't surprise me at all.

[K0LO]

I think that the person who typed "7.5" hours for the battery life was dyslexic. It probably should have been "5.7" hours. To get that kind of battery life would require a new battery, Wi-Fi off, screen brightness at minimum and not doing much on the machine. I think I remember getting over 5 hours that way when the battery was new.

Now with a 2-year old battery, Wi-Fi on, almost full brightness, and running several apps simultaneously I can get almost 4 hours on XP and maybe 3 hours on Linux.

[ryengineer]

Battery operation:
-Up to 3.5hr *, 4 cell battery
-Up to 7.5hr *, 8 cell battery

Results obtained using eTesting Labs Inc's BatteryMark(TM) Version 4.0.1. Battery life will vary based on many factors including screen brightness, applications, features, power management, battery conditioning, and other customer preferences.
Notes:
* BatteryMark(TM) is a trademark of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc., an affiliate of eTesting Labs Inc., in the United States and other countries.
** Recharge time will also vary

[asiafish]

Clearly that is incorrect information. The X41 (like the T43 and all Sonoma laptops) uses more power than the generation that came before. I've heard of X40 users getting nearly 8 hours, but the best I've ever seen on an X41 (both 1.5 and 1.6 GHz versions) was about 5 hours and ten minutes.

Vista, in my experience, makes little difference on the X41's battery life, probably because the machine is incapable of running Aero and thus doesn't tax the system much more than XP does. I get 4:30 on my Vista Business X41, and thats with an older battery with about 150 cycles on it.

[Martini82]

My machine si X41 (2525) 1.6GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Wi-fi, BT, fingerprint reader, Win XP professional. Thats great time you got 5 hours and 10 minutes with X41, it is more than 1 hour than mine.
I was using Maximum battery life profile, almoust minimum brightness, wi-fi on and no more than 4 hours, that strange.