Thinkpads Forum

My little X60's battery has gone belly up. I got the notice a few weeks ago that it had lost 50% of its capacity and it just became irreprable. Now I can only run the machine with the AC adapter. That's okay since I don't plan on traveling in the near future.

Just wondering if it is acceptable to do a BIOS update or factory restore with a battery in this condition. I usually restore my machine every 6-12 months because I feel it runs better afterwards. I just read a BIOS update requires a fully-charged battery. I would prefer not to do more damage to the machine, so maybe I should wait until I have a new battery?

I ran my X60 on AC power nearly every day, 8 hours a day for more than 6 months while writing a book. I guess the battery didn't prefer that.

Trolle wrote:I just read a BIOS update requires a fully-charged battery.

I have done several BIOS updates on ThinkPads whose batteries were less than fully charged and/or could hold a significantly lower charge than new even if they were "fully" charged. AFAIK the only reason for this requirement is to ensure that you don't lose power during a BIOS update because if you did your ThinkPad could turn into a brick. Your battery only needs enough power to last as long as a BIOS update takes (a few minutes at most) in the event you lost AC power.

Note to Lenovo: Some of us have our AC adapters on a UPS so why should we also need a functioning battery in order to update BIOS?

I ran my X60 on AC power nearly every day, 8 hours a day for more than 6 months while writing a book. I guess the battery didn't prefer that.

The main enemy of notebook batteries is heat. If you want to extend the life of your battery do not leave it in the ThinkPad for lengthy periods on AC power.