Thinkpads Forum

I have recently ordered the following thinkpad

Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9600 (2.8GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
4 GB RAM
250 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
ThinkPad WiFi (BGN)
4 cell Li-Ion Battery

My main concern is the battery life. With a 4 cell battery, my laptop is limited. Now, considering that i do everything i can to maximize my battery llife, i.e switch from AERO Theme them to BASIC, turn off all the unnecessary stuff such as modems, bluetooth, switched on integrated graphics, brightness fairly low..

How long can i expect the laptop to remain on when doing webrowsing or simple applications such as microsoft word or powerpoint? By how much can i expect Windows 7 to improve battery life?

Now I understand that apparently? you can switch your optical drive for a 3 cell battery addon pack or something? If so, is it possible to do on the thinkpad T400? and if it is, how easy/hard is it to do? Is it interchangeable easily?

Sorry if this has been answered before. I searched the forums and was unable to find an answer to my questions

Thanks in advance!

thnkpdrox wrote:My main concern is the battery life. With a 4 cell battery, my laptop is limited. Now, considering that i do everything i can to maximize my battery llife, i.e switch from AERO Theme them to BASIC, turn off all the unnecessary stuff such as modems, bluetooth, switched on integrated graphics, brightness fairly low..

How long can i expect the laptop to remain on when doing webrowsing or simple applications such as microsoft word or powerpoint? By how much can i expect Windows 7 to improve battery life?

Now I understand that apparently? you can switch your optical drive for a 3 cell battery addon pack or something? If so, is it possible to do on the thinkpad T400? and if it is, how easy/hard is it to do? Is it interchangeable easily?

Switching between Aero and the basic theme doesn't really have an effect on the battery life. Your better off using Aero.

A quick look around shows that you can expect a minimum of 2 hours of battery life and a max of around 3.

Yes, you can have a battery in your bay but personally I would opt for keeping your disc drive in there and getting a 6 or 9 cell battery.

Maybe even a 7-cell. From the pics I saw, it looks like it sticks out almost exactly like a 6-cell, and offers some more battery life, whereas the 9-cell is really huge and bulky, and most people wouldn't need that much battery life anyway.

visionviper wrote: Switching between Aero and the basic theme doesn't really have an effect on the battery life. Your better off using Aero.

A quick look around shows that you can expect a minimum of 2 hours of battery life and a max of around 3.

The problem is i would prefer my batter not to stick out. Now worst case scenario, i buy another 4 cell battery, or if nothing else helps a 6-cell

Yes, that is exactly what i typed in google. Lenovo claims that it offers 4.3 hours minimum. Other reviews claim that a 6 cell battery last about 6 hours, which indicates that the 4 cell should last at least 4. Other websites i have found on the internet don't indicate that. So i'm getting different answers everywhere. Was hoping that i would get my answer here.

visionviper wrote: Yes, you can have a battery in your bay but personally I would opt for keeping your disc drive in there and getting a 6 or 9 cell battery.

Hypothetically, how easy is to replace your optical drive for a battery?

thnkpdrox wrote:Hypothetically, how easy is to replace your optical drive for a battery?

Simply remove the optical drive and replace it with the battery. Takes seconds.

Brad

nice. any have other experiences with battery life on the t400 or is 2-3 hours the max i can expect?

I recently purchased a t400 with roughly the same specs and a 4 cell battery. I was expecting a maximum of about three hours battery life but I was pleasantly surprise to have a minimum of 4 hours battery life while unplugged with the monitor brightness set around 60% running on the integrated intel graphics with the wireless radio powered (running on the power source optimized plan in the power manager). Unless you're playing a video/using the dvd drive or doing cpu/harddrive intensive tasks you should expect about 4 hours out of your 4 cell.

nice! thanks for your feedback

thnkpdrox wrote: Yes, that is exactly what i typed in google. Lenovo claims that it offers 4.3 hours minimum. Other reviews claim that a 6 cell battery last about 6 hours, which indicates that the 4 cell should last at least 4. Other websites i have found on the internet don't indicate that. So i'm getting different answers everywhere. Was hoping that i would get my answer here.

That is what I gave you, an answer. I was merely citing the resource I used to come to that conclusion. Also, I just want to point out that battery life does not scale perfectly with the number of cells.

aeschylus wrote:I recently purchased a t400 with roughly the same specs and a 4 cell battery. I was expecting a maximum of about three hours battery life but I was pleasantly surprise to have a minimum of 4 hours battery life while unplugged with the monitor brightness set around 60% running on the integrated intel graphics with the wireless radio powered (running on the power source optimized plan in the power manager).

That is good to hear -- certainly better than I was expecting.

With switchable graphics set on integrated you'll get 2-3 hours from a fully charged battery with my specs. If you use battery stretch I've been predicted around 4. This is way better battery technology and efficiency that previous generations in my opinion.

aeschylus wrote:I recently purchased a t400 with roughly the same specs and a 4 cell battery. I was expecting a maximum of about three hours battery life but I was pleasantly surprise to have a minimum of 4 hours battery life while unplugged with the monitor brightness set around 60% running on the integrated intel graphics with the wireless radio powered (running on the power source optimized plan in the power manager). Unless you're playing a video/using the dvd drive or doing cpu/harddrive intensive tasks you should expect about 4 hours out of your 4 cell.

Greetings and Welcome to the Forum!

My T400 returns about the same run time as yours, with it setup about the same.

I've also used the six cell and it extends the run time to about 5.5 hours.

Cheers...

I have read that, if you buy the ultrabay slim battery to replace the optical drive, it first drains the bay battery to 0 and then goes for the main one. Is this still a problem? or was it fixed i.e it uses the main battery first or some more efficient way?

No, it still uses the bay battery first then the main battery only once the bay battery has been discharged.

visionviper wrote:No, it still uses the bay battery first then the main battery only once the bay battery has been discharged.

This is done deliberately and is not a bug. You or I might prefer to drain the main cell first, but I can see the logic in both options and just wish Lenovo offered the choice in their power utility rather than a hard-wired setting.

what are the benefits of doing it that way. the only one that comes to mind is that the main battery doesnt get worn out?

The benefit is that you burn through your ultrabay battery on the airplane, then when you arrive at the meeting and want to copy a new document/presentation/whatever from a DVD, you can do so with your fully charged main cell.

I think most people who own the bay battery only use it occasionally. Mine sits in the desk until I get on a trans-Pacific flight, where it makes no difference whatsoever which one discharges first.

Personally, I'd prefer the opposite order as I can see switching out the main cell for a spare during some uninterruptible operation while the bay battery keeps things running during the swap.

Still, no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Really easy to just pop the ultrabay battery a half inch out of the bay to discharge the main first, then pop it in when you get a low-power warning.