Thinkpads Forum

Hi new to the forums T520 user!

I bought myself a 9 cell genuine for my T520 as my 6 cell not lasting that long any more. It was cheap on ebay new at £30 unboxed but he guaranteed me its new. It came and the manufacture date on the label is 2011-12.

It does look brand new.
When I tested it has a first used date of 2014-01
Cycles 1
Full charge capacity 93.6 Wh
design capacity 93.6 Wh

Seems to be perfect from these specs, could these have been altered is my question? And if not is there anything wrong with a brand new battery thats been left around for 2 years?

Thanks for any advice

Hello and welcome to the forum.

It's not out of the ordinary to find batteries that have been left around for 2 years before first used. I see no particular reason to worry.

It'll take a few charge/discharge cycle for everything to be up to snuff.

Ok thanks, so theres no way that info could have been modified?

thanks

I suppose somebody could have found a way to go in a re-write the serial Flash chip in the battery so I can't say that there's "no way". However, given that you just installed it in a laptop and charged it this month, the "first used date" is correct. If there's a manufacturing date printed on the battery case it should match what Power Manager is reporting. And even if somebody is/was able to re-write that data, the question is: "Why would they bother to put in a date that's just over two years ago, when they could have easily put in last month?".

I've purchased several "new, old stock" batteries from eBay and upon first charging them, seen the cycle count at 1 and the first used date for that month. Manufacturing dates usually were a couple of years old. I would assume that they won't last as long as a "fresh" battery, but then again, I'm buying them at maybe 1/5 the factory price (if they are even available any more).

OK yeah I doubt this guy knew how to do that haha!

Thanks for the info