Typical 8-cell battery life

[OldManClayton]

Hey everyone, I've returned to pester you all again.

This time my question's about the battery. It's an X61T 8-cell. How many hours can I expect to get out of a full charge with wifi turned on? I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not getting as much as I should be.

Warranty expires tomorrow. Wondering if I should buy the $139 extension, especially since this thing has been dying (presumably from overheating) when I run applications it should be able to handle. (Crayon Physics, low-res images in GIMP on two screens, or sometimes two instances of a project that really don't take much resources.)

Thanks!

[ZaZ]

Wondering if I should buy the $139 extension, especially since this thing has been dying (presumably from overheating) when I run applications it should be able to handle. (Crayon Physics, low-res images in GIMP on two screens, or sometimes two instances of a project that really don't take much resources.)

If something breaks without warranty it'll be expensive to fix.

[OldManClayton]

I'll probably renew it then. Lenovo's website is confusing for trying to find where exactly you put up a service request. Found it once long ago, but it seems to have disappeared.

[loyukfai]

How about sending it in for maintenance and have everything problematic fixed/replaced before the the current warranty expires, and then let it expires...?

BTW, the battery probably isn't covered by the warranty anyway.

Cheers.

[OldManClayton]

Called in the issues, going to have it fixed.

Still wondering if I'm getting the expected amount from the battery though. Surely two hours (sometimes less) isn't the full amount for an 8 cell even with wifi on? I can't imagine how I'd get by with a 4 cell.

[loyukfai]

Depends, if you're watching HD videos, 2-hr maybe right, even for a fresh and new battery.

Otherwise if you're just browsing around, even on Wifi, 2-hr sounds like a 2-3 years old battery.

Cheers.

[OldManClayton]

Odd, since this battery came in sealed plastic and has always lasted for about 2 hours.

Can't even watch HD video on this thing.

[loyukfai]

Did you get it brand new...?

BTW, what does Power Manager tells you about the battery? Mine's full charge capacity is now rated at 36.86 Wh.

Cheers.

[OldManClayton]

It says 57.14 Wh, cycle count is 317, and the original capacity was 66.24 Wh.

Seems to be in good condition. I don't think it's background processes, since I only have a chat client, antivirus, and logmein running. I'll give the startup processes list a run-through.

I'm probably just expecting too much from it. Thanks for replying.

[loyukfai]

Power Manager also tells you how much power your machine is drawing when it's unplugged. Mine is drawing 13-15W when idle at medium screen brightness. IIRC some people managed to tweak it to around 10W or so, but that maybe a X41T instead of X61T.

Cheers.

[OldManClayton]

This should technically be in another topic, but I hate to start an entire new one. >_O

I sent the machine in, and it seems to be in better shape now. Except the colors now seem off since the screen was replaced. Everything seems more stark, and the colors in one of my projects now seem a little different. I tried calibrating the colors through 7's control panel, but it didn't seem to help much.

Has anyone else had the colors seem off after a screen was replaced?

[loyukfai]

Are the colours better or worse...? Or just different...?

[OldManClayton]

I'm wanting to say worse. In some cases it looks better, but in other cases (like my project) they have a tinge of too much color. I had a neutral tan image of a canvas, and now it looks really yellowy.

Not much to do about it though, so oh well. I'll get used to it and won't even remember.

[poderchang]

setting the power manager to max battery life gives my x60 just over 6hrs of straight casual use (web browsing, documents, etc). maybe try a reset if you're not having any luck?