Thinkpads Forum

Hello all.. I am new here so please bear with me.

I recently picked up a 9 cell battery for my x201. According to the Power Manager software, it says it is in good condition but there is one concern. It says the design capacity is 93.24Wh but the full charge capacity is 65.69Wh. When I used the battery the first time I actually got an error message saying the battery only holds 69% of original charge.

The battery only has 36 cycles on it as well and was manufactured 2011-08-16, first used 2012-02.

I've gotten about 6 hours on "balanced" power plan.

Is this ok for a battery with only 36 cycles? Should I replace it? Please advise. Thanks.

Cycle count doesn't mean as much as date of manufacturer. You did not state if it's genuine Lenovo or third party battery. Generally geniune battery hold their capacity longer. For a Sanyo celled battery, the battery condition you are experiencing is about normal for a 2 year old battery. Panasonic cell battery lasts a lot longer and die more gracefully. Unfortunately Panasonic cell batteries are hard to get a hold of. Lith-Ion batteries will degrade with time regardless of use. Obviously high usage combined with time is the worst for it.

The other thing that might help is to recondition the battery. Lenovo power manager utility have a function that will do this for you. Using it for 3-4 charge/recharge cycle will also help.

paulpines wrote:... Should I replace it?

Absolutely -- if you have the option. That battery pack has multiple bad cells ... and there is no point in using a 9-cell battery pack that is supposed to be "new" as if it were a 6-cell battery pack, i.e., 2/3 capacity.