Thinkpads Forum

On the 8 cell battery, what's a reasonable amount of time one should expect to get from a charge on the Maximum Performance setting and using the Internet with a wireless connection (if that makes a difference). I'm sure I had been getting over six hours (I've had my computer a few weeks) and now at 100% charged, it says 4 or 5 hours remaining. Could I have unknowingly changed some setting along the way? Also, the green gauge right now at 88% says 4.45 hours remaining. The little blue icon (next to the Shock detector icon) also says 88% but only 4:13 hours remaining. What's the difference between the two of them and why are they not showing the same battery time remaining? Someone who knows about all this - please explain. THANK YOU!

Not sure why your battery is only 4-5 now. But the green bar is IBM/Lenovo's software "Power Manager" and I the little blue battery is just the built in Windows XP one. I would believe the Power Manager would be more accurate because its made by IBM/Lenovo. The blue battery shows about 10+mins more than the green bar on my X60. I hope that helps.

may be this will help...

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.

so i guess avoid repeated small cycles like 80% to 100%, instead let it drain down a little more. i set my power manager to not to charge the battery unless it's be low 89% and stop at 98%.

Thank you -
So 4-5 hours is not normal and right? I know the specifications had said 7 hours, but wasn''t sure if that meant only with the screen dimmed and no Internet use.

thinkpadneophyte wrote:So 4-5 hours is not normal and right? I know the specifications had said 7 hours, but wasn''t sure if that meant only with the screen dimmed and no Internet use.

In fact, there is always more or less gap between the specifications and practical application. My X32's battery(6-cell) can last only 3-4 hours in some case, but it also can work more than 6 hrs sometimes. So 4-5 hours is normal to an 8-cell battery.

Maybe you can lower your CPU voltage(such as from 1.340V to 1.004V) to reduce its power consumption by a specific software,e.g, CHC.

CHoPSTICK89 wrote:But the green bar is IBM/Lenovo's software "Power Manager" and I the little blue battery is just the built in Windows XP one.

Hey, now that's a mystery you've just cleared up for me. I've always wondered why I've had to suffer with two battery guages. Too bad that Power Manager can't disable its Windows analog. It's confusing to have two bits of software trying to manage the same thing.

Be nice too if they could share the same list of power management schemes. I get different lists from Lenovo's Power Manager and Windows.

JonathanGennick wrote: Be nice too if they could share the same list of power management schemes. I get different lists from Lenovo's Power Manager and Windows.

All P.M softwares share the same battry monitoring data, but they display different information due to unique counting methos.

cxghy009 wrote: All P.M softwares share the same battry monitoring data, but they display different information due to unique counting methos.

It's the list of schemes that I'm talking about, e.g.: normal, super power saver, high system performance, etc. I see two different lists. The windows battery icon gives me a much longer list than does Lenovo's software. Lenovo shows only 11 schemes, whereas Windows shows 18.

Perhaps more frustrating is that I once tried to delete all but two or three schemes. Windows will let you delete what you don't want. But the moment I run Lenovo's utility, it puts back all the "standard" schemes that I just deleted. I really cannot keep track of all the fine differences between the 11 (Lenovo) or 18 (Windows) power schemes. What, for example, is the difference between "max battery" and "minimal power management"? I sure don't know, not without taking several minutes to look over the details.

Of course, I could just choose not to run Lenovo's software, but their interface is really so much better than Windows, and I really like the green battery guage in my toolbar, which is a far better indicator than Windows' little, blue battery. So I run both and just live with the fact that I've got to sort through 18 different power management schemes.

If anyone does know how to delete the schemes though, and make them stay deleted so that Lenovo's software doesn't recreate them, please let me know. I would love to just create the one or two schemes that I need, and not see the rest.

Thanks for your reponses and the information.
One other question...I have the screen brightness at 7, for both the battery setting and the AC setting , but I see the screen brighten a bit when I plug the computer in. Is that how it's supposed to be - that it just can't get quite as bright on battery? Or is there something I need to do to adjust that?

thinkpadneophyte wrote:Is that how it's supposed to be - that it just can't get quite as bright on battery? Or is there something I need to do to adjust that?

Maybe You need to change a BIOS parameter.

IBM BIOS Setup Utility:
Config-----Display------Brightness----High/Normal

If you select High, the LCD brightness will be the same regardless of whether the comuter is running on battery power or AC.

cxghy009 wrote:

thinkpadneophyte wrote:Is that how it's supposed to be - that it just can't get quite as bright on battery? Or is there something I need to do to adjust that?

Maybe You need to change a BIOS parameter.

IBM BIOS Setup Utility:
Config-----Display------Brightness----High/Normal

If you select High, the LCD brightness will be the same regardless of whether the comuter is running on battery power or AC.

I don't understand this function. Being as you can adjust the levels of brightness manually, why wouldn't you want the Brightness in the BIOS to be on High?

I mean the only thing I could see that would be different would be if you use it at 0 and then the Normal - will save more than the High 0 ... but 0 is just too hard to read

CHoPSTICK89 wrote:why wouldn't you want the Brightness in the BIOS to be on High?

You are right, I've had the Brightness on high in the BIOS.
In fact, I always let the LCD at 3-4 when the computer is running on battery power; but I don't think that it would save more---the Normal 0 than High 0.

WOW!!! IT WORKED!!!
Thank you so much. With all the time I've spent in the last few weeks getting to know this computer I had never ventured into BIOS - It was WAY TOO intimidating. But I just did it! What a world of stuff there. I probably could have used my computer for 5 years and never have known about it. This is very cool. Yes, it was on Normal and I changed it to High. and it's brighter. And if I decide I'm losing too much battery time from the change, I now know how to change it back!

This was incredibly helpful. There is so much knowledge and sophistication out there among you. This is my first Thinkpad -I hope you continue to respond to my low level queries.

Have a great day everyone.