Thinkpads Forum

FRU 42T4506. Got the message - "The battery has failed due to normal wear. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery."

Can I use the AC power indefinitely, assuming I don't lose AC power at the outlet?

Any good options for an inexpensive but reliable replacement? Even a 4-cell battery would be fine as I am almost always plugged in these days.

Buying a new battery from Lenovo is not an option given the cost would represent a very large % of the total value of the laptop.

One option would be a UPS from the likes of APC and Tripp.

RealBlackStuff wrote:One option would be a UPS from the likes of APC and Tripp.

Interesting option, but I would like to occasionally run unplugged.

serpico wrote:Any good options for an inexpensive but reliable replacement?

Maybe it's just me, but this question seems to come up every 2-week or so...? Just when I thought this has been discussed to death already...

And those are just the threads from the first few pages of a Google search.

If you think those are too much to go through, that's the point. I don't think anybody here is able to give you a definitive answer on buying 3rd party batteries that's "cheap". It's a hit-or-miss (and from my limited experience, it's inclined to "miss").

And because of the fly-by-night nature of some of the "cheap battery" sellers (they don't always have the same supplier and *any* QC/QA, just source the cheapest one available), the one they're going to ship you next may not be the once-in-a-while good quality one they sold someone else 3-month ago, which render the experience and ratings kind of useless.

To quote an earlier post, with some modifications...

1. Get official ones. Not too old, preferably less than 3-year (lithium rechargeable ages even not used). Sometimes you may find bargain ones on EBay or whatever. Also try Lenovo Outlet.

2. Get one from a reputable source. e.g. Check forums, recommendation by friends, seller ratings (contact the buyers who've bought it >6-month ago, preferably a year).

3. Avoid the cheapest ones on EBay.

I like to emphasis that one has to ask someone who've used the battery for some time, preferably over an year or so, because most of my 3rd party batteries started to give up after one year, while the original ones usually last at least 2, sometimes 3 or more years.

Afterall, "inexpensive" and "reliable" seem to be, more than often, incompatible terms for after-market batteries.

And we haven't yet begun to discuss what are "inexpensive" and "reliable"....

Do I still buy OEM batteries? It depends, for laptops, my advice is generally "no", especially if you're talking about the bargain basements on EBay, if you expect it to last more than a year.

Cheers, and look forward to the next time this question appears again...

You can buy generic eight cell batteries as low as $30 on ebay and amazon, which is a lot cheaper than a UPS. I'm not sure which ones are the best, but here's a thread about the 5200mAh ones which are common on ebay: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 3&start=30 I have one, and although it doesn't seem to have as much capacity as advertised, it works fine and doesn't trigger the non-genuine battery warning. The problem is the lack of quality control, the last generic battery I bought for my R40 only lasted about ten minutes, but I was able to get a refund with no hassle. Make sure you buy from a seller in the USA and with good feedback if you go the cheap route. You want to be able to get a refund or replacement if it doesn't work.

Oh and look at this, someone has posted a much better answer than I while I was typing then one! I bought my computer used and missing many pieces for just over $100, so I wasn't looking to invest too much in a battery. So I went for some of the lowest priced batteries I could find.

Slightly off topic: people kept talking about how dangerous lithium batteries are, so I pulled a lithium polymer battery out of a a dead MP3 player and drilled a hole in it. Nothing happened. I was so disappointed. I'll do the same to an 18650 Lithium Ion (the type used in laptops) later, but I don't expect much more than a bit of smoke. The problems happen when they're overcharged, shorted, defective, or otherwise heat up and build pressure. But that's not unique to Lithium. Ni-Mh cells can make one hell of a bang too if you abuse them, but at least the metal in those doesn't burn as readily.

loyukfai, thanks for the advice and links.

I checked the X60 Hardware Maintenance Manual and for my laptop type - 1708-5Mx, there seems to be no suitable 4 cell batteries, only 8 cell batteries. Can that be right? Or does merely reflect that my laptop originally came equipped with an 8 cell battery?

Can I use any of the 4 cell batteries listed in the manual with my X60?

serpico wrote:Can I use any of the 4 cell batteries listed in the manual with my X60?

Any 4-cell Enhanced, but not a 4-cell Slimline, which fits only the X60s and X61s units.

serpico wrote:loyukfai, thanks for the advice and links.

Welcome. It's kind of a difficult issue, you know, when those bargain basements cost 1/3, or even less, the price of an original...

The problem is, sometimes there are indeed bargains, but as I've said, it's a hit-or-miss, and sometimes one has to dig around, and everyone's time cost is different... So you have to consider the time cost for searching, for shipping back and getting refund if it doesn't work...

Fortunately, a friend helped me to get an original for not-very-much more than those bargain basements from a Chinese online market last time I needed one (manufacturer date: 2010-6).

Still, I'm keeping my finger crossed, last time I got an "original", it turned out to be a module which had probably re-celled, and it lasted about 1-year only before giving up. Although I suspect it's only a controller issue, I didn't have the equipment nor time to check and fix it.

Hope that the information will help you make a decision that's better-informed.

Cheers.

P.S. You may also check this out... http://www.drbattery.com/catalog/notebo ... +1708.aspx IIRC there are some good comments about this vendor. They're asking $66 for 4-cell and $80 for 8-cell. There are some other similar vendors like this, but I haven't kept track of them because I'm not residing in the US, but it seems to me that they should be more reliable than those bargain basements on EBay.

Occassionally you can get genuine Lenova batteries from resellers on Ebay. Thats what i did. I dont know where they get them, but it was a genuine new Lenova battery at 40% of the original price.

EOMtp wrote:Any 4-cell Enhanced, but not a 4-cell Slimline, which fits only the X60s and X61s units.

This battery should work, right?

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-IBM-Think ... 283&sr=8-1