Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone,
I am having a very disagreeable experience with my X61 8-cell battery and I was wondering if anyone has any idea what to do about it. It has been about 5 months since I bought the laptop. In the beginning, I was really satisfied with the battery life - it gave me about 6 or so hours of work. Last week it happened twice that the laptop went out of battery quite fast and so I checked the power manager. It indicates the condition being fair and says that the battery can hold only 69% of full charge capacity. Previously, I thought it might be caused by the fact that I never used the "reset battery gauge" feature so I performed it twice already. Sadly, it did not help. Do you have any idea what could be the cause of this and more importantly a solution other than getting a new battery? I still do not believe it could be crippled like this after 5 months. My cycle count is 41 btw. Thanks a lot for any ideas.
Michal

Warranty on a new battery is 1 year. If you're having this type of problem, contact Lenovo for a warranty replacement.

I think what MAY have happened is that the battery was stored for a long time at a very high or very low charge. Batteries are best stored at 40% in a cool, dry place. Furthermore, you damage your battery somehow by discharging it below 20%. If your cycle count is so low, this may be what happened - or it may just be defective.

Good luck.

I had a similar experience. About 75% left after 8-10 months.

michal.carny wrote:Hello everyone,
I am having a very disagreeable experience with my X61 8-cell battery and I was wondering if anyone has any idea what to do about it. It has been about 5 months since I bought the laptop. In the beginning, I was really satisfied with the battery life - it gave me about 6 or so hours of work. Last week it happened twice that the laptop went out of battery quite fast and so I checked the power manager. It indicates the condition being fair and says that the battery can hold only 69% of full charge capacity. Previously, I thought it might be caused by the fact that I never used the "reset battery gauge" feature so I performed it twice already. Sadly, it did not help. Do you have any idea what could be the cause of this and more importantly a solution other than getting a new battery? I still do not believe it could be crippled like this after 5 months. My cycle count is 41 btw. Thanks a lot for any ideas.
Michal

8-cell battery here. 10-months, 99% of the design capacity, 217 cycle-count

4-cell enhanced battery in my X61 here, 5 months, 34%.

I'm a heavy battery user, but this is a bit ridiculous.

My cycle count is 138.

I will try the Battery Maintenance Reset, but I have to say that after years of ThinkPad use, I know it's just a placebo!

8cell battery, now i got 4h00 of work with no wifi no bt etc.. just ethernet


laptop is six months old and before i got 6hoo

bananaman wrote:
My cycle count is 138.

I will try the Battery Maintenance Reset, but I have to say that after years of ThinkPad use, I know it's just a placebo!

This has been my experience as well - I've never seen a positive result from Battery Maintenance Reset.

My experience is that you only get 100 cycles from a battery. Makes you think twice about finding a plug when each one costs $1.50.

I've found some laptops go through batteries faster than others. My father doesn't have Thinkvantage Power Manager on his T60 right now, so I don't know his exact wear percentage. However, the battery life isn't too much worse after almost 2 years (6-cell, I figure 15%-20% wear or so). Then again, I have an old Dell Inspiron 7000 (9 years old, 2 original batteries). It ran for 3.5 or so hours on each battery, about 7 on both, when new. It still runs for 2.5 hours on one, and 3 on the other (less used). Gets about 5.5-ish hours on both. Amazing for battery durability, especially for Li-Ion. I only hope my Thinkpad W500 holds up as well.

awolfe63 wrote:

bananaman wrote:
My cycle count is 138.

I will try the Battery Maintenance Reset, but I have to say that after years of ThinkPad use, I know it's just a placebo!

This has been my experience as well - I've never seen a positive result from Battery Maintenance Reset.

My experience is that you only get 100 cycles from a battery. Makes you think twice about finding a plug when each one costs $1.50.

As if to verify this: I just ran Battery Maintenance Reset and it took me from 34% of rated capacity to 24%! Yikes!

bananaman wrote:As if to verify this: I just ran Battery Maintenance Reset and it took me from 34% of rated capacity to 24%! Yikes!

So I took my battery, which at 5 months had 24% of rated capacity, to Lenovo, and they replaced it immediately.

Thanks Lenovo!

Something clearly went wrong with that one.

Good to know. Batteries should definitely last longer than that.

Batteries are mostly luck. Also there seem to be differences between manufacturers. There were a couple of threads here in the past discussing it, and my own experience shows, for instance, that Panasonic batteries tend to hold their capacity better over time.

Sanyo batteries on the other hand often come overcharged (holding more than the design capacity), and then at some point, usually after 2 years or so, they start losing charge very fast, and it has nothing to do with cycles. They can lose 5% in 200 cycles, and then lose 50% in the 20 cycles after that.

Sony batteries, well they just explode. Just kidding of course, but most of the recalls I heard due to fire hazards involved Sony batteries.

My GF's battery in her X32 lost about 10% in 3 years. That's a Panasonic. The battery I have here in my T60 lost 10Wh out of 84Wh (9-cell) after 1.5 years and 116 cycles. In another T60 I have a battery that lost 14Wh out of 84Wh after 200 cycles.

My T42's Sanyo lasted mostly well, until it started losing capacity, and now it can only hold 30-40% of design. After ~150 cycles.

So the average battery will definitely last more than 100 cycles, much more. My coworkers have 7-cell Sanyos in their T61s and they drain them like hell. After 200+ cycles, they still show higher capacity than design! But if history is to repeat itself, these batteries will start losing capacity quickly once they hit the 2-year mark (currently they are about 1-year old).

Then again, unusual cases like described here, where a battery loses 50% capacity in a few months, are exactly what the 1-year warranty is there to protect you from.

The battery reset can actually help. It doesn't magically restore battery life, but it can help recalibrate the gauge, if at some point it gets messed up and thinks it has less battery than it does. One of my coworkers just fixed a problem he was having with the battery by performing the rest.

However, sometimes the opposite happens, like in the scenario described above.