Thinkpads Forum

Hi - prospective T400 buyers please be aware that contrary to a very popular review on notebookreview.com and to what many online shops would try to convince you - the "old" 40Y6790 ultrabay battery will NOT fit a T400 Ultrabay.

Checked all the specs and the batteries seem totally similar. Now, I understand [?] they needed to go SATA on the Ultrabay so everything needed to be replaced - but COME ON - why the battery? The battery connector is on the other end!

I have replaced once ALL my accessories little more than a year ago moving from T42 to T60p - I'm NOT going to play the same game again with T400.

I'm now sorry I bought T400 and this is definitely the last Thinkpad I'm buying. Sorry, Lenovo - made enough money from me!

My old T60P ultrabay battery had long since died (ultrabays are used first), so I needed to a new one anyway for my T400. You should expect the ultrabays to have relatively short lifespans if they undergo frequent discharge/charge cycles. (I.e., you sleep and recharge often.) I mainly use them to protect the primary, more expensive 9-cell battery.

Being that the laptop naturally drains the ultrabay battery first, it will be first to die. However, they are cheaper than a new primary battery. I wonder if they'll ever add the ability to do like the old Dells and draw off both?

Also, I should mention my T60 docking stations and AC adapters work just fine with my T400. And I haven't seen a review yet that confused Ultrabay and Ultrabay II devices. (Not doubting there is one, but I haven't come across it.) Finally, Lenovo makes it quite clear the two standards are incompatible on their website.

FizzleDizzle: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4569

"The power connection for use with the UltraBay battery remained the same though."

I'm using my Thinkpads docked 99% of the time so even my old T42 UltraBay battery is still 90% of original charge. The T60 one is 96%

As in terms of which accessories: yup, the dock and the chargers remained the same [though they changed from T4x to T6x] but the batteries changed [both 6 cell and 9 cell - and I also need the new 4 cell so it doesn't stick in the back], the Ultrabay HDD adapter changed [use three of them], the memory changed [Dell uses the same chipset [if I remember well?] but with DDR2 in E64/65 series].

My point is - Lenovo has started to change the connectors with every generation - and I still use all three of them ocasionally [XP on T42, Vista 32 on T60] - am I supposed to have 2 - 3 pieces of everything (dock, etc , etc) on my desk???

Yes, I see what you mean. Very odd, as it's pretty obvious it's physically impossible to insert old ultrabay devices into a T400. The reviewer certainly missed the boat on this one! On the up side, if you're always plugged in, the ultrabay battery isn't particularly useful. But I hear your pain, fellow Thinkpadder...