3rd party battery puzzle
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:10 am
Two T400, both sharing these facts:
BIOS: 3.23
Power management driver: 1.67.3.13, 8/27/2013
Power management app: 6.32
Both run Windows 8. Both have switchable graphics. Both have 8 gig. Both machines are identical in every way that would reasonably affect the question, except for one thing -- read to the end.
One T400 does not report the stats of 3rd party batteries. It does report with Lenovo batteries. The power manager is otherwise functional. It reports state of charge. Charge thresholds can be adjusted. But it does not show cycle count, design capacity, actual capacity, etc. Those entries are replaced with dashes.
The problem does not follow the battery. If the affected battery is swapped to the other machine, the stats report on that machine.
The BIOS displays one difference between the two machines. The affected machine has an Intel AMT on/off option. I disabled it on all my machines that display it, because I consider it a potential security hole. Toggling it on the affected machine makes no difference.
I do not know why one machine displays an AMT toggle and the other does not. Was AMT a build option? Or does it appear only when the BIOS is password protected?
BIOS: 3.23
Power management driver: 1.67.3.13, 8/27/2013
Power management app: 6.32
Both run Windows 8. Both have switchable graphics. Both have 8 gig. Both machines are identical in every way that would reasonably affect the question, except for one thing -- read to the end.
One T400 does not report the stats of 3rd party batteries. It does report with Lenovo batteries. The power manager is otherwise functional. It reports state of charge. Charge thresholds can be adjusted. But it does not show cycle count, design capacity, actual capacity, etc. Those entries are replaced with dashes.
The problem does not follow the battery. If the affected battery is swapped to the other machine, the stats report on that machine.
The BIOS displays one difference between the two machines. The affected machine has an Intel AMT on/off option. I disabled it on all my machines that display it, because I consider it a potential security hole. Toggling it on the affected machine makes no difference.
I do not know why one machine displays an AMT toggle and the other does not. Was AMT a build option? Or does it appear only when the BIOS is password protected?