Thinkpads Forum

Okay, so i've done this before many times but not with the x60 tablet. Ive had his laptop for about a 1.5 years now. Not a problem with the battery, but recently i had a screen flickering problem where the display stops showing windows.

Well I went from USA to Hong Kong and i charged this particular laptop there for the first time. The power meter shows it's charging. I come back to my laptop about 9 hours later, it's been on and off the whole time, and found that the battery indicator led is flashing orange. The laptop does not operate at all on the battery.

I have never had problems with the lifespan of my battery so i did not believe that my battery is dead. Could i possibly be caused by the change from one country to another? It won't make sense to me if it is.

Thanks for your help.

your battery is dead sorry to say.

You checked the Power Manager application which tells you the capacity and "status" of the battery? Batteries have a finite lifetime. They also have protective circuits in them that prevent you or the laptop from damaging them causing a fire or so. The circuitry also keeps track of the charge cycles a battery receives and the maximum number is usualyl around 400-500. Some people have batteries going strong after 700 cycles but that's not the norm

wow, what a coincidence, first charge out of the country and it dies. The battery information says the condition is poor, cycle count at 551. That's interesting, i didn't know the cycle count would be so low when it dies.

551 cycles is low? Hehe.. most of the guys here will tell you they've had their batteries for 2-3yrs with only 40-100 cycles or something

Try to think of it this way, after turning on/off your light at home - do you think it would last 551 cycles? The battery goes through a chemical reaction each time so after a while the chemicals just loose their reactivity. 551 cycles though is a for the age of the battery. If you are sitting at home then use the AC adapter or for that matter, have 2 batteries.

I have an old battery in my system when it's just sitting at home with AC plugged in, that keeps it going incase the power goes out or accidentally plug out the AC adapter (up to 45mins). When i wanna leave my charged battery is in the laptop bag and i'll swap that out if needed.

heh, sorry for not know much of this topic. I assume a cycle is a complete discharge and recharge of the battery. So after say..... 7 hours each day to discharge a battery, assuming it is completely discharge, and you use it everyday in the same manner, discharge throughout the day and recharge over night, and 365 days a year. Wouldn't 551 cycles be about 1.5 years? That's about how long i had this laptop battery.

I guess i'm abusive on the battery

Thank you very much for informing me about this topic. I've never kept a laptop longer than a year.